Yan Yutao's Eyewitness Account of the Treatment of Dafa Practitioners at Fanjiatai Prison, Shayang City, Hubei Province

(Clearwisdom.net)

Tempted by the promise of a reduction of prison term, inmates from Fanjiatai Prison lashed out in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners -- feeding them with feces, forcing chili bottles into their anuses, injecting them with tap water using discarded syringe needles, etc. Despite all of this, Dafa practitioners continued clarifying the truth to them. Unfortunately, some prisoners were punished when they were found showing sympathy towards Falun Gong. Within such a small building, and in a very short period, there were thousands of incidents in which Dafa practitioners were tortured, whereas the persecutors easily got away with and were even rewarded for their persecution.

Because of a car accident in 1990, I had to have my left leg amputated. Practicing Falun Dafa has given me a great life, both physically and spiritually. In 2000, because of my firm faith in my practice, I was arrested and put in Fanjiatai Prison. At that time, there were over fifty practitioners kept in the same prison camp.

There were a total of 8 main prison centers in this prison, but most Dafa practitioners were kept in the 7th division of the No.4 center. Painted on the walls of the cells were slanderous slogans against Dafa and Teacher. Two or three prisoners were assigned to supervise each Dafa practitioner around the clock, and for the steadfast ones, they assigned more prisoners and even police officers to monitor them.

At first, the officers instructed the supervising prisoners to beat the practitioners only when they practiced the exercise, and would cover up any problems for them. Later, to make it easier for them to escape their responsibilities, the officers gave vague instructions such as, "put more pressure on him," or remarks like, "I think he hasn't learned his lessons yet." The prisoners were then encouraged to do as they pleased, and finally they recruited the more notorious prisoners to work on us. In other prison divisions, prisoners found fighting or beating one another would be reprimanded and punished, and all privileges of prison term reduction would be removed. Our division was the only place where prisoners could beat practitioners as much as they like and not be penalized. In fact, beating up someone became a "routine process."

During my entire stay, I was severely beaten up many times. One inmate, Fan Yaoping, had Hepatitis B. He had the habit of spitting on the ground, putting his foot on it and then rubbing the spit on my face. Sometimes, he directly spat on my face and said, "I want you to get it as well." Every time when he hit someone, he always hit the person on the head. My head had welts and bled profusely from his beatings. Sometimes, they took turns beating me, defaming Dafa at the same time. The person that beat me the most was Fan Yaoping and ironically, he was nominated the "most improved prisoner" that year in prison, and received a one-year reduction of prison term.

My disability forced me to walk only on one leg. If the officers were hard on a disabled person like me, one could imagine how hard they had treated the healthier practitioners. In the last few years, the 7^th division prison had more violence than all other divisions put together. A fellow practitioner Liao Yuanhua, who used to be an executive secretary of the Party of a certain district, was imprisoned in the same cell with me once. After he was admitted into prison, the officers sent 5 or 6 prisoners to beat him up, one after another, until he collapsed. Later, they poured liquor through his nose to wake him up again, and then force-fed him with feces and pushed a chili bottle into his anus. At that time, his legs were burnt all over. They cursed and insulted Teacher and Teacher's video in front of him, saying, "Since he upholds truth, compassion and tolerance, we will do the opposite. We will use the most wicked things to ridicule and insult him."

Fang Zhenchao was very steadfast with his practice. He often cried out, "Falun Dafa is good!" and every time when he said that, he was knocked down by a group of prisoners, who kicked him at the same time. But he still continued to cry aloud, "Falun Dafa is the righteous Way!" He protested several times by going on hunger strikes.

These prison thugs used all sorts of methods to wear down Dafa practitioners - depriving them of their sleep, showing slanderous videos and fabricated Dafa materials, forcing them to recite the prison regulations, and trying to humiliate them. They insulted the practitioners, forced them to do heavy manual labor and constantly tortured the practitioners. The guards repeated their routine daily, in varying intensity. To prevent Dafa practitioner Xiong Jianping from sleeping, Fan Yaoping filled up a discarded syringe needle with tap water, and injected it into Xiong when he felt asleep. Of course, there were many more cruel methods that haven't been mentioned.

When I first arrived, I was allowed only three hours of sleep every night. Apart from forcing us to watch those slanderous fabricated movies, they bombarded me with verbal propaganda nonstop to wear me down, as well as forcing on me long hours of physical labor at the tiles factory. Nevertheless, I still managed to hold onto my belief -- I refused to watch those fabricated videos or listen to the lies, refused to recite the prison regulations and later, refused to do the labor or answer roll call.

The Fanjiatai Prison, built from funds collected from the public, has now become a den for the torture of good people. Many prisoners considered the thugs' role a great opportunity and took the offer of transferring to the 7th division. Regardless of how hard other prisoners worked in other divisions, the maximum prison term reduction in their cells was only about 27%, whereas, in 7th division, almost every prisoner had an opportunity to gain a reduction of prison term by assaulting Falun Gong practitioners.

Tens of thousands of violent attacks were committed against Dafa practitioners over a short period of time in the 7th division, and not only were the thugs not punished, they were rewarded for what they did.

Note: Xiao Tianbo was the head of the No.4 center at Fan Jiatai Prison. All the Dafa practitioners imprisoned and persecuted in 7th division of this prison were directly his responsibility.

His contact: 86-13972881228(Cell)

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