(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Zou Yuantao, 34, was an employee at the 609 Institute of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Industrial Ministry in Xiangfan City, Hubei Province. In late November 1998, he started practicing Falun Gong. After July 20, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong began, he went to appeal, practiced Falun Gong and distributed truth-clarifying materials, all in accordance with the law. However, he was repeatedly persecuted by Jiang's evil regime, illegally detained, and brutally tortured in detention centers, mental hospitals, and labor camps.

On the evening of July 25, 2001, Mr. Zou went to visit a fellow practitioner in Xiangfan City. He was reported and local police arrested him. That night he was taken to the detention center of the Xiangcheng Police Department. On tThe second day, Sun Yanjun, the instructor from the Longzhong Police Station, and police officer Yang Weiqiang, sent him to a "Law Education Class" (a brainwashing class), which was located at the Qilidian Forced Labor Camp in Xiangfan City, intending to force him to give up his practice.

Mr. Zou Yuantao didn't cooperate and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" He was dragged from the first floor to his prison cell on the third floor and beaten. Wang Zhiyong, a monitor in the First Division;, 27-year-old Li Peng, who was head of the No. 105 room;, and other prisoners, including 23-year-old Lin Xiangyun, Liu Wei, 20-year-old Li Donghu, and 23-year-old Zhang Zhen, took turns beating him. They kicked him, pulled out his hair and hit his chest with their knees. They also held his arms up like an "airplane," whipped his back with a rubber tube several inches in diameter, burned his toes with cigarettes, and smashed his hands and feet with stools. They tortured Mr. Zou from 10:00 a.m. in the morning until dinnertime, causing him many injuries. They forced him to stand for the entire night and did not allow him to sleep.

Zou Yuantao held a hunger strike twice in the forced labor camp. He was then force-fed by the camp officials. Five or six prisoners grasped his hands and feet and held him down. One person forced his legs down with a stool, while another person held his head and pinched his nose. Someone pried his teeth open with a bamboo stick and shoved one third of a cola bottle into his mouth, which almost choked him. His throat was injured and he vomited blood.

On August 13, Mr. Zou went held a hunger strike for the second time. On the fifth day of the hunger strike, the labor camp still forced him to work. He could not stand and fell down. Monitor Wang Zhiyong and Chief Zhu of the labor camp dragged him outside into the hot sun. He was not taken back to the prison cell until he almost collapsed. Chief Shi from the labor camp threatened, "I’ll kill you just like killing an ant. Even though you go on a hunger strike, you must still work for me. If you die, it will be counted as suicide!"

By the sixth day, Zou Yuantao could not stand but only lay on the bed. Wang Zhiyong, Li Peng, and Lin Xiangyun dragged him downstairs and to the outside and forced him to stand in line. As a result, Mr. Zou collapsed on the ground and they just left him there. After mealtime, they carried him back to the prison cell. By the seventh day, Mr. Zou was in critical condition and severely dehydrated. The labor camp was afraid of being held responsible and told his family to take him home.

In order to avoid further persecution, Mr. Zou was forced to become homeless. In October 2003, he was arrested again and sentenced to two year's imprisonment. He was sent to the Shayang Forced Labor Camp. Since he refused to cooperate with the evil guards, he was strictly monitored. Guard Yu Bangqing of the No. 9 Division beat him with electric batons and belts. The No. 9 Division of the Shayang Forced Labor Camp (the former No. 3 Division) is the special division to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The guards force practitioners to squat down for a long time in order to force them to give up practicing Falun Gong. Otherwise, they just shock practitioners with electric batons and instigate prisoners to curse and beat practitioners at will. If any practitioner does not obey, he is punished more severely. The evildoers say that the camp officials order them to do those things. The labor camp not only extorts money from practitioners by forcing them to do hard labor without payment, but also tries all means to extort money mailed to practitioners by their families. On the outside, the rate for phone calls is a few pennies per minute, but in the camp they charge two yuan per minute.

Mr. Zou Yuantao was brutally tortured in the Shayang Forced Labor Camp. After he was released in late 2005, his health did not improve and he became even weaker. He passed away on June 24, 2006.

Posting date: 7/26/2006
Original article date: 7/26/2006
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/7/18/133327.html

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