A Falun Dafa Practitioner from Jiamusi City Recounts the Persecution She Suffered

by Zhao Lixia, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Jiamusi

(Clearwisdom.net) In November 2000 I went to a fellow practitioners' home. Unexpectedly, police officer Zhong Qiang from the Youyi Road Police Station in Jiamusi City was also there. A male practitioner was also there at the same time. Zhong Qiang told me to come in. Thinking that I could "clarify truth" to him so that he would stop doing more evil deeds, I entered. Zhong would not listen to what I told him, but called someone in the Yonghong District Police Department. Several male police officers arrived. They rushed into the place and took away Dafa materials, videotapes, a VCR, Teacher's portraits, and other belongings. They announced that a gathering of three or more people would be counted as an illegal gathering; hence they arrested the three of us.

As a matter of fact, I had just met that male practitioner by accident. The other two practitioners were a married couple. The police officers arrested the male practitioner, the husband and me and detained us in the Youyi Road Police Station. We were locked up separately. From my cell I could clearly hear the sound of someone being beaten. I also heard screaming, scolding and cursing. When I saw the other two practitioners again, one had his hands handcuffed behind his back. He was taken back home. His home would be searched. The other was beaten and had marks and dirt all over his body. There were shoe marks on his face. It would be difficult to imagine how vicious the police officers' behavior was, had I not seen it with my own eyes.

We were tortured from 7:00 p.m. till 2:00 a.m. Without our signatures or any legal documentation the police officers transported us to the Jiamusi Detention Center. A fellow practitioner tried hard to rescue us from detention. We were released after being detained for six days.

Once at home, police officer Zhong Qiang kept harassing me. I decided to leave home and become destitute, to avoid further persecution. The Youyi Road Police Station officials sent agents to my home several times and tried to force my mother to tell them where I was. My mother adamantly refused. The police then found my sister. They stayed around her residence for several days and nights, intending to arrest me again. They sent my family's phone number to the city national security bureau to monitor the phone calls. Once, one of my family members called his place of work to ask how many copies they needed for some kind of materials. The national security bureau agents mistakenly thought that I was planning to make copies of Falun Gong materials. They absurdly went to the district government building, which made the district government officials so confused that they did not know what to say. Because of this, my family members were very upset, so they cut the telephone line.

In December 2002 I went to distribute Falun Gong materials. Three farmers who did not know the truth of Falun Gong abducted me and took me to the local Changqing Police Station in the suburban area. Li Wanyi, from the suburban police department, tried to force me to give up practicing Falun Gong and to betray the other practitioners. I refused. Persecutor Li yelled, "I must arrest two to three more people because of you. I must sentence you to seven years of imprisonment."

Eventually, they realized that they would not be able to get anything they wanted from me, hence they transferred me to the Jiamusi City Detention Center, where I suffered from torture for one month and three days. In addition, I was sentenced to three years of forced labor.

On the first day in the labor camp, nine other practitioners and I were forced to stand in the hallway. The guard Zhang Xiaodan yelled at us; then she and some others forced us to take off our clothes for a body search. If they found someone hiding Teacher's lectures, they would beat the practitioner brutally. After that, they tried to force us to "reform" and write the "five statements" to break off with Falun Gong. I refused. Then they started to use physical punishment. Zhang Xiaodan and Liu Yadong used handcuffs behind my back to tie me onto the edge of the metal bed. My two elbows were forcefully cuffed together by stretching the muscle, which would have been impossible under normal circumstances. It caused extreme pain. Later, because I refused to renounce Dafa, refused to write the five statements or to write any slanderous statements, I was handcuffed behind my back twice more. Doing this were division head Hong Wei and male police officer Wang Tiejun. They used high voltage electric batons to shock me and at the same time beat and kicked me. They also pulled my hair. The brutal handcuffing behind my back torture severely injured my arms. It took over a year for my right arm to heal. My left arm was even more injured. In the evenings it hurt so much that I could not fall asleep or turn. I could only rely on the practitioner next to me to help me to turn over during the night.

I was still compelled to do the forced labor, even though my arms were still swollen and hurt, and the wrists and backs of my hands were full of bruises. I said to the persecutors, "Since my arms are severely injured I should do less labor." For my question, the head Jiang Jianan berated me.

In 2003 I was forced to sit on a small, ridged stool for over six months. Afterwards, I was tortured in this way periodically. For food we had to eat black steamed buns full of sand and small pebbles. After a long time like this, the steamed buns were made from better ingredients. Three times a day we had some boiled cabbage and turnips with a little drop of oil. Whenever there was an inspection team coming to the labor camp, the cafeteria would made some rice porridge with some additional dishes. After the inspection team was gone, everything would return to "normal." This is an obvious indication that the labor camp embezzled our boarding expenses.

As mentioned above, when I was in poor physical condition, I was still forced to do excessive hard labor. If I could not accomplish the task, I would have to do overtime.

We not only suffered from physical torture, but also spiritual torment. We were body searched once every couple of days. If someone was found hiding Teacher's lectures, he/she would have been tortured or their jail terms would have been extended. After returning to our cells from the workshop, we would often find our belongings rifled through, with our clothes and personal items scattered here and there. Our places were ransacked! The guards claimed that they were just doing a safety check. As a matter of fact, they were searching for Teacher's lectures so that they could torture us more. Even more ridiculous, whenever our family members came to visit us, they would be forced to slander Teacher and Dafa. If they refused, they would be forbidden to see us.

There was no logical reasoning inside the labor camp. It was a daily routine for us to be insulted and beaten. Even one's releasing from the labor camp required a person to sign some so-called "help-education agreement" demanding the practitioners to willingly "reform." If the practitioners refused to sign the agreement, either the guards would force you to sign, or the guards would sign for you; otherwise the practitioners would be brutally beaten. Practitioner Sun Xuelian refused to sign. A certain male guard then brutally beat her, covering her legs with severe bruises.

During the three years inside the labor camp, my family suffered heavy mental pressure as well as financial losses. My mother became ill and had to be treated in the emergency room several times.

The only reason I suffered from these tortures is that I strictly disciplined myself according to "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," to become a good person.

No matter what happens, Dafa practitioners are full of compassion. We still hope those police officers who have been persecuting Dafa practitioners will stop torturing and persecuting practitioners; that way they will be responsible for their own lives and the lives of their family members. They should treat Dafa practitioners kindly to accumulate virtue so that they will leave themselves some hope for their futures.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/7/24/133860.html

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