Firsthand Account: Ms. Peng Xiumin from Qinhuangdao City Beaten and Subjected to Forced Labour

Name: Peng Xiumin
Gender: Female
Age: 55
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 21st, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City
City: Qinhuangdao
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation, imprisonment, forced labour, physical restraint, forced to stand for long periods of time, beating, forced injections/drug administration, force-feedings, harassment by police

Ms. Peng Xiumin is a Falun Gong practitioner from Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province. She was arrested and sentenced to forced labour in 2010 for exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. Below is her account of what she endured in her own words:

1. Arrested and Force-Fed Unknown Drugs

On July 21st, 2010, a fellow practitioner and I explained the facts [about Falun Gong] to workers at a construction site in Qinhuangdao City. Officers from the Industry Park Police Station, including Zhou Haitao and Tao Aimin, arrested us. We were interrogated and searched. The police took away our Falun Gong materials. Later we were detained in the No. 2 Detention Centre of Qinhuangdao City for 10 days.

During the detention, guard Zhou Haitao and four or five other guards took me to a police hospital to force-feed me unknown drug(s). Four guards held me down on the bed. They held my head, held me down on the bed, pinched my legs, and struck my hands. One guard pinched my nose shut with his fingers. They forced my mouth open to pour in the unknown drugs. My legs and arms were still black-and-blue 10 days later.

2. Subjected to Forced Labour

After 10 days in the detention centre, officials from the Industry Park Police Station and the municipal 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) sent me to Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City to serve a one-year term. During the medical evaluation upon arrival there, I was found to have high blood pressure and a hearing problem, so the labour camp officials did not want to accept me. However, the police forced the labour camp officials to take me.

During my detention in the labour camp, I was watched 24 hours a day by the inmates. I was forced to do slave labour for 15 and a half hours each day, from 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

My mother-in-law, who is over 80 years old, fainted and had to be sent to the hospital after learning that I had been sent a forced labour camp for one year. My father was frightened and couldn't eat or sleep well. My husband and son were affected as well.

3. Forced to stand straight for many hours

In order to get a reduction of her prison term, inmate Wu Shuangyan reported practitioners to the division head, Yan Hongli, on March 10th, 2011. Yan instructed guard Wang Wenping to mistreat four of the practitioners. I was sent to Wang Wenping's office and was forced to stand straight for many hours. Liu Jie and Wang Yifeng kicked and yelled at me if I didn't stand straight.

Practitioner Ms. Han Xinlin was put into solitary confinement for 192 hours. Both of her hands were cuffed to a chair, and her mouth was sealed with tape. She was deprived of sleep and the right to use the toilet.

4. Brutally Force-fed

Practitioner Ms. Xu Aihua and I started a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment. However, on the seventh day of the hunger strike we were brutally force-fed. Around 2:30 p.m. on March 17th, guard Wang Yanhua ordered me to go to the on-duty office. After I refused her request to stop the hunger strike, doctor Wang was called in. Several guards, including Wang Yanhua, Wu Shuangyan, Han Zunfen, Li Jie, and Li Kaifang, held me to a chair. I called out, "Falun Gong is good!" They covered my mouth with a cloth belt.
Han Zunfen and Wu Shuangyan pulled my arms behind the chair, and Liu Liying stepped firmly on my feet. The doctor then jammed a tube up my nose, which made it impossible for me to breathe. A bag of salt water was poured into my stomach through the feeding tube. I felt burning in my stomach. Then I was fed a bowl of egg soup through the tube. My stomach was filled to the point of bursting. I had a hard time breathing. The next day, one of my teeth fell out. I had an unbearable headache and felt unwell for several days thereafter.

I was released from the labour camp on July 18th, but I continued to suffer harassment from police. Two officers from the Beihuanlu Police Station came to my home and told me to go to the police station on August 26th.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/9/9/246467.html