Detained in a Brainwashing Center after Her Forced Labor Sentence Ends

(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Yun, 53, is a practitioner from Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. Ms. Zhang is a former first-class superintendent of the Hebei Province Luquan Prison. Her two-year forced labor sentence ended on August 24, 2008. Even though she was very weak, the local officials transferred her to the Hebei Province Capital City Brainwashing Center, claiming it was necessary to maintain security during the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
After the persecution of Falun Gong began, Ms. Zhang was severely tortured simply because she persisted in her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She has been detained, beaten, suffered brainwashing attempts, and sentenced to forced labor, where she was tortured to near death.

Soon after the persecution began on July 20, 1999, officials of the Hebei Province Luquan Prison placed her under round-the-clock surveillance both at work and at home, and she was arrested and detained in the Shijiazhuang City Detention Center.

In April 2001, local police arrested Ms. Zhang and sentenced her to one year of forced labor. She was taken to the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labor Camp. Since she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was transferred to Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City, Hebei Province. At Kaiping Labor Camp, she was subjected to brainwashing attempts and was brutally tortured. She was left out in the cold and the burning sun and was deprived of sleep, shocked with electric batons, and tied up with ropes. She lost consciousness several times while she was being tortured.

In April 2002, when Ms. Zhang's term expired, she was taken to the Luquan City Brainwashing Center and detained four additional months .

On August 8, 2002, she was transferred again to the Hebei Province Capital City Brainwashing Center and was again tortured. She was deprived of sleep for six nights in a row. She was so exhausted that she lost her balance and fell down hard, knocking out her front teeth. She was pinched viciously on her arms, causing severe bruising. Five collaborators forced her to drink an excessive amount of strong liquor. The brainwashing center officials attempted many ways to either force her or trick her into writing a statement renouncing Falun Gong, but she refused.

On August 25, 2006, officials from the Luquan City 610 Office sent over a dozen people to Ms. Zhang's workplace to arrest her. She was sentenced to two years of forced labor and taken to the 5th Division of the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labor Camp.

To protest the persecution she staged a hunger strike that lasted nearly a month. This left her very weak and unable to get out of bed by herself. She asked that the charges against her be dismissed and that she be released. She refused to wear a labor camp uniform or to allow her hair to be cut short. With her strong righteous mind, efforts to force her to renounce Falun Gong ended, and she was told, "We could not transform you."

On May 1, 2007, Ms. Zhang staged another hunger strike that lasted for 15 days. On May 16, 2007, the camp officials sent her to the Hebei Province Hospital. She was forced to have an infusion and was told that it was very nutritious. After the first day of the IV, her feet started to swell and she began vomiting. Five days later, she became weaker and weaker, started to feel dizzy, and had difficulty breathing. Her feet were too swollen to wear shoes. It was discovered that the infusion contained medication for heart disease. Because Ms. Zhang did not have heart disease, the medication caused rapid heart rate. The labor camp officials had forced her to have three checkups and none of them indicated that she had heart disease. Apparently, the camp officials used the infusion as a form of torture. Her release was denied because she didn't have a "serious illness."

Many practitioners from Shijiazhuang City and its surrounding areas have been detained in the Hebei Province Capital City Brainwashing Center. Local officials declared they would be released after the Paralympic Games.

Related perpetrators:

Hebei Province Capital City Brainwashing Center, 476 Taihua Street, Shijiazhuang City
Yuan Shuqian, police chief: 86-13931191050 (Cell)
Qi Hongshang, police officer
Collaborators Liang Ziling, Wang Hua, Wu Yuxia, Lu (given name unknown), and Yang (given name unknown)
Liang Jianbin, director of the Shijiazhuang City 610 Office: 86-311-85804135 (Home), 86-13653312118 (Cell)

Shijiazhuang Luquan Detention Center:
Wang Quanwen, director: 86-311-82185218 (Office), 86-311-82108805 (Home), 86-13803366935 (Cell)
Du Bin, deputy director: 86-311-82108115 (Office), 86-311-82015883 (Home), 86-13603211292 (Cell)

Chengguan Police Department:
Ji Yongxin, director: 86-311-82189998 (Office), 86-311-82010999 (Home), 86-13803368999 (Cell)
Zhang Weige, deputy director: 86-311-82108705 (Office), 86-13933116629 (Cell)
Shen Lixin, director of Luquan City 610 Office

September 2, 2008

Posting date: 9/19/2008
Original article date: 9/19/2008
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/9/3/185229.html