Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Yu Zhenjie, 54, from Inner Mongolia Died as a Result of Persecution

Name: Yu Zhenjie
Gender: Female
Age: 54
Address: Zhalantun City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Death: September 7th, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 13th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hohhot Women’s Prison
City: Hohhot
Territory: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Persecution Suffered: Detention, torture, sleep deprivation, damaging force-feeding, brutal beatings, imprisonment, physical restraint, held in a small cell, insults, slapped in the face, electric shock, brainwashing, home ransacked, interrogation, iron chair

Ms. Yu Zhenjie, a Falun Gong practitioner from Zhalantun City, Inner Mongolia was persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) numerous times. As a result, she died on September 7th.

Ms. Yu refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong. She was arrested and sentenced twice and spent a total of seven years in the Zhalantun Detention Centre and Hohhot Woman's Prison. In prison she was brutally tortured until she was in critical condition and diagnosed with cervical cancer and Hepatitis C.
In order to free themselves from responsibility, the prison authorities released her to seek medical care. After she was released, the police from National Security Team from Zhalantun still harassed her at home, and her condition worsened. She passed away in great mental and physical agony.

The following are accounts in her own words of what she endured when she was still alive.

1. I was tortured in Zhalantun Detention Centre.

On April 5th, 2001, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. I was arrested and taken to Zhalantun Detention Centre. The guards tried to force me to write a Guarantee Statement not to practise Falun Gong anymore, but I refused. They tortured me by making me “Hug a door.” My left hand was pulled around a metal door on the left lower part, and my right hand was pulled around on the right lower part of the door, and then handcuffed on the other side of the door. One cannot stand up straight nor crouch down. It is terribly painful.

The guards saw I was not going to give in, so they tried something else: “Horse stumbles.” They shackled my legs together and then handcuffed one of my hands to the shackle so that I was bent over and could not stand or walk.

During that time, Domestic Security Team leader Zhang Yong from Zhalantun Police Department ordered me to sign my name on the indictment. I wrote, “Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] is the main instigator and person behind the persecution of Falun Gong and has brought calamity to the country and the people.” He jumped on me like a beast and pulled out of clump of my hair. Part of my scalp was ripped away, and blood ran down my face.

I shouted, “Falun Gong is good,” so the guard put an “iron harness” that farmers use on their livestock on my mouth. They also tied a metal rod 60 centimetres long between my feet. My feet and hands were cuffed to the rod, I could not talk, walk, or sleep. They did not release me from that position for nine days. I did not eat or drink during that time. Director Liang Yuanbao, vice director Wang Changhe, and guard Xue used a bundle of chopsticks to crack open my mouth and force feed me. It was totally inhumane. I was held in Zhalantun Detention Centre until October 2002.

2. I was tortured in Baoanzhao Prison in Inner Mongolia.

In October 2002, Zhalantun Court sentenced me to four years in prison. I was transferred to Baoanzhao Prison in Inner Mongolia.

I believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and did not commit any crime. I refused to do slave labour, so the guards cuffed my hands straight to either side of a pole and shackled my legs apart to two different chairs. I had to sit on the concrete floor 24/7. I was tortured like this twice, for a total of three months—over 100 days.

They held me in a small cell with no window. It was wet and dark inside, and there were bugs everywhere. Rats crawled into my clothes. Since my legs and arms were tied down, I could not move, and it was beyond words to described how horrible this was. After I was released, my arms were disabled. They would not hang normally for a long time, and I could not sleep due to the pain.

When a higher authority came to inspect the prison, I went to tell them the truth about Falun Gong and shouted “Falun Gong is good!” The guards tied me to a pole in the field. The vice warden came and started slapping my face and kicking and beating me. He cursed me and ordered other inmates to beat me. After they had done all they could, they held me in a small cell again.

I started a hunger strike, so the guards force-fed me. Some of them sat on my arms, some on my legs, some held my head down. Some even pinched my nose, and others pried open my mouth. They forced a tube into my stomach and kept it in for two months. The smell that came out of my stomach was awful—even the guards refused to come near me. I was close to 5'7” and weighed less than 40 kilograms. I became extremely frail.

3. What I endured in Hohhot Woman's Prison

In the autumn of 2003, I was transferred to Hohhot No. 1 Woman's Prison when the two prisons merged. I still refused to do slave labour or wear the prison outfit. Whenever an inspection contingent appeared, I would clarify the truth about Falun Gong to them. I was beaten by other inmates with a square club, which inflected extreme pain. I lost feeling where they hit me for up to three years. Since I refused to wear a prison outfit, four inmates beat me and scratched the skin behind my ear. It became an open sore that ran all the way down my neck and oozed pus and blood.

When another inspection team came, I yelled out, “Falun Gong is good!” The vice warden dragged me to his office and shocked my mouth with an electric baton. He was cursing at the same time. He dragged me to a toilet and handcuffed me to the heating pipes. Inmate Wu Xiujie kept hitting my mouth with a mop. I was later held in small cell for one week. They had just finished constructing the cell, and the concrete floor was not even dry yet. All of my bedding was wet the next day.

Later I was sent to a brainwashing centre and deprived of sleep. Collaborators and guards pressured me and other practitioners to write the Three Statements to give up our beliefs. Otherwise we would be sent to a “transformation” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] base, a really terrible place.

On April 1st, 2005, I was supposed to be released, but the Zhalantun 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and Domestic Security Team did not release me. They sent me directly to the local brainwashing centre.

4. In critical condition in Hohhot Women's Prison

On November 13th, 2009, I was working when Wang Yuping and other police officers from Domestic Security Team showed up and took me to the police station. They raided my home and took all of my Falun Gong books, a dozen Falun Gong informational brochures, and several DVDs. I was taken to Zhalantun Detention Centre that night.

One night, the vice director of the police department, Han Jie, and six to seven plainclothes agents came to interrogate me. They tied me to an iron chair. Han Jie poured water over my head and neck. I was choking to death, but they did not stop until I had a heart attack.

During the interrogation, police officer Wang Yuping hinted to me that as long as I gave them money, I would be released the next day, otherwise, they would sentence me. I refused to cooperate with him, and only told them the facts about Falun Gong. They did not listen and continued the torture. I was sentenced to three years in prison.

On April 21st, 2010, at around 7 p.m., the police took me to Hohhot Woman's Prison again. In less than three months, my condition was critical. I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and Hepatitis C, and I was aching and bleeding even in the hospital. The prison authorities, afraid they would be held liable, released me on September 25th, 2010, to seek medical care. I was extremely frail and my life was hanging by a thread.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/10/15/247892.html