(Clearwisdom.net)

Below is the account of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the Harbin City 2nd Detention Center, in Heilongjiang Province, also known as Yaziquan, from 2007 to 2009, as told by a first-hand witness.

The witness was detained at the center for drug abuse and drug dealing and was ordered by the detention center police to torture practitioners. However, during her contact with the practitioners, she was moved by their kindness and integrity and she got to know the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution. She reports below what she had witnessed or participated in herself.

One day in 2007, I was with a few police officers carrying a female practitioner on a chair into the detention center. The practitioner shouted “Falun Dafa is good!” all the way along. Later, Zhao Fengxia, the on-duty detention center head locked her up alone in a big room and ordered several inmates to watch her and coerce her to give up her practice of Falun Gong. I was one of the inmates.

I later got to know that the practitioner's name was Fan Shude. She lived in Shuangcheng City. I could tell she was not just anyone and she must belong to the privileged and wealthy. I saw that she was cuffed and shackled with the cuffs and shackles chained together so that she could not stand up straight to walk. Her cuffs and shackles were extra-heavyweight, as well.

What I knew about Falun Gong was totally what I had learned from the propaganda on TV. I always wondered why so many wealthy people would practice Falun Gong. This practitioner was pretty magical. The detention center never turned off the lights and she did not have a watch. But she could somehow manage to go to bed at the same time other cells did and got up the at same time other cells did. And once she got up, she would shout “Falun Gong is good!” She also talked to other inmates about Falun Gong and why she practiced it.

As it was very inconvenient for her to use the toilet in the heavy cuffs and shackles, she would eat and drink very little. The detention center director ordered “the bit” to be put on her mouth in order to force-feed her. The bit was normally used on cattle and horses to keep their mouth open. After putting the bit into her mouth, several inmates including myself held her down and force-fed her with a thick mush of cornmeal mixed with lots of salt to make the victim thirsty. Each time she was force-fed, she was covered in blood by the time it was over. A few days later she was carried out of the detention center and taken to a forced labor camp.

Ms. Fan gave me a very deep impression. Despite the ill treatment from us, she did not hate us at all. One day, we brought a lot of quilts for her to do and she smiled with innocence, “Thank you for bringing so many quilts for me!” When the inmates beat her, she told them that she knew they were forced to do it. I was truly moved. After a few days of contact with her, I realized that Falun Gong was truly good to the contrary of what the CCP advertised in their propaganda.

Later on, another practitioner named Han Guilan was taken to and detained at the detention center for over a year. I was put in charge of allocating meals for inmates. I have seen multiple times the police giving pills to the other inmate in charge and ordering her to put them into Ms. Han's meals.

Another practitioner named Wang Fenglan was locked up in the strictly disciplined cell, i.e. cell 201. She was once interrogated for three days continuously, beaten, and force-fed mustard oil, which damaged her mouth and throat. Right after the interrogation, she lied down on her bed and could not move or eat at all.

In the detention center, it was commonplace for the police to curse at practitioners. Practitioners received the same ill treatment as the felons. Every morning someone would come to each cell to log how many practitioners were being detained in the cell.

Editor's note:

Ms. Fan Shude from Shaungcheng City worked for the Shuangcheng City Environmental Protection Bureau. Since 1999, she had been arrested four times by the CCP police. After one o'clock p.m. on August 1, 2007, she went to the Daowaixinyi Police Station in Harbin to deliver a letter with the intent to persuade people to be good. She was arrested there and later taken to Harbin City 2nd Detention Center, where she was tortured for 13 days. Then she was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor in Qianjin Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Han Guilan from Acheng District of Harbin had been persecuted for keeping up her practice of Falun Gong and talking to people about Falun Gong. On December 26, 2007, Ms. Han was arrested by police officers from the Songfeng Police Station and detained at the Harbin City 2nd Detention Center for a year. She was tortured at the detention center on a daily basis with various methods, including being forced to squad in the same painful position for an extended period of time, disallowed to use the toilet, forced standing for long periods of time, forced to recite the detention center regulations, and forced to take injection of unknown drugs.

Harbin City 2nd Detention Center (aka Yaziquan):

First Division: 86-451-84304176

Second Division: 86-451-84303215

Third Division: 86-451-84304573