By Wu Shilian, a Falun Gong practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) In mid-January 2004, shortly before the Chinese New Year, a policeman named Pan Xueyuan from Yuexi County's State Security Team, a man surnamed Li, and another man surnamed Liu from the local 610 Office went to my older brother's home and demanded to know my whereabouts. My brother gave them my mother's address. They went to my mother's house and told her that they were "very concerned for me." Deceived by their lies, my mother brought them to my place. The officers claimed that they wanted to make sure I had no difficulty providing for myself, but their real purpose was to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

At around 9:00 a.m. on February 3, 2004, Pan Xueyuan took state security police officers from Yuexi, Sichuan Province and two policemen from the Public Security Bureau to my home and pounded on my door. As soon as I opened the door, they barged in and started to ransack my place. They confiscated a copy of Zhuan Falun and other Falun Gong books, ten audio CDs of Teacher's Fa lectures, two audio tapes of the Falun Gong exercise music, three music tapes, a VCD containing facts about Falun Gong, my ID, a Walkman, a pair of headphones, a red bag, and about a dozen copies of Falun Gong truth-clarification materials.

The officers told me, "Let's go. Let's 'exchange thoughts.' You will meet your fellow practitioners there." They tried to push me and haul me to the car. When that failed to work, they had my arms pinned behind me and two men were carrying my legs. I fought them off eventually. After more than two hours of struggle, they managed to put me into the police car with my legs still outside the vehicle. Pan Xueyuan tore my shoes and one of my sleeves. Each time my hands touched the door, he knocked them off. In the end, the officers put me in the police car and took me to the local detention center. Three days later, in the morning, Pan Xueyuan and policeman Li went back to my place, put the materials they had found in three piles, and took photos of them as evidence of the arrest.

A week later, I was summoned out of my room at the detention center. A few male drug addict prisoners appeared on the scene. Pan Xueyuan brought a man who claimed to have witnessed me distributing Falun Gong truth-clarification materials. The man identified me as the "suspect" from behind a screen door. They falsely accused me of having over 100 copies of Falun Gong truth-clarification materials in my possession. When they took my mug shot, they had a few male drug addict prisoners grab my hair and hold my arms and legs. They sent the notice of my sentence of two years in a forced labor camp to my younger sister and had her sign the document.

On February 3, 2004, I was taken to the detention center. On the afternoon of February 23, the legal department of the detention center informed me of my two-year sentence in a forced labor camp. At 5:00 a.m. the next day, officers took me to the Nanmusi Women's Forced Labor Camp. I asked to appeal my case, but they told me to do it at Nanmusi.

When we arrived at Nanmusi, it was already getting dark. A female prison guard from the No.7 Team named Zhang Xiaofang had members of the People's Administration Committee strip me naked. Afterwards, I was ordered to sit in a military-style posture. Anytime I refused to follow orders, the guards would hit me. Zhang Xiaofang slapped me hard on the face and caused bleeding in my mouth. While hitting me, Zhang shouted verbal abuse about Falun Gong. A female drug addict prisoner named Zhang Xiaoyan hit my arm and caused a large bruise. Zhang Xiaoyan is from Nanchong, Sichuan Province. She often slanders Falun Gong and is one of the women who tortured practitioners at the Nanmusi Forced Labor Camp.

Because I was skinny and frail, the guards told me to go to sleep. (I had gone on a protest hunger strike during my incarceration at the detention center and had lost a lot of weight.) I slept with two women flanking me. At all times, I was watched by five women. From day to night, drug addict prisoners repeatedly verbally abused me and told me to give up practicing Falun Gong. Groups of people kept coming in with threats and failed attempts to make me give up practicing Falun Gong. At Nanmusi, it was the norm to be forced to do labor and stay up all night working. Going to bed at 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m. would be considered "early bedtime."

A prison guard named Mao Yuchuan often said, "The revenue you bring to the camp is not enough to pay for your expenses here." We were often denied the right to go to the bathroom, wash or brush our teeth. Encouraged by the prison guards, the drug addict prisoners had the permission to beat up or verbally abuse Falun Gong practitioners.

On July 8, 2004, Mao Yuchuan handcuffed me to a bunk bed on the fourth floor and had me squat on the lowest step of the ladder of the bunk bed for long hours every day for nearly a month. During those 30 days, I was also subjected to forced brainwashing tactics. The guards force-fed me with a lot of water, but denied me the use of the toilet. They tried both threats and false kindness for the purpose of making me give up practicing Falun Gong. When all other means failed, they put me on the second lowest step of the ladder of the bunk bed, forcing me to squat. Wearing handcuffs for long periods of time caused me to bleed and develop blisters. Squatting for long hours made it difficult for me to stand up or walk. Two pairs of handcuffs were broken during the torture. The guards uncuffed only one of my hands and kept me handcuffed to the bed when I ate. I could only eat while in a squatting position. I was not released until sometime between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. When I slept, my arms were handcuffed to the headboard. I could not turn my body; it was difficult to move at all.

On October 20, 2004, the No.7 and No.8 teams were combined as the new No.7 Team. A prison guard named Wu told me with a smile to renounce Falun Gong in writing. When her "smile" approach did not work, she forced me to watch tapes that attacked Falun Gong. Those who were responsible for brainwashing Falun Gong practitioners took turns working on me. Drug addict prisoners forced me to stand and bend my arms or knees in a military posture. A drug addict named Hou Tingting and another surnamed Song hit my legs and knees with a broomstick. My knees were bruised and my legs were swollen from standing for long hours. My arms were also swollen. When I needed to go to the bathroom, I was forced to walk downstairs to report to the prison guards, despite my condition. The drug addict prisoners were allowed to physically and verbally abuse practitioners and take our money or personal belongings at will. Each time they succeeded in making a practitioner renounce Falun Gong, 21 days were subtracted from their respective prison terms.

The truth is that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) so-called efforts of "saving Falun Gong practitioners" are nothing but a combination of deception, brutality, and hypocrisy. The CCP destroys all of a person's rights while spreading lies that it is saving the person from being ruined.

After I was released, I went to a relative's home in Xichang, Sichuan Province. Yuexi State Security agents, Pan Xueyuan, Liu from the 610 Office, a group of policemen, and staff members of the local government followed my mother all the way to our relative's home in Xichang. The officers said that they were applying for low-income benefits for me to prevent me from going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong during the National People's Congress in Beijing. They promised that the low-income benefits would relieve me from my financial difficulties. However, they claimed that they had to collect my land in order to apply for low-income benefits for me. In order to do that, I must return to Yuexi with them. At the time, I was away from my relative's home. The officers met me on the road and forced me into their car. They took me back to Yuexi and put me under my father's watch. My father locked me in a room. The officers often harass my family members and intimidate my mother. They threatened to arrest my mother if I should leave home. After I was taken back to Yuexi, Pan Xueyuan and his accomplices from Chengbei Police Station in Xichang ransacked my relative's home in Xichang. Two days later, they ransacked my relative's home again.

Posting date: 3/29/2007
Original article date: 3/29/2007
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/3/5/150183.html

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