Ms. Duan Xiaoyan Paralysed from the Waist Down after Seven Years of Torture in Qinghai Province Women's Prison

Name: Duan Xiaoyan
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Tailor
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 25th, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: First Ward in Qinghai Province Women's Prison
City: Xining
Province: Qinghai Province
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, torture, force-feedings, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Duan Xiaoyan from Zhenyuan County, Gansu Province was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in Qinghai Province Women's Prison. She was tortured numerous times there and became paralysed from the lower back down.

Ms. Duan is 40 years old. She started practising Falun Gong in September 1997. After she started practising, her many illnesses disappeared. She used to be a tailor and her customers all trusted her very much.

On July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong. In 1999, Ms. Duan went to appeal in Beijing three times and was arrested by the Zhenyuan County police and sent to the Zhenyuan County Detention Centre. She went on a hunger strike demanding her release. Several guards, including Qin Dexi, tortured her multiple times with shackles, handcuffs and put her on a death bed¹.

Ms. Duan was sent to the Pingantai First Detention Centre in Lanzhou for one year. Under the instigation of guards Gu Yanling and Wang Yali, four drug addicts, including Mi Lina and group leader Deng Xiaoqin tortured her and tried to force her to write a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong. When Ms. Duan refused to give in, they deprived her of sleep for fifteen days and continued to force her to work during the day. At night, they forced her to stand until she lost consciousness. They also forced her to stand under the hot baking sun until one night she passed out in the toilet.

Because Ms. Duan went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the detention centre added three months to her prison term.

Duan Xiaoyan finally returned home in 2001. She was forced to close her store down because the perpetrators from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and police station often went to harass her. Afterward, they then went to harass her at her house. She was forced to leave her home and went to Qinghai Province.

She was arrested once on her way to deliver leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong to fellow practitioners and was detained at the Ershilipu Detention Centre, Xining, Qinghai Province for over five months. Later, she was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment and forced to labour at Qinghai Province Women's Prison. Every day, she had to work over ten hours. Sometimes she was even deprived of sleep the entire night. Ms. Duan resisted the persecution and was hung on an iron door for eight days and eight nights, which caused her legs and feet to become swollen and extremely weak.

Duan Xiaoyan refused to perform the forced labour and requested to be released. After going on a hunger strike for six days, the guards force-fed her for over 40 days. Under the instigation of prison head Ding Xiulan and guard Zhuang Xuefeng, inmate Wang Cuiying force-fed Ms. Duan again. Over the period of a month, she used an electric baton to shock Ms. Duan four times on her head, back and legs. Her face and back were severely burned and blistered from the electric baton shocks.

Ms. Duan was handcuffed to a bed in the sick room and lost consciousness. She was having a hard time walking on her own and could only move bit by bit by leaning on the handrails. She could not take care of herself. Zhuang Xuefeng also asked inmate Liu Huimin to monitor Ms. Duan for 48 hours and not allow her to use the toilet. Ms. Duan's back was burned from the electric baton shocks and she experienced numbness all over her body. There was pain in her arms and legs and she had a hard time moving around on her own. The perpetrators said she was faking it and instigated murderer Wang Cuiying to pull her arm, dragging her downstairs from the third floor. After several rounds of torture, Ms. Duan became paralysed from waist down.

After the prison doctor diagnosed Duan Xiaoyan as having nerve paralysis, in order to cover up their crime, the prison guards took Ms. Duan to a nearby Red Cross hospital. Prison guards Zhuang Xuefeng and Hao Lanying even forced Ms. Duan to walk on her own. One person suggested they get a car because there was no way Ms. Duan could walk on her own. The perpetrators then had inmates Zhao Guixiang and Liu Xinrong carry Ms. Duan to a car. At the hospital, the guards colluded with the doctor and did an electrocardiogram; however, it was perfunctorily administered.

Ms. Duan became so weak that she could not even hold a cup of water due to the severe suffering she had experienced for over four years.

Ms. Duan's term was up on August 24th, 2009. When she returned to her local area, she was detained for a week at the local Office of Justice and then released. The 610 Office personnel and police still often harass her family since her return home.

Note

1. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/7/14/43927.html