Relatives of Mr. Dong Peng saw on a February 13, 2009 visit that he was in extremely poor condition. The prison authorities have refused to release him or provide further information on his medical condition and its possible causes.
The experiences of Ms. Zhang Yinglin and others at Masamjia during the Olympic period.
Mr. Dong Peng in Critical Condition in Hulan Prison
Mr. Dong Peng, a Falun Gong practitioner from Zhaodong City, Heilongjiang Province, was illegally sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He is incarcerated in Hulan Prison in Harbin City and has been tortured. The prison guards ordered the inmates to monitor him around the clock. He was frequently beaten, threatened, and forced to do a lot of physical labor. His chest is badly bruised and abraded. He is in critical condition.
On February 13, 2009, his family was told to visit him the next day. They were told to encourage him to "cooperate with the prison guards." To see his family oblige the guards in this way was another form of torture for Mr. Dong.
During the visit on February 14, Mr. Dong's parents, child, and other relatives saw that he was extremely weak. His hair had turned completely white even though he is only in his thirties. He was very thin and could not even get off the bed. His hands were shaking and his face was pale. He had difficulty breathing. He kept vomiting bile, and they saw many black and purple scars on his body.
His family asked the guards, "Mr. Dong was a very healthy person a short while ago, why does he look like this?" The guards said that he did not cooperate with them, so he was given shots. It would take four or five guards to hold him down to give him a shot. After the shots he suffered a lot as he was allergic to the "penicillin." His family asked to see an X-ray or CT scan. The guards refused the request, claiming that they didn't have permission from the warden. His family said that Mr. Dong's pain was more severe than it appeared. They asked if they could take him home and help him recover, but the guards said that all they could do was ask Mr. Dong to be more cooperative.
Dong Peng's wife, Ms. Yu Libo is also a practitioner. When the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong, officers from the Red Flag Police Station, Zhaodong City, hung a big board with her name on it around her neck, paraded her around, and put her on public display. Mr. Dong Peng's older brother, Dong Gang, and his wife were forced to accompany Ms. Yu while she was paraded around. Then Ms. Yu was taken back to her hometown, a county in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province. She was pregnant at the time.
Less than ten months after giving birth to her baby, Ms. Yu Libo was persecuted again for writing a letter to then-Major Sun Gang of Zhaodong City. In her letter, she described the physical and spiritual benefits she experienced from cultivating Falun Gong and said that she wished the government would realize the truth and stop persecuting Falun Gong. When she was detained in the Zhaodong City Detention Center, she was beaten, electrically shocked, and tortured with many torture implements including the Tiger Bench (please see /emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html for a detailed explanation of this torture). Her eyebrows and underarms were burned. She went on a hunger strike to protest the inhuman treatment she was being subjected to.
Ms. Yu has been imprisoned in the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison for more than eight years.
Mr. Dong Peng's parents are getting old, but they are still taking care of Mr. Dong's child.
Under coercion from the Red Flag Police Station, Mr. Dong Peng's brother,
Dong Gang, had to sever all contact with his father, who is also a practitioner.
Falun Gong Practitioners in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp Tortured During the Olympics
During the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp escalated.
Guards were transferred from the male labor camp to work on forcing practitioners to renounce Falun Gong. They used electric batons, hung practitioners using handcuffs, physically abused them, and made them to stand for long periods of time. They employed a military management style, forcing practitioners to stand in lines under the burning sun. The practitioners were ordered to practice yelling slogans, sing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and labor camp songs, and recite the thirty labor camp rules before and after each meal. If practitioners didn't cooperate, they were left in the burning sun or tortured. Some practitioners were tortured until they lost the ability to take care of themselves, became mentally unstable, had heart attacks, or were no longer able to stand. Some could move only one step at a time with the help of others.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday of 2008, practitioners in the 1st Ward shouted "Falun Dafa is good!" and "We wish Teacher a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!" in the dining hall at noon. The practitioner who lead the shouting, Ms. Lu Lin, 42, was dragged away by guards, slapped, and hung from an iron bunk bed by her handcuffs for more than three hours. Her face and hands were swollen and numb, but the guards still forced her to work.
On October 7, 2008, thirty practitioners in the 1st Ward refused to sign the monthly assessment paper. At 12:30 p.m. these practitioners were kept in their cell, then called to the office one by one. The office was full of guards, including Director Zhou from the superintendent's office, First Section instructor Li Mingyu, First Section warden Guan Lin, two from the education office, one named Peng Bo, 31, and an office chief surnamed Wang.
First the practitioners were threatened with beatings if they refused to sign a paper. Sounds of the guards yelling, electric baton shocks, screams, and practitioners crying, "Falun Dafa is good! It's a crime to persecute practitioners!" were constantly heard from the office. Some practitioners had sudden heart attacks from the electric shocks, and were carried out of the office on stretchers.
Six or seven practitioners firmly refused to sign the paper. Guards dragged them to Donggang Cell to subject them to the cruelest torture. They were forced to stand by the bunk bed with their stomachs pushed against the metal rails on the front of the bed. Their legs were bound together with rope and their wrists were handcuffed to the corner rails on the top bunk with only their toes touching the ground. They couldn't straighten their backs and they couldn't squat--their wrists took the full force of their entire bodyweight. It took only a few minutes before they were soaked with sweat, their hands swollen, black and purple. It was very painful. While they were hung, they were slapped, beaten, and shocked with electric batons. Their hair was pulled out and they were not allowed to eat or use the bathroom. They were hung until October 10, 2008. One of the practitioners, Ms. Zhang Yinglin, 52, was released only after she had a relapse of her previous illness. She was unable to eat for a few days, as she vomited everything she ate. Due to the long periods of stretching and hanging, the practitioners' muscle tissues were badly injured. They couldn't straighten up, they could barely walk, and their bodies were swollen and black and blue. Their hands looked very big due to swelling and were covered in bruises and pus. Some practitioners' arms were dislocated, and they could not raise them even to dress.
Only twenty days after the torture, Ms. Zhang Yinglin was forced to work. She didn't even have the ability to take care of her physical needs, and others needed to help her to dress. Ms. Zhang is still detained in the 1st Ward of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.
Due to physical and mental torture, Ms. Qi Zhenhong became mentally unstable. Her body was swinging uncontrollably, her tongue often stuck out of her mouth, and she couldn't talk properly. Her family was finally allowed to take her home due to her condition.
The guards involved in this persecution include Li Mingyu, Zhang Chunguang, Gao Luan, Zhao Jinhua, Guan Lin, a clerk surnamed Zhai, a warden surnamed Chen, and others.