Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yang Jusheng, 67, was an employee of the Shuangfeng County Food Company in Hunan Province. She was forcibly taken to the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp twice. The first time was in 2001-2002, and her original term was one year, but it was extended to two years because Ms. Yang refused to accept brainwashing. Guards Ding Cailan and Yin Bin encouraged drug-addict prisoners to curse and brutally beat her many times. The second forced labor term was from April 19, 2004 to March 9, 2006. She endured cruel torture during this period as well.

Because Ms. Yang firmly refused to write the three statements renouncing Falun Gong, she was punished by being forced to stand upright from 9:00 p.m. on September 14, 2004 to 8:00 a.m. the next morning. She was not allowed to move one bit during those 13 hours, otherwise a prisoner would punch and kick her. Her large intestine became misaligned with her rectum from standing so long and from being beaten. Camp nurse Lu Yongzhen (female, wife of Deputy Camp Head Zhao Guibao) diagnosed her and discovered that several inches of her intestine had become misaligned with her rectum, and she was bleeding badly. Guards did not allow her to wash or change at 8:00 a.m. Instead, they continued torturing her by forcing her to squat with her hands on her legs and her feet close together, and she was forced to keep this position for six whole days. She was not even allowed to stand up when eating. Her legs and feet were in extreme pain, but if she moved even a slight bit, she would be beaten severely. Guard Yuan Jia at one point said that Ms. Yang did not sit in the correct position, so she kicked her very hard and said that if Ms. Yang died, it would be less important than a dog's death.

When Ms. Yang made a slight noise from the terrible pain, drug addict prisoner Wang Fang took off her socks and stuffed them in Ms. Yang's mouth. Ms. Yang could not straighten her neck due to being so severely beaten, and she could not squat steadily because she felt dizzy. She fell many times. Ms. Yang was not allowed to use the toilet for long periods of time and had to hold back her bowel functions.

Another torture method used on Ms. Yang Jusheng was 13 days of sleep deprivation, where she was not even allowed to close her eyes. She closed her eyes once because she was too tired, and guard Yuan Jia ordered a drug addict prisoner to hit her eyes more than one hundred times.

After the prolonged torture, Ms. Yang's feet were severely injured. The bottoms of her feet turned purple, the skin on her feet peeled, and her legs were in terrible pain. She could not feel her feet, especially her right foot, which could not flex. She had to walk by dragging her right foot and had a severe limp. She fell so much that her head was covered with bumps. She reported the torture to the Baimalong court, but she received no answer.

From September 3-27, 2004, the camp authorities formed an "attack team," using 70 guards and 130 drug addict prisoners. The team was divided to five "attack cells." They were aimed at firm Falun Gong practitioners. The main officers in charge of the team were the Camp CCP Discipline Secretary Zhao Jinyue (male), Education Office Head Gong Chaolian (male), Management Office Deputy Head Wang Huansheng, General Office Head Ren Fujun, Seventh Ward Head Yuan Lihua (female), and Deputy Head Zheng Xia (female).

When Ms. Yang was sent to the "attack team" for the second time, she was forced to remain standing for 12 entire days while guards and prisoners took turns torturing her, causing her to pass out several times and resulting in severe injuries.

Ms. Yang was released on March 9, 2006.

After returning home, she could not eat anything due to the severe torture in the labor camp. She died in November 2006.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/18/155088.html

On April 10 and 12, 2007, father and daughter Mr. Miao Shubao and Ms. Miao Chunyan were arrested. On April 17, 2007, the Yantai City 610 Office arrested another six practitioners:

Ms. Sun Yuhua, 61, is a retiree and a family member of a deputy military commander in Yantai City.

Ms. Sun Guolan, 63, was once sent to a forced labor camp in 2001 for practicing Falun Gong.

Mr. Shi Bo, 33, is a leather worker and team lead in Yantai City. He was married just three months ago and his wife is pregnant.

Mr. Yu Haiyong, 36, is computer network engineer at Jinfeng Network Information Ltd. in Yantai City, and was once a high school chemistry teacher in Haiyang City. In 2001, he was sentenced to two years of forced labor for practicing Falun Gong.

Ms. Wang Xuemei, 35, was previously a high school teacher in Haiyang City. In 2001, she was sentenced to two years of forced labor because she practices Falun Gong. She now works at an eyeglass shop in Yantai City.

Yu Wenzheng, 7, is the son of Ms. Wang Xueme and a pupil of Class 1, Grade 2 at Tasha Elementary School.

After Sun Yuhua, Sun Guolan, Shi Bo, Yu Haiyong, Miao Shubao and Miao Chunyan were arrested, they were all sent to the brainwashing center of Zhifu District, Yantai City located in Xingfu Court 3, Xingfu Village 16. It is still unknown where Wang Xuemei and her son Yu Wenzheng are being detained. Some have said that on April 17, 2007, both were taken away by Haiyang City Police Department. Yu Wenzheng was forced to drop out of school.

Gao Xiu, an agent for the Yantai City 610 Office, was the main perpetrator who coordinated the arrests of the practitioners. They first arrested Miao Chunyan and used violent methods to force her to disclose information about other practitioners.

At the brainwashing center, Liu Guoyao is in charge of persecuting the practitioners, along with some full time staff members and Liu Xiu'e and Mou. Other part-time staff members on duty were temporarily transferred from the police department and the neighborhood committee. There are two other similar brainwashing centers in Yantai City located in Fushan District and Laishan District, respectively. The number of practitioners detained in these brainwashing centers, police stations and detention centers are unknown.

Practitioner Ms. Sun Yuhua held a hunger strike for eight days to protest her illegal arrest and demanded to be unconditionally released. As a result, Liu Guoyao, Liu Xiu'e, and an on-duty official named Xing forcefully pried open Mr. Sun's mouth and cruelly force-fed her, causing her to moan in pain and one of her teeth to come loose.

There are many different types of clothes stored in a room at the brainwashing center, including pants, shoes and socks that belonged to practitioners of different ages and genders. Some are old, while others are new. Some are also kept under the beds. These items were left behind by practitioners who were persecuted at the brainwashing center. This could only mean that some practitioners were taken away from the brainwashing center without any notice and thus they did not have enough time to pack all their belongings. It is said that several hundred practitioners have been detained here, even before 2002.

On May 3, 2007, many people witnessed an incident that occurred outside the Xingfu Brainwashing Center. At around 1:00 to 2:00 a.m., some practitioners tried to escape by jumping out of the brainwashing center's third story window. Two older women did not get up after they jumped and fell onto the ground. It is possible that they were Sun Guolan and Sun Yuhua. It is not known if they are still alive. The Yantai 610 Office has blocked any information from getting out to the public. As a result, it has been difficult for the practitioners' family to obtain any information about this incident.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/8/154322.html

My name is Liu Deqin. I have been working in Germany since July 2003.

On June 30, 2003, I obtained my visa to go to Germany. When I got the visa mailed from the German Embassy, I found that the mail had been opened.

In July 2003, members of the 610 Office talked to me. The main point was to demand that I become an informant and spy by taking pictures and monitoring the activities of Falun Gong in Germany. I kept silent during the talk, thinking that I would not do those things. I booked an airline ticket and left China as soon as I could.

On July 27, 2003, I arrived safely at Berlin, Germany. When I called home to China several days later, the line did not sound right. After dialing, there was a message like it was phone directory assistance, saying that the number you dialed was not activated. It was confirmed later that my home phone in China was being monitored.

In late August 2003, my cell phone rang at noon one day. The incoming number had a prefix 0086, which is the international dialing code for China. The call was from Zhao, an agent from the Ministry of State Security in China. My wife was the only one who had my German cell phone number. So I asked how she got my number. She said they had ways of finding it and asked me to work for them. I rejected the offer and hung up. After that, I simply hung the phone up when I saw the number. After several unanswered calls, they stopped calling. It might be that I had nothing which they could use to blackmail me. So when I rejected them, they had to give up.

I had kept this incident a secret since I did not accept their request. But now I realize that this is an aspect of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong and should be exposed. 

 Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/12/154597.html

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Hu Yuanzhen is 64 years old. She lives in Shiqiao Township in Jianyang City, Sichuan Province. On March 15, 2006, while she was clarifying the facts about Falun Gong along with four other practitioners, over ten police officers  arrested them.

Since the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Ms. Hu and her family have been subject to constant persecution. Her husband, practitioner Mr. Li Guocai, was "illegally sentenced" to three years in prison in May 2005 and is in Wumaping Prison in Leshan City, Muchuan County. Mr. Li Guocai's sixth older sister, Ms. Li Mengshu, is near 70 years old. She was arrested along with Ms. Hu on March 15, 2006. The Jianyang City Police Department is planning to sentence them. Li Mengshu's husband, Mr. Wu Tianhui, couldn't handle such tragedy and died on April 22, 2007.

Ms. Hu Yuanzhen's children and Ms. Li Mengshu's family members are grief stricken. Hu Yuanzhen's two daughters, Li Yu and Li Chi, have appealed to the concerned organizations to demand their mother's immediate release. The following is a summary of their appeal letter:

"Our mother, Hu Yuanzhen, had many illnesses before she started practicing Falun Gong. Her stepfather had mentally mistreated her since childhood and she had thus developed mental problems. If something bad happened to her, she would immediately become dizzy and her eyesight blurry and she wouldn't even be able to tell directions. In addition, she had suffered severe rheumatic diseases and had all-over body pain and numbness in her limbs. Due to the illnesses, she was very weak and agitated and often fought with her husband.

"In August 1998, our father underwent surgeries for his severe kidney stones. After he practiced Falun Gong for two months, his health greatly improved, so he introduced Falun Gong to our mother, but she didn't practice until October 1998. In a very short time all of her illnesses disappeared. Through practicing Falun Gong she not only improved physically but also mentally. She no longer fought with our father and began thinking of others first. She followed the principles of 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance' to conduct herself. Our family was harmonious.

"On March 15, 2007, our mother was arrested by police officers from the Yangma Police Station and Jianyang City National Security Team. The police broke into our younger brother Li Taiwei's home in the afternoon and ransacked it, violating the constitution of the People's Republic of China.

"Our father, Li Guocai, was sentenced to three years in prison in May 2005. And now our 64-year-old mother has been illegally arrested and detained.

"People in China and around the world know that it was Jiang Zemin who wanted to suppress Falun Gong. Freedom of belief is an inviolable human right!

"We demand respect for human rights and the immediate release of our aged mother."

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/13/154685.html

The Harbin Women's Prison of Heilongjiang Province brutally tortures Falun Gong practitioners. The prison transfers the practitioners who steadfastly resist the persecution to the 11^th and 12^th wards, which are referred to as "the wards for attacking determined practitioners" by the guards. The 11^th ward is on the fourth floor of the newly-built cafeteria building; the 12^th ward is on the fourth floor of the hospital building. The 11^th and 12^th wards are sealed off from the outside and inmates are not allowed to talk to each other while there.

The guards have selected many notorious criminal inmates to monitor practitioners. Practitioners are also not allowed to make purchases in the prison store; their money are in possession of the monitors. If practitioners do not cooperate they are brutally beaten and verbally abused. The guards do not directly communicate with practitioners, they communicate through the criminal inmates. If the monitors are not monitoring the practitioners, their merit scores are reduced. The inmates therefore beat or abuse practitioners regularly to show that they are "on the job."

The guards prohibit practitioners from sleeping day and night and assign several inmates to watch each practitioner, and then abuse other practitioners in turn. Practitioners are not allowed to talk or sit down on a bed. If the practitioners sit down with their eyes closed, they are beaten. Practitioners are made to sit on a small stool in front of monitors from morning to night.

The guards specifically transfer the practitioners with long prison terms to the 11^th and 12^th wards. There, the practitioners' lives are threatened every day.

In October 2006, practitioner Ms. Sun Fengjie from Shuangyashan City was transferred to the 2^nd ward. One prison cell held 12 inmates, two of whom were practitioners.

Ms. Wang Hongzhou, a practitioner from Hailin City, Heilongjiang Province, was in good health on the day before she was transfered. On the day after the transfer, she began vomiting blood and appeared disoriented. She could not talk when she met other people and was sent to the emergency room for treatment.

Ms. Qin Shuzhen, a practitioner from Shuangyashan City, is detained in the 11^th ward and is subjected to mistreatment.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/12/154619.html

In November and December of 2005, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Mr. Manfred Nowak visited China to investigate human rights abuses. Xinjiang was one of the areas he toured. During his stay in Xinjiang, the prison and judicial system, especially the Fifth Prison, where Falun Gong practitioners were detained in large numbers, used all kinds of false evidence in an attempt to deceive Mr. Nowak (although Mr. Nowak eventually did not actually visit the Fifth Prison). Before Mr. Nowak's planned visit, the detention centers and prisons put on a show. Instead of treating prisoners brutally and giving them very little food, they provided decent food and treated prisoners in a humanitarian manner. As soon as the Special Rapporteur left Xinjiang, they reverted back to their usual ways.

The Fifth Prison of Xinjiang established a "Reception Period Work Group" just to prepare for this potential visit of the U.N. Special Rapporteur. The heads of each ward were assembled to falsify evidence. Each prison ward selected some inmates to be "trained," making them memorize lies to answer questions that Nowak might ask. For example, the inmates were trained to say that they worked only eight hours a day, even though in reality, they worked more than 10 hours a day. They were required to lie and say that their daily meals met the food standard. The prison was overcrowded, but the inmates were required say that there was no overcrowding. To keep the number of prisoners seemingly low, the beds of some prisoners were put in storage, and these prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor at night. They also picked a number of prisoners to pretend to play games during the day, in order to make it seem as though the prison was a peaceful place.

The most absurd of all, they moved the prisoners who they thought would be hard to control to places outside of the prison. The "Agriculture Team" was a group of prisoners who were sent to the fields to do labor. Some other prisoners were hidden in a small room in a wood furniture factory, and they were called the "Sweater Team."

Falun Gong practitioner Chen Yujiang had been on a hunger strike since he was put in the Fifth Prison at the end of 2005. He had rejected all of the requests by the authorities, and said "Falun Dafa is great" at every opportunity. Because he refused to be force-fed, the guards knocked out several of his front teeth to insert a tube. In spring and summer of 2006, the prison moved Chen to solitary confinement. They put shackles on his wrists and ankles, and made him sit on a tiger bench, which is a concrete stool to which a person's hands and feet are fastened so that the person could not move at all. However, such torture did not shake Chen Yujiang's faith. The guards were shocked. Chen often shouted out "Falun Dafa is great," "Give me back my freedom," and "Stop the persecution." People going in and out of the gate of the prison often could hear his voice.

During Mr. Nowak's visit to Xinjiang, the prison also moved Chen Yujiang, who had been on a hunger strike for over one year and had been force-fed, to the Air Force Hospital for "treatment." They tried to conceal the move. As soon as Mr. Nowak left Urumqi City in Xinjiang Province, they moved Chen back to the prison, where Chen is still currently detained. Their fraudulent acts were condemned by many prisoners.

Many detainees and prisoners are eyewitnesses to these acts. By comparing the normal situation in labor camps and prisons with the conditions when Mr. Nowak was visiting, it was easy to see that the Chinese Communist Party was trying to deceive the United Nations and the world.

Falun Gong practitioner Yan Weihong has been on a hunger strike and refused to cooperate with the prison guards since he was taken to the Fifth Prison in July 2006. He actually has been on a hunger strike for longer than that, since he was first arrested by police from Manasi Police Station in Xinjiang.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/14/154745.html

In 2002, Dr. Li Aijun, a physician at Xiyuan Hospital in Beijing, was sentenced to nine years in prison for practicing Falun Gong. She has already served five years in the Tiantanghe Women's Prison in Beijing.

Dr. Li was a physician in internal medicine in Xiyuan Hospital's inpatient department. Before she began practicing Falun Gong, she was a frail individual who frequently became ill. After she began practicing Falun Gong, however, she became healthy and energetic. She strictly conducted herself according to the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." While each of the other doctors in her section cared for only three patients, Dr. Li cared for nine, and she never asked for additional compensation. Both the hospital staff and the patients praised her highly for her dedication and her noble medical ethics.

By late 2000, however, Dr. Li was forced to leave her job and was homeless for over a year in order to avoid the persecution.

In early 2002, police spotted Dr. Li and arrested her. She was sentenced to nine years in prison, and also formally dismissed by her employer.

Since her imprisonment, Dr. Li has been unable to care for her elderly parents or her son, a high school student. Her husband works hard every day, but he has no one to look after him. Dr. Li's heavy prison sentence has brought severe emotional trauma as well as economic loss to her family.

Reports indicate that other Falun Gong practitioners currently held in the Beijing Women's Prison include Ms. Chu Dan, a graduate student from Qinghua University, who was sentenced to eleven years, as well as Ms. Zhou Zi, a model teacher from the Fangshan District, and four government officials, including Ms. He Xinping, Ms. Xu Jing, Ms. Liu Yi, and Ms. Chen Shulan. Their sentences range from five to eight years.

The guards at the Beijing Women's Prison often beat practitioners with impunity. Ms. Zhou protested her mistreatment and has been on a hunger strike since February 26, 2007. Fifty-nine days have elapsed as of April 25.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/9/154401.html