Ms. Tuo Meiling of Lingwu, Ningxia Suffers Mental Breakdown from Forced Drug Administration

Name: Tuo Meiling
Gender: Female
Age: 48
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Lingwu Medicine Company Pharmacy staff in Hui Autonomous Region, Ningxia
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2003
Most Recent Place of Detention: Yinchuan Women's Prison
City: Yinchuan
Province: Ningxia
Persecution Suffered: Brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, solitary confinement, torture, mental hospital

Ms.Tuo Meiling was recognized by her neighbours as a good, intelligent and competent woman, with a happy family. They also recognized that she had become a better person after she began practising Falun Gong.

Ms. Tuo was arrested by local police in 2003, then sentenced to three and a half years in prison. She was detained at District No. 1 of the Yinchuan Women's Prison. Guards subjected her to brainwashing sessions in their attempts to force her to give up her Falun Gong practice. She was placed in solitary confinement for extended periods, handcuffed, and secretly administered drugs daily, which caused damage to her nervous system. The forced injections resulted in a serious mental disorder.

By the time she was released in 2006, she'd lost the capability to take care of herself, and her husband divorced her. Later, she returned to her parents' home in north Shanbei, but was unable to work, and dependent on them, although they were both over 70 years old.

Monitored, Insulted and Humiliated by Several Inmates

Tuo Meiling was taken to District No. 1 of Yinchuan Women's Prison in 2003, where she was assigned clothing processing industrial work. However, she refused the guards' orders to do slave labour, resisted brainwashing sessions, persisted her belief of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance", and refused to accept “transformation” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] or write the “three statements” to renounce practising Falun Gong. Guards subsequently assigned ten inmates, including drug addicts, drug dealers and murderers to monitor her and report on her activities. Liu Zhiqin, assistant district supervisor secretly instructed drug offenders Lan Chunhua, Yang Guihua, Zhao Wenqing and others to administer frequent beatings, resulting in Ms. Tuo's highly stressed condition.

At the end of 2003, a large-scale event was initiated to attempt to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners. District head Zhang Shenghua and Liu Zhiqin forced all the District No. 1 inmates to quarantine Ms. Tuo, so that no one was allowed to talk to or contact her. They also ordered the ten inmate monitors to insult and humiliate her at will.

At the end of the year, guards had failed to force Ms. Tuo to write a summary report and ideological recognition, so they conducted an interrogation in front of all the inmates. Zhang Shenghua and Liu Zhiqin forced Ms. Tuo to stand before the crowd, then shouted at and abused her. They ordered all the inmates to insult her, displaying Chinese Communist Party (CCP) behaviour, and shouting profane words which slandered Falun Gong. Zhang Shenghua and Liu Zhiqin said after the event: “Tuo Meiling, you must be clear - who are you? Why are you here? Afterwards, you (the inmate monitors) watch her closely.”

Ms. Tuo was not allowed the basic rights of contacting her family via letter or phone, or monthly visits. Her communications with the outside world were blocked, so she was completely isolated. Once, a family member whom she hadn't seen for a very long time tried to visit her, but Ms. Tuo refused to say (as ordered): “Report to the team chief, this criminal requests to see a family member”. The guards cancelled the visit, while her relative stood outside the receiving room for the entire day.

White Powder Administered by Assistant Director Liu Zhiqin

One day in 2004, a prisoner surnamed Huang mentioned quietly to a practitioner: “Did you know that Tuo Meiling has mental problems?” The practitioner asked her: “How is she?” She replied: “She suffered a mental breakdown caused by several inmates who were incited by Zhang Shenghua and Liu Zhiqin. She doesn't sleep through the night, talks to herself continuously without making any sense, and often has a silly-looking smile; her legs are frail, so she doesn't have the strength to walk; the same with her hands.”

Shortly afterwards, Ms. Tuo's neurosis became more serious. Her vision was blurred, she couldn't sleep after midnight and shouted pitifully. Her screams woke everyone on the 2nd floor, so Su Li (an inmate convicted of murder) and several others shook her, then covered her head with a cotton quilt to stifle the screams.

Guards didn't want to take the responsibility for an accident, so they handcuffed her every day, removing them only at mealtimes.

One day in 2004, the “transformed” former practitioner Zhu Lin told a practitioner privately about a conversation with drug offender Lan Chunhua, who told her that before Ms. Tuo Meiling became unstable, assistant director Liu Zhiqin was putting a white powder secretly into her drinking glass every day, and over a long period of time.

During a brainwashing session conducted on practitioners from district four, guards blatantly declared that district No. 1 had administered drugs to Tuo Meiling, even though her body was beyond the capacity to tolerate them. An inmate familiar with Liu Zhiqin informed the practitioners that he was previously a doctor in the neurology department of a hospital in Lingwu.

After Ms. Tuo developed schizophrenia, District No. 1 guards openly administered drugs to her, which subsequently damaged her central nervous system. The guards claimed that they were treating her illness, while they were actually causing it.

Ms. Tuo was released in 2006; her husband and family picked her up, but they didn't know the truth of her persecution in the prison. Her husband saw her unstable condition, and threatened her with divorce. That day, her younger brother had no choice but to take her back to their hometown in Shanbei. On June 9th, 2006, her husband and her father took her to the Ningxia Mental Hospital. She received forced injections daily, which made her sleep most of the day. She was completely emaciated, to the point that a little wind could knock her down. Practitioner Lu Hongfeng, the deputy principal and educational administration director of Ningxia Lingwu Primary School was persecuted to death at this same hospital in 2000.

A happy family was thus broken up by the CCP, resulting in a great amount of suffering. Tuo Meiling's husband divorced her, took custody of their child, yet gave her very little money to survive on. She then returned to her hometown in Shanbei without an income or ability to work, and is completely dependent on her parents. Her parents are farmers, both over 70 years old and ill.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/5/9/240383.html