Ms. Ma Yongju Is Persecuted for Her Belief in Falun Gong

Name: Ma Yongju
Gender: Female
Age: In her fifties
Address: Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province
Occupation: Homemaker
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Zhongba Women's Forced Labour Camp
City: Qingzhen
Province: Guizhou
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, forced labour reform, beatings, sleep deprivation, forced long-term standing, forced drug administration.

Ms. Ma Yongju is the wife of an employee at the Wangjiazhai Coal Mine of Shuikuang Corporation. Before she began practising Falun Gong, her health was so poor that she didn't have enough strength to walk. She found life meaningless and once tried to kill herself. Fortunately, she learned Falun Gong, which improved her health dramatically, and in turn, changed her world view from negative to positive.

In October 2000, Ms. Ma went to Beijing to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong, a freedom granted in China's Constitution, but was arrested and sent back to her hometown where she was locked up for 15 days. Most ridiculous was that the police charged the family for bringing her back and they deducted the police travel costs from her husband's salary. In 2002, Ms. Ma was sentenced to three years of forced labour for distributing materials about the persecution of Falun Gong. In 2009, she was sent to a forced labour camp for a second time. The following is based on a detailed statement she made about her persecution.

One day in 2009, Ms. Ma and another practitioner, Ms. Lü, were attacked by police when the two women were posting a sign that read "Falun Gong is good" on a wall. Worrying that pregnant Ms. Lü might be tortured by the police, Ms. Ma told them she was solely responsible for posting the sign. However, Ms. Lü was still penalised by being forced to undergo an abortion and serve one year of forced labour, while Ms. Ma was first detained for 15 days at the Domestic Security Division of the Zhongshan Police Station and later imprisoned at a forced labour camp. While detained she was punched in the head by a young police officer with both his fists. Ms. Ma's family had not been informed of her sentence until they arrived at the police station hoping to pick her up. Ms. Ma refused to sign the sentencing statement, but she was nonetheless sent to the Zhongba Women's Forced Labour Camp in the Qingzhen City.

Ms. Ma was subjected to torture during that year in the forced labour camp. She was deprived of sleep and forced to stand still for extended times to the point that her leg muscles started to shrink. Warden Yuan Fang instructed inmates to poison Ms. Ma's food, causing her to seriously vomit three times within a day. One inmate who sympathised with Ms. Ma hinted to her that she should not eat either rice or vegetables that day. Once Ms. Ma found half of a yellow pill in her rice, and the type of the drug was unknown to her. Yuan Fang and another warden Gu Xinying designated inmates to deprive Falun Gong practitioners of washroom use, allowing only one visit every 24 hours. When Ms. Ma was having her period, she was deprived of feminine products and use of the washroom. Therefore, she had no choice but to dirty her pants with blood. She was also not provided with sufficient food, even though her husband mailed 2,000 yuan¹ for her. Yuan Fang tortured Ms. Ma by depriving her of food, and forcing long-term standing, which seriously damaged Ms. Ma's health.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/7/20/244098.html