My Wife Was Tortured to Death, and I Was Illegally Detained in a Forced Labor Camp Three Times

By Hu Baochun (as told to a fellow practitioner)

(Clearwisdom.net)

I live in Huludao City, Liaoning Province. My wife and I started to practice Falun Dafa at the end of 1996 and benefited a great deal both physically and spiritually. Unexpectedly, Jiang launched the suppression of such a good exercise out of jealousy. In the past four years, my family and I have suffered all kinds of persecution. My family has been destroyed, and I have become destitute and homeless. Below is what I have experienced.

I. The first time I went to appeal for Falun Dafa I was beaten and detained

On October 19, 1999, my wife and I, as well as Ms. Peng Fengmei, a fellow practitioner and retired teacher from Yangjiazhangzi who died due to torture at the Huludao Detention Center in 2002, went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa based on our rights listed in the Constitution. At the Appeal Office, however, we were brutally beaten by a team head whose last name is Zhang. Hearing that I had come to appeal for Falun Dafa, he handcuffed me, dragged me by my hair, and slammed my head against the wall. Then he slapped my face, hit, and kicked me for about three hours. While beating me up, he asked me my address. When I didn't tell him in order not to implicate others, he beat me even harder. I became dizzy and my face felt hot and painful. My head felt swollen inside and out. They did a body searched and found my ID card, then sent me to the Huludao Office in Beijing.

The next day, police from the Yangjiazhangzi Economic Development District Police Substation came to Beijing and took me back to the Huludao Detention Center, where I was detained for a month. During this time, two policemen with the last names of Shi and An beat me up for doing the exercises. They hit the back of my head and chest with a "Wolf Teeth Rod" [direct translation of a torture device from Chinese original - translator]. They kicked my stomach and struck my eyes with their fists. There was a thundering inside my head, and I felt very dizzy. My back became so severely swollen that I couldn't even take off my clothes or lie on my back on the bed. I had an acute stomachache, my eyes were black and bruised, and I could not see anything.

A month after my release, the Public Security Department of the Mineral Bureau picked me up and illegally detained me for three more days. They extorted 1,000 Yuan as a so-called "deposit," although it was later returned to me. They illegally suspended my ID card and household registry book, a great inconvenience for me while they had it.

II. The second time I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa I was beaten and had money extorted from me

The day after I returned home my wife and I, together with two other practitioners, went to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Dafa. Twenty days later (on December 22, 1999), I was arrested for the second time and taken back to the Huludao Detention Center. On December 27, 1999, I was forced to recite the rules and regulations of the detention center. Simply because I recited a bit too slowly, Police Officer Li Yajie slapped my face over twenty times with the sole of his shoe. Together with Officer Wei Gozhong, he stripped off my trousers and whipped my buttocks with plastic pipes. They did this in turns. As a result, my buttocks became so black and bruised and swollen that I could not sit. They also took the 1,250 Yuan I had with me.

III. While at home I was arrested again for no reason, detained, and money illegally changed hands again

On March 20, 2000, police officers from the Yangjiazhangzi Substation lied to me, claiming that their supervisor wanted to talk with me. Three practitioners and I were abducted and taken to the Yangjiazhangzi Police Substation, where we were illegally detained for over ten days. It turned out that they were afraid we might go to Beijing to appeal during the "Two Conferences."

After those ten days, Police Officer Liu Xingcheng from Lianshan District forcibly took me from the police substation to the Politics & Security Section, where I was handcuffed for over half a day. I wasn't released until my family members had paid a 3,000 Yuan "ransom."

IV. My home was illegally searched and I was detained in a forced labor camp, subject to all means of torture

On the afternoon of June 23, Yang Zhenyong from the Yangjiazhangzi Public Security Branch, Liu Jianguo and Feng Jun from the Politics & Security Section at the Development District, Ma Guangyuan from the local police substation, and Guan Baoyu from the Neighborhood Committee broke into my home. They confiscated my Teacher's pictures and took me to the police substation. Then Liu Jianguo and other thugs went back to my home and searched it again. They took away three copies of Zhuan Falun and one Falun emblem. At the police substation, when they demanded to know whether I would go on practicing Falun Gong, and I replied, "Yes." So they illegally detained me at the Huludao Detention Center for nearly a month.

On July 13, they sentenced me to forced labor for a year. I was detained at the Huludao Forced Labor Camp.

Many well-educated intellectuals and people of high social status were detained at the Huludao Forced Labor Camp. The guards there treated practitioners like animals. When I arrived at the labor camp, the guards did a forced body search and found an article written by Teacher. Zhang Fusheng hit and kicked me for a long time. I can't remember how many times he slapped my face, but I do remember that my face felt as if it were burning with sharp pains and a headache. After that, they punished me by making me kneel down on the floor for nearly a day.

At that time, scores of practitioners were detained in this labor camp. All of us were forced to sit on the concrete floor for over ten hours a day without moving a muscle. At night, we slept on bare plank beds with many people crowded together. During the day, we ate barely steamed bread made of sorghum and corn meal.

On July 25, a team was created in this camp to specialize in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. Practitioners were forced to recite rules and regulations, to walk and run, and to labor in the field.

In October, over ten former practitioners who had enlightened along an evil path came from the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City. They started to attack practitioners one by one in an attempt to "transform" us with lies. Those who didn't transform after a few days were beaten up with the soles of shoes and shocked with electric prods. Some practitioners' private places were shocked while some were shocked on the head--their heads became so swollen that we couldn't even recognize them. Before I came to the labor camp, practitioner Yao Yanhui was beaten until he lost consciousness for over 16 hours.

At 6:00 p.m. on November 9, Liu Guohua, team head of the camp, called me to his office on the fourth floor. He tried to coerce me into reading a book defaming Dafa, but I refused, so he handcuffed my hands behind me. Liu Guohua, Zhang Guozhu, Fan Yongjie, and Liu Haihou took turns beating me with electric prods. During the beating, they recharged two of the electric prods three times. While the prods were being recharged, Liu Guohua took off my shoes and slapped me on the face with the soles without stopping, over thirty times. I was tortured until midnight.

Electric prods are the kind of torture instrument used most on Dafa practitioners. Bolstered by Jiang's order of "Claim they have committed suicide if they are beaten to death" and driven by a distorted sense of duty, in order to have practitioners give up their belief some policemen treated it as fun to torture Dafa practitioners and to see the misery of practitioners subjected to police tortures. Sometimes they used up to six or seven prods to deal with one practitioner. Even older ladies and unmarried girls were not spared. A prod with over 10,000 volts of electricity burns a blister or a black spot on the human body even when it just slightly touches the skin. Under the influence of an electric current, human muscles twitch and limbs jerk uncontrollably. Even after the electric current stops, human muscles still keep cramping for a long time. The whole room and the corridor where the torture is carried out fill with the stench of burning flesh. The body parts that have been shocked with prods become red and swollen or black and bruised. The tissue is broken and then scabs form. Policemen employed various instruments of torture especially to sensitive parts of the body such as the arch of the foot, the armpit, even to a male practitioner's penis and anus (this was often done in Huludao Forced Labor Camp) or to a female practitioner's vagina.

When one practitioner's body was full of blisters from electric shocks, guards broke the blisters one by one using the sole of a shoe and then shocked him again.

My face and neck became swollen and totally black from this treatment. Even after a long time, my skin kept splitting open, and the parts that had been shocked felt very painful even without being touched. I recovered only after a long time.

After midnight, they stopped beating me but did not allow me to go to sleep. Collaborators were arranged to work on me from midnight until morning and from morning until evening again. After six hours of torture with electric shock and beatings, plus no sleep for a whole day and a whole night, I became totally exhausted.

One day in March, the labor camp required us to put on the prison clothes. When some practitioners refused, they were dragged out one by one and beaten. When it was practitioner Yu Yingnan's turn, I could not bear it any more. Together with other practitioners, I rushed into the corridor and shouted loudly, "Don't beat people!" Consequently, they started to beat me. Led by Vice Director Yao Chuang, a dozen guards pressed me to the floor, forcibly handcuffed me, and stripped off my trousers. Wang Shengli, Director of the Reeducation Section, whipped me with the belt of my pant, Police Officer Dong Liyong shocked me with an electric prod, while over ten guards, including Guo Aiming, Song Zhongtian, Xie Bo and Cao Xue, kicked me in the face and all over my whole body. Zhang Fusheng, Vice Director of the Reeducation Section, even seized my hair and knocked my head against the concrete floor. Both my hands were cuffed behind me. There was no part of my body that escaped the beatings. I became dizzy, and my eyesight dimmed. My ears were ringing. My whole body was aching. I tried to shout from under a dozen pairs of leather shoes, "No beatings! You are violating the law and morality." My voice echoed in the corridor. Scared and filled with hate, they stuffed my mouth with filthy socks. Then they seized my neck tightly and hit me even more brutally. Zhang Fusheng declared viciously as he beat me, "Yes, no law, no morality. What could you do with them?" Vice Director Yao Chuang gave me a violent kick on the head before he left, and said to the others, "Collect criminal data for him. Sentence him first!" Exhausted after the beating, they put on my trousers and threw me into "confinement," where I stayed for 19 days.

"Confinement" is a powerful tool used by Jiang's lackeys in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners in China. The purpose of putting practitioners into confinement is twofold: on the one hand, to separate an unshakable practitioner from others so that he is unable to influence them and, on the other hand, to employ even more brutal tortures on the unshakable practitioner since nobody else can see it. Sometimes, when people from the outside came to visit the camp or when journalists came to do interviews, they would also hide unshakable practitioners in the confinements to cover up the truth.

Usually a "solitary confinement" cell is very small, with various kinds of torture instruments and an iron cage. People who are detained in confinement must eat and drink and relieve themselves all within the confinement. No light can be seen.

Due to the beating, I could not turn my body over for about five days. Three of my ribs were broken. My left ear was bleeding, and I could not hear anything for half a year. My chest and stomach ached for about three months. One shoulder blade protruded about an inch higher than normal. The muscles around my shoulders were injured and began to shrink. For six months, I had a headache and could not move my arms. I began to recover a year later.

On June 22, 2001, my term in the forced labor camp came to an end, but the camp kept detaining me for no reason. They said that they had extended my term by half a year.

Before September of 2001, any Falun Gong practitioners who did not "transform" according to their standards were not released. Their standards of being completely "transformed" were very absurd: one had to abuse others, to beat others, and to smoke and drink. This is the goal of Jiang's regime, achieved at a huge expense in terms of finances, materials, and human beings.

In December 22, 2001, after completing the half-year extension, I was released.

V. I was illegally sentenced to forced labor again for no reason

While I was illegally detained, my wife was arrested and illegally sentenced to four years in prison. She was kept at the Liaoning Female Prison. My 68-year-old mother could not bear this blow and fell ill. She suffered from cerebral thrombosis, high-blood pressure, and hemiplegia. She could not take care of herself and gradually became mentally confused. She lived on a small retirement pension together with my 18-year-old son.

On April 13, 2002, four policemen from the Yangjiazhangzi Police Substation including Xiao Ning, Ma Da, and Liang X broke into my home. They brutally dragged me to the police car and took me to the police substation. I was handcuffed there for 18 hours before they sent me to the brainwashing class at Xingcheng.

At the brainwashing class, I was deprived of any personal freedom and subjected to physical punishments such as sleep deprivation and other tortures. They coerced practitioners into giving up Falun Gong by filling their heads with lies and defamation of Falun Gong and by threatening to sentence them to forced labor camp or prison. A huge amount of human and financial resources was wasted on the brainwashing class. One class of ten people for two weeks would usually cost over 100,000 Yuan! As the police repeated every day, "How could we have such a good life (good income) if Falun Gong were not suppressed?"

After I was detained in the brainwashing class, I went on a hunger strike, protesting their illegal behavior. The next day Zhou Fengming, Party Secretary of the Huludao Politics & Law Committee, asked me, "Is Falun Gong good?" I replied, "Yes." For this one word they sentenced me to three years of forced labor. I was once again sent to the Huludao Forced Labor Camp. I kept up my hunger strike, protesting the illegal persecution, until the 12^th day, when I became very weak and lost consciousness several times. The labor camp was scared and sent me back home.

VI. I became destitute and homeless after harassment

This time, my mother had suffered even more from the impact of my absence. She appeared like an aged woman suffering from dementia. After my return, I got a job and began to take care of my mother and son. Less than a month later, however, many policemen from the Yangjiazhangzi Police Substation came to my home again. They did not find me because I was not at home. I knew that they would not allow me to live a peaceful life, so I left home and became destitute. My sick mother and young son were left alone at home again.

VII. My wife was tortured to death

On July 28, 2002, I got the news of my wife's death from several people. She was tortured to death at the Niaoning Female Prison!

The police told my father-in-law that my wife had died of "high-blood pressure and a heart attack." That's just impossible. My wife was absolutely healthy before she was detained. My father-in-law told me that he went to see my wife's body in a dark room with no light. He was only allowed to see her face. He saw that her head was seriously swollen. Even though he had only a glimpse of her, he knew clearly that she had been beaten to death. (For details of my wife Liu Liyun's death, please refer to "Torture Death and Illegal Cremation of Female Dafa Practitioner Liu in Liaoning Province Women's Jail," http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/9/14/26498.html

VIII. I was arrested again and sent to forced labor for the third time

On January 10, 2003, I was arrested while distributing truth-clarifying materials with a fellow practitioner. We were detained at the Suizhong Detention Center. Because we refused to have our pictures and fingerprints taken and because we refused to sign the made-up interrogation record, we were brutally beaten up.

Wang Xueping, Director of Suizhong Detention Center, said viciously, "Don't ask for trouble! Jiang said that for Falun Gong practitioners, 'If they are beaten to death, they deserve it, and we will claim they committed suicide.' Several hundred Falun Gong have died in detention. Didn't they deserve it? Their family members could not even see their bodies." The next day, I was sent to the Yangjiazhangzi Police Substation, where I was handcuffed over 20 hours. Then I was sent to the Huludao Forced Labor Camp for the third time.

I started to go on a hunger strike right away. Guards instructed the criminal prisoners to beat me and force-feed me. For three days and nights, I was not allowed to sleep for a minute. The criminal prisoners took turns every two hours watching over me. As soon as I closed my eyes, the prisoners would beat me up. The labor camp knew that Falun Dafa practitioners are good people who are always considerate of others. They took advantage of Dafa practitioners and forced them to listen to the guards using the most contemptible means. If practitioners did not listen to them, the guards would punish the criminal prisoners and thus arouse their hatred towards Dafa practitioners.

When they beat me, over ten prisoners stripped off my clothes and threw me on the concrete floor during the bitter cold of winter. Violent punches and kicks followed. Prisoner Zhu Changhong hit my forehead with chess pieces, inserted his filthy toes into my mouth, and struck my toes with a rolling pin. Somebody even jumped on my back by swinging over a railing above our heads. They didn't stop until they felt satisfied.

They sometimes force-fed me with corn powder or raw egg (more humane), but usually with hot chili water, mustard oil, high-density salt water, medicine, and even urine and feces. Once they force-fed a practitioner named Chen Dewen (from Gejia Township in Suizhong County) and another practitioner an entire bag of salt (usually one or two pounds). Consequently, Chen Dewen died of force-feeding. Usually they would torture practitioners by force-feeding a large amount of salt in order to make them miserable. They usually force-fed from 7:00 a.m. to midnight, once every two hours. And each time they force-fed one and three-quarters of a pound of salt. With that amount, nobody could endure. The most vicious thing was they did not even allow practitioners to go to the toilet after force-feeding.

Violent means were used in force-feeding. One of them was to pry open one's mouth and pour the salt down one's throat directly. The other way was to force-feed via the nose. The former method often put the victim's jaw out of joint. My jaw was out of joint due to their deliberate violence. The latter method was even more brutal. The doctor in the camp (or sometimes just some prisoner who had never had proper training would substitute) forcibly inserted a hard rubber or plastic tube into a victim's nose or mouth and down the throat. Often a windpipe or a lobe of the lung or even someone's stomach was punctured. Blood would run out of the torn tissues together with saliva and whatever had been force-fed and make a mess all over the body. People who were force-fed would often vomit or even suffocate.

While force-feeding me, they restrained me on the bed and cuffed my hands above my head. Then over ten prisoners, including Wang Chuan, Zhu Changhong, Li Jiandong, Jiang X and Hu Changlin, seized me by the hair, pressed my legs tightly (and even struck my legs using planks while pressing on them), pried my teeth open, forced open my jaw (the hook used to open my jaw fell several times), penetrated my ear with a broom handle, and poured a basin of messy things directly into my mouth. In order to prevent me from spitting them out, they stuffed my mouth with a towel and stopped my nose with their fingers. I was suffocating, my face red and heart beating violently. I felt so miserable I almost died of suffocation.

After several episodes of force-feeding, I told them, "I won't swallow even though I suffocate to death." Policeman Ji Chengguo said mercilessly, "You think I cannot handle you? We'll insert a tube in you for a while." Both of my hands were cuffed, and I was sent to the hospital, where a nose feeding tube was inserted. After returning to the labor camp, I was cuffed to my bed for 24 hours. Somebody else was taking care of my urine and feces. They force-fed me via the nose tube every day for over ten days.

When the Chinese Lunar New Year was coming, the criminal prisoners pleaded with us for a peaceful time (they had to watch me over if I was on hunger strike). In order not to implicate them, I stopped my hunger strike. After that, since I insisted on my belief, they started to punish me physically by making me sit on a tiny round stool for 14 hours a day. Forty days later, I went on a hunger strike again and was brutally force-fed again. My jaw came out of joint about four times. Then they re-inserted the nose tube. They force-fed me from 7:00 a.m. to midnight, once every two hours, one and three quarters of a pound of salt each time. They also force-fed me with unknown medicines and wine. Due to the huge amount of force-feeding, I vomited every time. So they reduced the amount a bit to a little over a pound.

Ten days later, I became extremely weak and didn't look like myself. My heart beat over 100 times every minute. They released me for fear that I might die in the camp and they would be responsible.

IX. My Indictment

Jiang has implemented a policy of "Destroy their reputations, bankrupt them financially and annihilate them physically" against Falun Gong. Over several years, my family was illegally searched six times and more than 13,000 Yuan was extorted from them.

Since the persecution started, my wife and I lost our jobs and there was no income to support the family. My mother has been taken care of by my relatives. All my family members and relatives have had to endure so much because of the persecution. They feared for my life every time I was arrested. Especially after my wife was tortured to death, all my relatives were miserable. My son cried for several days after hearing the news of his mother's death. He couldn't figure out why his mother was tortured to death simply because she wanted to be a good person. My wife's death brought me permanent misery: I didn't even see her body when she died and dared not see her ashes since the local police station kept looking for me. My father-in-law was trapped in the Shenyang Female Prison by a group of police and forced to sign the agreement to cremate his daughter after her death. He was only allowed to take a glimpse of her body. My mother could not bear the trauma of my being arrested so many times and became mentally confused and unable to take care of herself.

In China, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners of goodwill live a hard life wandering from one place to another. Tens of thousands of families are destroyed due to Jiang's persecution. All these miseries are caused by Jiang Zemin.

Heavenly principles do not tolerate the persecution of good people on such a large scale in China. It is an abuse of justice in the human world. I believe no people with a sense of conscience and justice can endure Jiang Zemin's continued crimes.

I appeal to people all over the world to show their concern and help to end the persecution in China. I appeal for all people, from the standpoint of justice, "to exercise the fundamental principles of humanity; and to restore and uphold justice in society."
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/10/29/59678.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version