The Persecution of Ms. Fan Xiaoli, A Falun Gong Practitioner from Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia at Detention Centers and Forced Labor Camps (Photos)

October 24, 2004 | By Fan Xiaoli, Falun Gong Practitioner from Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia

(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Fan Xiaoli. I was born on September 12, 1958, and live at the Ximen Administration Center in the Kerqin District of Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia. I am a Falun Gong practitioner and have benefited much from the practice. Because I firmly practice Falun Gong and clarify the truth, over the past five years my life has been seriously threatened; I have been humiliated, monitored, and followed, and my telephone was tapped. I have suffered serious mental and financial torment as well as physical persecution.

What follows is a detailed description of the persecution I have endured. I have demonstrated all the torture methods in the accompanying photos.

I started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. Before then I had over 30 health problems, including a bone spur in my right leg, rheumatism, serious stomach aches, abnormality in the blood vessels in my brain, which caused dizziness, neurasthenia, tracheitis, long-term eye pain, difficulty walking, loss of sensation in half of my body, etc. I struggled with pain all the time. After I started to practice Falun Gong, the immense principles taught in Zhuan Falun helped me to understand the meaning of life and to improve my moral character, and my illnesses dramatically disappeared.

Falun Gong has helped millions of people to gain both mental and physical health as well as improve their moral standards, which has brought only benefits and caused no harm to society. However, Jiang Zemin abused his power to initiate the world-shaking persecution of Falun Gong, causing the arrest, sentencing, forced labor incarceration and detention of hundreds of thousands of practitioners. This damaging initiative has been so thorough that many practitioners have been tortured to death, and many families have been broken up.

On July 20, 1999, more than a dozen fellow practitioners and I went to Changchun City to appeal to the government on behalf of Falun Gong. Shao Jun, Xue Jinyu, Wang Bo, along with other policemen from the national security team and the Tongliao Police Department, arrested me at the train station. They broke the law and took me to the detention center without any warrant. Forty-eight hours later I was taken home by persons from my workplace and my family. Since I firmly practiced Falun Gong, my work unit was also implicated. In October 1999, the authorities ordered the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Tongliao City to dismiss me with severance pay. I still do not understand which law I broke when I clarified the truth to the authorities as a citizen of this country, and why I was even arrested for this.

Facing the national media's widespread fabrications and lies against my Teacher and Falun Gong, I again went to Beijing to appeal on December 23, 1999. On December 26, when Li Chang and other coordinators from the Falun Gong Research Society were to be illegally sentenced in Beijing, I decided to go to the court. As I was simply standing near the Babaoshan No. 1 People's Prosecutor's Office of Beijing, along with several passers-by and had not even figured out where the courtroom was, I was abducted into a police van and escorted to Shijingshan Stadium. For over 11 hours I was forced to stand or squat. After being taken to the Liaison Office in Beijing, I was forcibly searched. Policeman Ha Si from the Beijing Liaison Office confiscated 1,000 yuan from me, and policeman Li, a little over 20 years old, put 5,000 yuan into his own pocket. I was sent to the Kerqin District Detention Center in Tongliao City, and charged with "disturbing the social order."

In the detention center I was often forced to stand or squat. In January 2000, I practiced the Falun Gong exercises in the cell. Policeman Lei took a long rope and tied me to the top metal bar on the window in the cell. The stiff nylon rope constantly chafed the cut on my wrist from the metal bedplate, and blood mixed with the flesh. For each loop of the rope around my wrist, the pain reached deep into the bone. My wrists were tied tightly, and only the tips of my toes touched the step in the toilet. In order to avoid the basin I had to twist my waist. I felt nauseous. My wrists were hurting, tingling and swollen, and my toes were aching, so I had to keep shifting my weight from foot to foot to support my body. My back hurt so much that I could no longer endure the pain. Policeman Lei saw me murmuring, so he immediately turned his portable radio to the highest volume and put it right up to my ear. He also frequently switched the channel. The noise pounded in my head until I felt as if my head would explode.

The Author Demonstrating the Torture

I was hung like this for seven or eight hours. After the rope was untied, I could not move my hands. They were badly swollen and had lost almost all sensation. My thumbs and index fingers remained numb for over half a year. The scars from the rope that cut into my wrists are still visible today.

In about March 2000, I did the sitting meditation with a fellow practitioner. When he saw us, policeman Liu Heyan violently kicked me in the chest. I fell over backward. Then he brought a metal chain used to lock the door and violently hit the other practitioner on the head and face. Then he dragged us outside. Our hands were cuffed behind us on either side of a big metal door. My arms were tied so tightly to the triangular metal pole that I could not move an inch. My bones hurt. The policeman then picked up a one-meter-long metal shovel handle and hit me in the chest with all his might.

The Author Demonstrating the Torture

On March 18, 2000, I was sentenced to one year of forced labor and deprived of my freedom in Tumuji Forced Labor Camp. Here I was forced to do overtime slave labor, including farming. When the work at the labor camp was finished, we had to do the farm work for the team leader's family. I was exhausted from these extreme requirements. China's regulations for forced labor clearly stipulate that even for forced labor, the hours worked must not exceed about six hours a day. At the labor camp, like all other Falun Gong practitioners, I was deprived of all my time for rest. We were watched even when we had meals or went to the toilet. As Falun Gong practitioners, we had to go to the toilet in a group, while other detainees were allowed to go individually. Falun Gong practitioners were not allowed to do so.

Every day I was tortured, cuffed and tied. I was not allowed to speak, to pick up a telephone, or to call out to anyone. My communication with the outside was limited, and even my personal letters were opened and held back. According to the laws, detainees in a forced labor camp are entitled to freedom of correspondence. But these laws and regulation do not apply to Falun Gong practitioners.

On June 2, 2000, to resist the persecution and to protest against the frequent illegal search of Falun Gong practitioners, 17 of us went on a hunger strike together, refusing food and water. On the morning of June 5, lawless personnel in the labor camp ordered us to run outside. Four of us refused this kind of intensified abuse. Then two male security guards dragged my three fellow practitioners into a room and beat them up.

A policewoman named Yin seized me and hit me hard. She also yanked me by my hair up and down until several clumps of hair came out. When she was too tired to continue, she grabbed an electric baton, pulled up my clothes, and started to shock my bare waist without stopping. The electric baton made constant sparking sounds. She beat me until she was tired and was gasping for breath. Then two security guards came. She ordered them to jerk me around by my hair again. My scalp hurt, and it seemed that every torment had come to attack me at the same time. I had almost reached the limit of my endurance. The beating didn't stop until she was exhausted. The scar on my waist was still clearly visible half a year later.

Author Demonstrating the Torture

On June 6, policewoman Wang Guirong forced us to sit in the courtyard in the baking sun while she stayed in the shade. We practitioners were all still on our hunger strike. It was very hot that day, like the air was on fire. Sweat ran off our faces and it was difficult to breathe. Some practitioners felt heart palpitations, some had headaches, dizziness and nausea, and others had worse symptoms. We really could not stand it any longer. One practitioner fainted from the heat. Wang scolded us while asking, "Do you want to eat or not? If not, keep staying outside in the sun." The practitioner fainted again but the police simply ignored it.

In order to try to break our hunger strike, the female division of the labor camp, the forced labor bureau and the police department dispatched all their police and even hired security personnel. They filled the courtyard of the female division and beat up practitioners specifically. Seven days into our hunger strike, on June 8, 2000, the intensity of persecution escalated and became quite violent. I was beaten by a group of at least four people.

Author Demonstrating the Torture

The female division head named Zhou, deputy division head Zhou Guoling and two male security personnel surrounded me and beat me up. They slapped me on the face, punched me with their fists and kicked me so that I could hardly stand still and almost started to spin. I felt my head swelling, sound constantly rang in my ears, and it became totally dark in front of my eyes. I couldn't tell directions. There were several big lumps on my head, and I didn't have any strength at all. A lot of blood came out of my nose and mouth. When they became too tired to beat me, they asked if I would like to eat anything. They even threatened me that they would use the thickest tube to force-feed me.

Zhou Guoling noticed that I was still on a hunger strike, so she took me into another room. She put me on a chair and a doctor came to urge me to eat some food. With a high-voltage electric baton in hand, Zhou Guoling attempted to force me to write a statement to give up my hunger strike. I refused. So she started to viciously shock my chest and neck. With the sparking sound of the electric baton, traces of blood appeared on my neck. I had not taken food and water for seven days already. The division not only didn't help us, but instead intensified the illegal persecution against us.

Author Demonstrating the Torture

One day in July 2000, practitioner Ms. Wu Xiuhua got up to do the Falun Gong exercises after 11:00 p.m. but was taken to the guard's office. The policewoman Wang Guirong splashed water on the ground and then made Ms. Wu sit on it. Wang then splashed water on Ms. Wu, shocked her with an electric baton and whipped her, using a meter long bamboo cane. I was awakened suddenly by the sounds of beating and realized that our fellow practitioner was being beaten, so I got up to do the sitting meditation. Wang came over, pushed me onto the bed, tied my hands behind me to the end of the bed, and then whipped me all over with the bamboo cane.

Wang once said, "I would not care if you stole, plundered, killed or set fires, but practicing Falun Gong is prohibited!" This meant that the police in the forced labor camp resorted to all sorts of cruel methods to punish Dafa practitioners, and they did so without reservation, caring nothing about the consequences. They blatantly violated the constitutional laws. In order to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief, they have: forced practitioners to stand still or squat for long-hours, bent their bodies over a urine barrel, made them "ride an airplane," handcuffed them, "tied the ropes" on them, shocked them with electric batons, slapped their faces, pinched their flesh, deprived them of sleep, and prevented them from using the toilet. They even got collaborators from other areas to hold brainwashing classes and carried out completely covert persecution.

On October 27, 2000, I left Tumuji Forced Labor Camp, a place for killing kind people. Half a year later, thinking about my fellow practitioners still illegally detained there and being persecuted under isolated conditions, I decided to go to return to the labor camp in person. I wanted to expose the fake kindnesses and lies of the evildoers and to let the practitioners there hear about outside news.

On May 3, 2001, I arrived at Tumuji Forced Labor Camp. Political Commissar Zhu Jijun told a staff member named Huang to approve my visit, so I got to meet with practitioners. I told them about the general Fa-rectification situation, including the global rescue effort. I also told them resist being "Reformed"! The police prevented me from seeing them again. When I left the next day, the prison guard section chief told me, "We welcome you back again." At the time I didn't realize the implication behind his words. Political Commissar Zhu Jijun personally called and wrote to Tongliao Police Department to arrest me. Ten days later I went to a practitioner's home and was abducted by a group of people from the city police department and the Dongjiao Police Station. The police broke into her home under the guise of checking the electric meter and showed no arrest warrant. I was then incarcerated in Zhongqi Detention Center in Kezuo City for one month and later transferred to Kerqin District Detention Center in Tongliao City, where I received inhuman treatment. I was forced to stand still or squat in handcuffs every day.

In June 2001, as soon as I showed an inmate the Falun Gong exercise movements, the police noticed me through the camera monitor. A police officer named Chen and an administrator named Meng unlocked the cell door and dragged me out. I resisted an inmate's effort to put me in shackles. Division Head Wang Li came over, grabbed me brutally by the hair and pushed my head down, almost to the ground. I had difficulty breathing, and several clumps of my hair were pulled out again. He immobilized my legs to make it possible for the inmate to put me in shackles. I was forced to wear the "pig chain."

Author Demonstrating the Torture

My hands and legs were locked together by a metal chain less than a foot apart. I could not walk or do anything unless I was bent all the way over, so I could not take care of myself, either. I depended on others to help me eat, go to the toilet and change clothes. I could only maintain one posture during sleep. It was very painful as my muscles, tendons and skin were all stretched to the limit. Each time I turned over I needed to think a while how to turn. I could hardly fall asleep even though I was very tired, and I would wake up from the pain after I had fallen asleep.

In order to protest such inhumane abuse and to be less trouble to the fellow practitioners and the others in the same cell, I started a hunger strike that day. I was able to sit during the day. On the third day I suddenly looked horrible. My eye sockets had sunk, and the skin on my hands and feet was dry and winkled like an old woman in her seventies or eighties. I lay down there, couldn't move, and kept vomiting big mouthfuls of blood. My body was hot all over. The other practitioners kept sponge-bathing me with cold water. I felt horrible as soon as they stopped sponging me. I had a headache and all my bones ached. My heartbeat was abnormal, too. The discomfort was way beyond words. For the first time I felt that my life was at risk. The people around me kept calling the policemen, but they only came to take a look. They didn't remove the shackles until the seventh day. When they did, my legs still remained in a circle and couldn't be straightened.

Four months later I was sentenced to one year of forced labor and sent to Tumuji Forced Labor Camp, where I was strip-searched. They also tore my bedding and other belongings open to search them. Practitioners were not allowed to talk to each other during the day. When we sat, we had to stretch out our legs and could not close our eyes. When we slept, we were not allowed to sit up. We had to go to the toilet together. If one of us wanted to go to the toilet, then the whole group had to go. We were isolated from the outside. The criminals monitored me. Under such persecution, almost every day I could only manage to sleep for two hours before I woke up again.

When people from the outside came to visit or to examine the camp, they hid those practitioners who had been tortured so badly that they couldn't take care of themselves. They put white bed sheets on our beds and ordered people to leave the rooms. They put up fake menus on the cafeteria wall. As soon as the examiners left they would remove all of these.

I heard that my father was hospitalized and was put on oxygen for emergency treatment because he worried so much about me. I asked the team to let me go home to visit my father. They didn't bother to respond to me.

On November 27, the head of No. 2 Team policewoman Luo Jinfang ordered us to learn to sing. Many people refused to sing. She asked me why I didn't sing. I said, "My Master is wanted. Falun Dafa is being persecuted. Practitioners are detained. My father is hospitalized. I am also very weak. I won't sing!" She had the criminals pull me into the internal guardroom. As soon as she entered the room she started to beat me. I stopped her, "No beating!" She picked up an electric baton but it didn't work. She came back to shock me again after a while. Immediately I felt that my body had no more strength. I tried my best to stand, and my arms were shaking. Three days later I suddenly started to have a strange heart problem. My heartbeat became very fast. Sometimes I had no pulse. My whole body was cramping. My head kept shaking. I vomited blood and felt dizzy. Nurse Li said I would be in danger if I did not receive emergency treatment.

For a few months I had to lie in bed, even when eating. They still claimed that I pretended to be ill. They asked criminals to monitor me and found trouble with me on all kinds of things. They didn't help me to get my meals and took away all my bedding. I was often verbally abused. In order not to let me go home and to force me to go out to do manual labor, they ordered two criminals to stick a foot-long metal tube into my mouth and force-feed me drugs. They said it was a nutritious substance for healing my heart disease. My lips were torn and bleeding. My tormentors Luo Jinfang, Na Renhua, and Yang Jie still dragged me out to work. Four months later, bending to strong demands from my family members, they finally sent me to a hospital for a check-up. Nurse Li concealed the real results of the medical exams. But from their words I knew that I had a severe stomach problem, high blood pressure, heart failure and serious, bloody vomiting.

One night in January 2002, police officer Liu from No. 2 Team ordered people to dress me. They said that they were sending me to a hospital for a check-up and that a car was waiting outside. I refused to go, because it was impossible to go out at night. Criminals Zhang Wei and Bao Xi picked me up against my will and carried me to the guardroom couch. After nurse Li examined me, Bao Xi held me, while Liu, Li, and Zhang Wei all started to beat me together. They slapped me on the face and the head, pinched my arms and legs, and punched and kicked me really hard. A loud ringing began in my right ear, and my head start to swell. I couldn't breathe. Piecing pains shot through my face. My vision started to blur and there were sharp pains in my heart. They finally stopped when I was about to tumble off the couch. Li warned me, "You must not tell anybody about this after you go back. Even if just one person finds out, I will settle with you."

My health became worse and worse. I was suffering from severe angina pectoris and heart failure. I fainted a few times. Sometimes I passed blood in my stool. I had a stomach ulcer. My navel oozed a foul-smelling fluid. My heart cramped. My arms and legs were severely deformed and thinner. My left foot turned inward when I walked. I couldn't control my hands and feet. I couldn't write. I couldn't stand up by myself or walk. Others had to support me when I walked. When it was worse, two people had to hold me up in order for me to walk.

I vomited blood for almost seven months. I couldn't take care of myself at all. The division still didn't let me go home. When upper level authorities came for an inspection, they didn't let them see me. Only when they were afraid that I would die did they finally notify my family to take me home. They extorted 5,000 yuan from my family and also made my family pay for a dinner at Tumuji Restaurant for the policemen, including group leader Song from Tumuji Forced Labor Camp.

On June 27, 2002, my family carried me out. I finally left that devil's den, Tumuji Forced Labor Camp.

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