Lanzhou City Practitioners Dr. Luo Yongde and Wife Ms. Xin Xiangcao Suffer Years of Persecution (Part 1)

Falun Gong practitioners Dr. Luo Yongde and wife Ms. Xin Xiangcao live in Agan Township, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. Their homes were ransacked multiple times by the local police and they were arrested, detained, and taken to a forced labour camp multiple times, causing great physical and mental suffering. Their son does not practise Falun Gong, yet he was tortured for 11 days with a “Tiger Bench”¹ by the police.

Mr. Luo Yongde, 56, was a doctor at the Mine Hospital in Agan Township, Lanzhou City. He first learned about Falun Gong in February of 1996, and benefited a great deal after doing the exercises and leading his life according to the principles of “Truth-Compassion-Forbearance”. After seeing the remarkable improvements in Mr. Luo’s health, such as his chronic stomach problems going away, many people around him, including his wife, started practicing and benefiting as well.

I. Persecution Suffered by Dr. Luo Yongde

Peaceful Appeal Leads to Persecution

After July 20th, 1999, facing the overwhelming slander and propaganda towards Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Dr. Luo Yongde and other local practitioners went to appeal to the Gansu provincial government. However, the government detained them at Qilihe Stadium. Later, they were transferred to and detained at Anxilu School. Later, Wang Qingzhong, who was the deputy secretary in charge of security for the CCP at the Agan Township Mine, directed security director Wang Zong, director He Jianshou, and others to detain Dr. Luo for ten days in a hostel at the mine. During this period of time, the Politics and Law Section in the Qilihe Police Department, as well as staff members from the Agan Township Police Station, threatened Dr. Luo Yongde, saying, ”If you do not write statements to denounce the practice, we will take you to the Xiguoyuan Detention Centre.” After that, whenever there was a holiday or important date for CCP meetings, the Agan Township Government, Police Station and Mine Hospital would force Dr. Luo Yongde to report and sign in at a certain location three times per day. They assigned specific personnel to follow and monitor Dr. Luo, and tapped his phone.

In January 2002, Xi Mingjie, director of the Politics and Law Section of the Qilihe Police Department, led policemen Yang Dongchen and another policeman with last name of Yang to monitor and follow Dr. Luo Yongde. They followed him to the entrance of the Xitaihua Shopping Mall in Qilihe District, and then arrested him and took him to the Qilihe Police Department. All the groceries Dr. Luo had bought and his money was confiscated and divided among the policemen. At night, when they interrogated Dr. Luo, Xi Mingjie and others arrested ten other practitioners on Wudu Street, including Zhang Juxiu, Zheng Meihua, Li Yan'e, Zhang Jin, and Fang Shuguang. After they interrogated the practitioners and took photos of them, they fabricated “evidence” to transfer practitioners to the eighth group of the Xiguoyuan Detention Center. During the detention, practitioners were forced to memorize the regulations, and do long hours of grueling forced labor: picking lily roots and peeling melon seeds. They were also forced to run in the morning. This lasted for about six months. During one of the morning running sessions, a policeman nicknamed “Irritable Liu” directed a prisoner to beat Dr. Luo Yongde in the head, causing him to lose consciousness. After he regained consciousness, he felt dizzy and had constant headaches. Finally, after blackmailing Dr. Luo Yongde's family for 1,000 yuan², they released Dr. Luo for medical parole at the end of June 2002.

Forced Brainwashing

In October 2002, during the 16th National Congress of the CCP, Xi Mingjie directed security director Wang Zong, secretary He Jianshou, CCP secretary of the Mine Hospital Wang Guixi, hospital Director Liu Ping and deputy director Ma Yi to send hospital staff members Wang Kai, Wang Jixiang, Xue Zhizhong, Xu Ai, and others to forcibly take Dr. Luo Yongde from the hospital to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre for “transformation” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong].

At that time, more than 80 Falun Gong practitioners were taken to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre and detained on four floors. Staff from different levels of the Lanzhou City government took turns to “convert” them. The Qilihe Security Company also sent out a group of employees led by Zhou Yunfeng. Three security guards, including Yang Jigang, Qiao Houquan and Zhang Jianmin, monitored practitioners. Practitioners were not allowed to act freely or talk to each other. When they found someone doing the Falun Gong exercises, the guards would kick and punch them, put them in handcuffs, or even use electric batons.

The Lanzhou Political and Judiciary Committee 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) also hired psychiatrists and nurses from Lanzhou Mental Hospital to abuse practitioners. They forced practitioners to watch CCTV programmes and news articles slandering Falun Gong daily.

One day in November 2002, at around 11:00 p.m., Shan Yongsheng led a group of security staff and kicked the door of Dr. Luo's cell open. They grabbed the sleeping Dr. Luo Yongde by the hair, and punched him in the face several times. Then they hit him in the chest with their elbows, and Dr. Luo lost consciousness. Inmates Xue Zhizhong and Wang Jixiang, who were monitoring Dr. Luo, were shocked. The next day, to avoid responsibility for his condition, they took Dr. Luo to the mental hospital for a checkup.

On January 31st, 2003, after Dr. Luo Yongde had been detained for five months at the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre, he was taken back by his workplace. However, around July or August, the hospital suddenly cancelled his work contract, without following any legal procedures. They simply posted “Dr. Luo Yongde practises Falun Gong, so he was fired by the hospital” on the Public Information Bulletin of the hospital, and Dr. Luo Yongde lost his job.

Home Ransacked and Traveling from Place to Place to Avoid Further Persecution

In December 2003, the Lanzhou Domestic Security Division, Hualinping Police Station, Qilihe Police Department, and Agan Township Police Station ransacked Dr. Luo Yongde's home because he had been distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Officers Wei Dong and Xi Mingjie led the break-in. There were 50-60 officers in total. At around 8:00 p.m., they broke into the home of one of Dr. Luo Yongde's relatives, where Dr. Luo was staying temporarily. No one was at home, so the policemen kicked two big holes in the door and broke in. They took away everything that had value. A recorder worth more than 200 yuan, a new electric shaver worth 90 yuan, and Falun Gong books, tapes and CDs were all taken away.

The policemen then hid for a whole night at the home of a neighbour, but Dr. Luo never appeared. He was forced to travel from place to place, and spent three and a half years in other cities before coming back to Lanzhou in June 2006.

The police secretly hid outside where Dr. Luo had been staying for nearly half a month. One day Wei Dong, Wei Zhihong, Liu Yong, Zhong Biao, and others forcefully arrested Dr. Luo Yongde's son and took him to the 26th branch of the Lanzhou Police Department. They threatened the son to give the whereabouts of his parents. They also ordered him to tell which practitioners communicated with his parents. The son refused, so these policemen tortured the 22-year-old by tying him on a “Tiger Bench” and torturing him for 11 days.

Couple Arrested, Dr. Luo Yongde Taken to a Forced Labour Camp

On October 18th, 2006, right after Dr. Luo Yongde and Ms. Xin Xiangcao settled down in a rental home in Lanzhou, agents from the Lanzhou Domestic Security Division, who had been following them for a while, broke into the home. They arrested the couple and took them to the 26th branch, interrogating them until 11:00 p.m. Later, they were detained in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre. More than 20 practitioners were detained in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre at the time, including Chai Qiang, Zhang Tao, Niu Wanjiang, Guan Ziping, Jiang Yuling, Zhang Jin, Li Yuxia and Qian Shiguang, who later died from persecution.

About one week later, policeman Xi Mingjie found Dr. Luo, and tried to lure him with a salary of 2,000 yuan per month to assist the police in finding the Falun Gong materials printing centre in Lanzhou. Dr. Luo Yongde refused. After that, Xi started to collect “evidence” and planned to sentence Dr. Luo to prison. When he could not find any “evidence” that would be effective, he detained Dr. Luo for more than 40 days in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center, and then sentenced him to one year of forced labour.

On December 12th, 2006, Dr. Luo Yongde was transferred to the Pingantai Forced Labour Camp in Gansu Province. For every practitioner received by the labour camp, the labor camp had to pay 20,000 yuan cash to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre. Dr. Luo Yongde was taken to the 16th branch of the 6th group. At that time, the branch detained 12 or 13 practitioners. They did intensive labour such as farm work, carrying cement, carrying prefabricated cement boards, carrying stones, repairing drains, etc. The following torture methods were constantly applied to practitioners: forced standing, sitting on hard stools, military posture training, hanging up in the air, and solitary confinement. After the torture of hanging up in the air, the police placed two stools between practitioners' legs. They had many torture approaches which were extremely vicious. The police directed drug addicted inmates to monitor practitioners. Usually four inmates were assigned to monitor one practitioner, with two openly monitoring the practitioner, while the other two secretly monitored the practitioner. The inmates tortured and beat practitioners at will. Within half a month, Dr. Luo developed high blood pressure and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He had to be hospitalized, and spent three months in the Pingantai Medical Centre. Then was transferred to the Labour Re-education Hospital of Gansu Province, where he stayed for more than 40 days. Once his symptoms were a little better, he was taken back to the Pingantai Forced Labour Camp. Two months later, he was ill again and was sent back to the Labour Re-education Hospital for another two months. Thus he spent almost 6 months in hospitals. The labor camp realized that Dr. Luo could not perform labour to make them a profit, yet they had to pay for his hospital stay. Thus in November 2007, they transferred him back to the Agan Township Police Station in Qilihe District. Involved in the persecution of Dr. Luo Yongde at the labour camp was branch leader Han Ximing, and inmates Ma Liang and Cui Zhiwen.

In November 2007, Dr. Luo Yongde returned home. In order to control Dr. Luo, the Agan Township Police Station offered Dr. Luo “minimum social security” with the condition that Dr. Luo must report to the police station once per week, but Dr. Luo Yongde firmly rejected the offer. Later the police station confiscated the IDs of Dr. Luo Yonde and Ms. Xin Xiangcao, which still have not been returned, so that they could continue to control them. After they realized that their approaches were not working, they reported to their superiors that Dr. Luo Yongde was impossible to control.

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

2. "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/2011/8/12/245258.html