A Letter to Judges and Lawyers in Various Countries from Ms. Wang Yuzhi, Who Suffered Brutal Persecution in China for Practicing Falun Gong
By Wang Yuzhi
Respected Judges and Lawyers, I would like to tell you about the great harm that I have personally
suffered. Please help me to obtain justice. I used to be in an unfortunate situation. I was robbed of the basic rights to
freedom of speech, freedom of belief and the freedom of seeking legal
protection. Nightmares from the terrors I experienced frequently wake me up in
the middle of the night. Horrifying torture devices and chilling cries for help
still echo in my mind. But compared to those who are still suffering in China, to those who lost
their lives for their beliefs, I am considered lucky. I came to Canada alive.
Canada is a peaceful, friendly and beautiful country. I thank the Canadian
government and citizens for saving me. I find it difficult to remain silent. I felt compelled to write this for the
sake of my human dignity, for the sake of those who may lose their lives any
minute now, and for the sake of bringing the murderer who is solely responsible
for this crisis to justice. Respectable lawyers, below is my story. You will be able to see the evil
nature of Jiang Zemin in the story. Please help me and other innocent people to
uphold justice. Firstly, I would like to explain my background. This will help you understand
more about me. Bitter times of growing up I was born in Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province, China on December 31st
1956. When I was fifteen, the Cultural Revolution was happening. It was an era
that drove countless people crazy. My father was imprisoned because he expressed
dissatisfaction with the Cultural Revolution and interpersonal struggles
instigated by the people in power. He was charged with being an
anti-revolutionary. All of the valuable goods in our home were confiscated.
There was a family picture of my father's uncle with Russian friends. Solely
because of this photo, my father was framed for committing the crime of
"secretly communicating with foreign countries". With a board hung
around his neck reading "anti-revolution" and "secretly
communicating with foreign countries", he was dragged through the streets
on a parade of public humiliation. My mother took care of the eight children by herself. There was no stable
income for the family, but we still needed to deliver food to my father who was
imprisoned. Feeling angry about what my father had suffered, my mother fell sick
and couldn't do anything except lie on her bed. My elder brothers, both of whom
were sixteen years old, had to undertake back-breaking manual labor on the shore
of the Song-Hua River to support the whole family. At the age of fifteen, I had
to cook for the whole family. Whenever I delivered food to the prison, being the one who took charge of
cooking, I always tried hard to save the best part of the already deplorable
food, and give it to my Father. Every time when I saw the love and perseverance
emanating from my Father's face and eyes behind the prison bars, I felt joyous
even though life was very tough. In 1976, the Gang of Four was overthrown, and the National Advanced
Examination System was reinstated. Both of my elder brothers and my younger
sister became freshmen that year. The fact that three university freshmen came
from the same poor family caused a great sensation at that time. A prosperous middle age 1979 was a lucky year in my life. The electronics company that I was working
for indicated their willingness to pay the tuition fees for me to study at
university. After graduation, I continued to work as a technical engineer in the
same company. When this company went out of business in 1989, I started to
establish my own computer company using the experience and money accumulated in
the past. At the same time, the company also handled business and office
supplies. Back then, computers were not popular in China. I was one of the few
who earned a lot of money from the computer business in the early days. From
there, I expanded my enterprise step by step. Practicing Falun Gong and regaining physical health Because of business relationships, a customer gave me a copy of Zhuan
Falun in 1998. The moment I picked up this book, I had no idea how
drastically my life would change. Before this, I suffered from several illnesses, including frequent headaches
and swelling, feeling dizzy while reading, and being unable to walk normally. My
legs felt so heavy, it was like sand bags were tied to them. Most noticeably,
there was an odd trouble: from time to time, my legs could not move, as if they
were clamped down by something. Sometimes it happened right in the middle of
visits to customers. When it came, I could not take a single step. Even lifting
my legs was impossible. The only thing I could do was to sit on the ground and
rest for about ten minutes until the legs recovered by themselves. Neither
western therapy nor Chinese medicine could cure me. However, it was only three
months after I started to practice Falun Gong when the symptoms disappeared. I
experienced the wonderfulness of being illness-free. Falun Gong saved me! The reason why I started practicing Falun Gong wasn't solely because this
cultivation practice cured my illness. From bitter childhood to my prosperous
middle age, I have experienced too much misery. Whenever I calmed down, put
aside the things in my life, and looked deep into my heart, I always saw an
exhausted self. When I opened the Falun Gong book, the first chapter clearly taught me that
Falun Dafa is a cultivation practice of the Buddha school. Practitioners ought
to cultivate their character in accordance with
"Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance", moving toward higher levels. I
was pleasantly surprised by the realm of
"Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance". Although I did not understand
in the past what it meant to believe in Buddha, I did know the culture of
cultivation had existed for a long time in Chinese history. In other words, I
did not consider cultivation to be superstitious. Deep inside my heart, I felt
fortunate that I could have the opportunity to come across a true cultivation
practice of Buddha. Ever since then, I studied the books of Falun Gong and did cultivation
exercises with the friends whom I knew from our local exercise practice site.
Cultivation practice started cleaning away my attachments accumulated in
ordinary society. My mind and body reached unprecedented health and harmony. At
that time, I felt my fatigued life become more and more pleasant and truthful. The decay of the environment As Falun Gong spread to people all over China, nobody could imagine that this
man, Jiang Zemin, who held the highest position at the seat of government,
Zhongnanhai, would generate an overwhelming persecution campaign by resorting to
his own power and will. On July 20th 1999, the persecution against Falun Gong
began. At that time, the number of Falun Dafa practitioners in China exceeded 70
million people. In the blink of an eye, these 70 million people, including
myself, became "enemies of the people". Since then, I have experienced the most terrible nightmare in my life. I was
arrested and was imprisoned in a "hell on earth" three times. Laws Are Completed Ignored by the Dictator in China Falun Gong taught me the principles of being a human being. In daily life, I
conduct myself according to the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion,
and Forbearance". I look inside myself whenever there is a conflict. I
cultivate Falun Gong and maintain a righteous mindset. I trade fairly and deal
with people peacefully. I. Detention for Appealing I know that the persecution of Falun Gong by China's regime is illegal.
Article 41 of the Chinese constitution says: "Citizens of China enjoy the
right to criticize or complain to any level of the administration or to public
officers." During the Spring Festival in 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal
according to the rights granted to me by the Constitution. On Tiananmen Square,
policemen beat me with their fists and kicked me with their boots. I was forced
into a police van. Later, my hands were cuffed and I was taken by train to
Harbin. The local police ransacked my home, kidnapped me and took me to the local
police station. The police chief tried to force me to write a statement
guaranteeing that I would not go to Beijing and appeal. Since I was not in the
wrong, I firmly refused. I didn't write anything that was contrary to my
conscience. The police chief then asked me to hand in 20,000Yuan as
"bail" for my release. My family and I firmly refused to pay. The
police chief pointed a gun at one of my family members. The people around said
that the police were worse than bandits and that Falun Gong is great! Realizing that he could not squeeze anything out of us, the police chief
said, "I am only obeying the orders of Jiang Zemin. Falun Gong is a (slanderous
word deleted) and you are an adherent. I can torture you to death and your
family can sue Jiang." Thus, he cuffed me and detained me unjustly. In the
detention centre, I was forced to sit on the ground and prohibited from moving
my legs or body. I wasn't allowed to speak. Over 20 people were squeezed in a
room of 15 square meters. A big screen TV was hung in the prison to play
programs defaming Falun Gong. We were forced to watch the lies. We were forced
to look straight at the TV in order to subvert our thinking. Every day, the
discipline officer came to ask me to change my mind and to give up Falun Gong
practice. I was scolded and tortured for defending the actions of my comrades
who all refused to sign anything. If I refused to recite the prison disciplinary
rules, I would be made to stand 24 hours a day, and I was not allowed to go to
the bathroom. At night, I felt sleepy but if I closed my eyes, the inmates
surrounding me pushed me and beat me. My cheeks were swollen, my legs were
swollen, and my heels ached from prolonged standing. It was painful. Every day,
the disciplinary officer would come and ask me to change my mind and give up
Falun Gong. They could do nothing to break my clear mind. To persecute more
Falun Gong practitioners, they isolated all the steadfast practitioners. I was
isolated for 7 days before being released. At the time I was released I could
not walk properly. II. Arrested for Printing Truth-Clarifying Materials On July 15 2000, I was arrested while printing materials that revealed the
truth about the persecution of Falun Gong. Article 35 of the Chinese
constitution says: "Citizens enjoy the freedoms of speech, publication,
gathering and association." However, Jiang Zemin's power is above the law.
It's as though the laws and citizens' rights don't count when it comes to Falun
Gong. Lawyers are not permitted to defend Falun Gong practitioners. The evil
police beat me with their fists and boots. My cheeks were swollen and my whole
arm, including my hand, would not move. My body was covered with blue and
purplish bruises. The rims of my eyes were black. The evil police forced me to
sign my name on the arrest warrant and to admit my guilt. I refused to obey any
instructions, requests or orders. Thus, the police forced me into a detention
centre. I was shut in a damp, dark room without any sunlight and forced to sit
on the floor in the same position without moving an inch. The meals I ate were
made of coarse grain. I was surrounded by inmates such as drug traffickers,
pimps and thieves. At night, I was packed with these inmates into the prison
cell. I had to sleep sideways, pressed tightly against them. I couldn't breathe
in a normal fashion. I couldn't understand why a person who conducted herself
according to the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and
Forbearance" was being tortured by these inmates nor why we had to be
forced to watch so much propaganda. Good and evil were reversed in this place.
Did the police and disciplinary officers want to "transform" good
people into bad ones? Although they released me 14 days later, they constantly
monitored me and harassed me, making me live under the constant threat of
terror. Wanted for a Reward of 50,000 Yuan In October 2000, I printed 10,000 flyers that discussed the following points: 1) Ten crimes committed by Jiang Zemin during his illegal campaign to
eradicate Falun Gong, 2) Jiang Zemin must be held accountable. 3) Jiang Zemin is the chief culprit in the persecution of Falun Gong. These flyers caused a big stir in my local area. The police department
considered me to be their most important case. This case even caught the
attention of the secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee, Luo Gan. I
was placed on the most-wanted list at the Police Office. My picture and name
were posted everywhere with an offer of 50,000 Yuan as a cash reward for
information leading to my arrest. My family members were under surveillance and
harassed. I was forced to live on the streets. I was on the most wanted list for the 9 months following November 2000. They
wasted a lot of money but failed to capture me. First, they started with my
neighborhood and posted my name and picture on telegraph and electricity poles.
Whoever provided clues would be awarded 50,000 Yuan. They followed orders from
higher authorities to take money from the national treasury to persecute Falun
Gong. One day in November 2000, I saw over ten policemen light up my home with
search lights. I went out of my house, walked around their positions and evaded
capture. I learned later that they kept three police cars parked in front of my
house at all times. Over ten armed policemen took turns guarding my home 24
hours a day with search lights to illuminate the surroundings of my house as if
they were after a formidable enemy. It was a bitter cold winter with the North
wind blowing. Those policemen lived in luxury hotels. When I fled to Liaoning
Province, the policemen tracked me to my relatives' house and hid outside to
capture me. They spent large sums of money to search for me everywhere. They
were worn out because they had spent such a long time searching for me. They
asked the local policemen to search for me too. The local police didn't want to
give up because they would also be heavily rewarded for capturing me. They
searched for me everywhere they could think of. What was even more outrageous was that my 12-year-old son also became
homeless. I spent several days making arrangements for my son to enroll in a
private school in a suburb of Dalian city. Unfortunately, my phone conversations
were tapped by the police and they found out that my son was in this private
school. Thus, the police cars went to the school twice a week trying to capture
me at the school gate. My son was subsequently forced to quit school and became
homeless. The teachers at the school asked me: "So many policemen came to
see your child. Are your relatives police officers?" I was illegally detained three times, and one million Yuan was spent
investigating a false case In order to pay for living expenses, on July 16 2001 I went to a bank to
withdraw some money. I was recognized and reported to the police. Falsely
accused of "conspiring with anti-China forces abroad", I was arrested
and thrown into jail. The Public Security Department of Heilongjiang Province
sent more than 20 people. They broke into my relative's home and stole my
deposit certificate of US$150,000. They also took my computer and cell phone for
their own personal use, and they froze my bank account. They even tortured and
interrogated my family to get a confession. Jiang Zemin attracts corrupt thugs with taxpayers' hard-earned money. During
the time I was illegally detained, someone reported me and my brother, who
doesn't practice Falun Gong, claiming we conspired with Falun Gong abroad to get
hundreds of thousands of US dollars and took part in Falun Gong activities in
China. The report was sent directly to the Public Security Ministry in Beijing,
which shocked the Heilongjiang provincial government and the "610
Office" [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with
absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other
political and judiciary systems]. It was listed as the second most important
Falun Gong case in China by the Public Security Ministry and Liu Jing, the head
of the Public Security Ministry in charge of investigating the case. The central
and local government spent large amounts of money, resources and manpower to
relentlessly investigate my whole family. All of my family members are
law-abiding citizens and they have nothing to do with Falun Gong activities.
They don't practice Falun Gong. The money I used to make flyers to reveal the
truth in China came out of my personal savings and had nothing to do with
foreign powers. I heard from my relatives in another city that spies followed them for
several months. The spies even looked through their trash in hopes of finding
something suspicious. My relatives came under watch by the government
immediately after they returned to China, and spies followed them everywhere
they went. When they could no longer stand it, my relatives went to the local
police department and confronted the police, saying, "Why pick on us like
this? Why persecute us so unreasonably?" They tried to clarify the facts to
them. The tremendous pressure my family endured during that half-year caused great
harm and loss to their business and state of well-being. More than 40 telephones
belonging to my family and relatives were tapped. The investigation lasted more
than five months and it even extended overseas to the foreign country where my
mother lives. My 74-year-old mother was forced to clarify the facts to the
police many times. Six months later, it was proven that the report was an
attempt to frame me. In order to achieve his personal goal to "annihilate
Falun Gong", Jiang abused the government's resources. More than one million
Yuan was spent on investigating my case, and this can be verified through the
accounts kept by Harbin City Police Department. Jiang squanders taxpayers' money
to persecute the innocent and ignores cases of serious crime. This one million
Yuan could have helped many workers who have lost their jobs. Force-feeding and brutal torture I was detained for the third time at No. 2 Detention Centre in Harbin City.
They didn't allow me to see a lawyer and there was no formal trial. No arrest
warrant or notice was shown and I was deprived of all my personal freedom and
rights. I was given only half a bowl of filthy porridge that resembled pig feed every
day. At the bottom of the bowl was a layer of sand. I was not allowed to go to
the restroom. In order to recover my health, I needed to do Falun Gong
exercises, but they beat and cursed me. Several times they strangled me until I
passed out. I am a good person and have not committed any crimes, yet I was
thrown into a hell on earth. I didn't want to tolerate any more of this inhumane
persecution, so I held a hunger strike and demanded my unconditional release. In China, the law is simply trampled on. I was deprived of my right to live.
I suffered tremendously during the hunger strike in order to awaken the police
who were deceived by Jiang Zemin's brainwashing. Force-feeding is a very brutal
form of torture used in the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. When I
was force-fed in the detention centre, the "doctors" were not
professionally trained. We were their guinea pigs. They forcibly inserted a
rubber or plastic tube into the victim's nose or mouth, and then pushed it into
the esophagus. They did this several times a day. This kind of torture is very
painful and hard to endure. When they stuck the tube down my throat, they often
injured my trachea, lungs or stomach. Whenever I threw up or nearly passed out,
blood gushed from my mouth and nostrils along with spit and the food they
force-fed me. The first time they tortured me by force-feeding was on July 18 2001. Every
time they did this, a dozen people held me down on a bed and tied my hands and
feet. In order not to let me see their faces and the tools they used, which had
blood on them, they covered my whole body with a large piece of white cloth with
a hole cut out around where my mouth was. They forced open my mouth with a steel
opener used on horses and pried apart my teeth with steel pliers. They inserted
a thick rubber tube more than two meters long into my mouth and then into my
stomach. My mouth was filled with blood and my body was covered with bruises
from being beaten. One guard ranted, "We want you to die when we insert those tubes into
your throat. We listen to our leader Jiang Zemin!" Sometimes I was force-fed dirty porridge like they feed to pigs, and
sometimes it was thick salty water that would burn my stomach and make me vomit.
They were ruthless. On several occasions, the porridge entered my windpipe
causing blood and stomach fluids to be projected out over the surrounding
people. They usually force-fed me two large bowls of corn porridge, and then
pressed down hard on my stomach. They applied such force that it almost
suffocated me each time. Whenever I pulled out the tube, as long as I had a
little strength, I would shout, "Falun Dafa is good". Afraid my
shouting would be heard by others, police would coerce criminals to stuff my
mouth with mops. Each time they finished the force-feeding, they would quickly
drop me back into my cell. They just threw me into the cell after opening the
small steel door to prevent others from seeing the horrible scene. Injuries
covered my body. I just lay there with my mouth and esophagus bleeding. My bones
felt shattered. It was very hard to even take a breath. Enduring the suffering,
I fainted several times. I committed no sins; I was tortured just because of my
personal belief in Falun Dafa. If it were not for the unfair treatment, who
would even consider going on a hunger strike? Tortured while on a hunger strike;
those were really horrible days. Actually all people know that "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance"
is good. But in the face of great pressure and possible personal loss, many
forget these precious principles. But Dafa practitioners will never forget. I knew that if I surrendered and acted against my will, by writing a
"guarantee to sever with Falun Gong" and by criticizing Falun Gong,
then I would be spared some of the pressure from Jiang Zemin's regime. But I
never considered that. I know as long as I am alive, I will follow
"Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," I will never give in to lies and
evil. The True Inside Story of the Hospital at Wanjia Forced Labor Camp In 2001, after being detained at the Second Detention Centre in Harbin City
for four months, I couldn't stand and, my heart beat around 150 times per
minute. Lying on the damp floor, nobody even took any notice of me for a few
days. Afraid of being held responsible for my death, finally the police sent me
to a hospital for a check-up and treatment. But in December 2001, the
Heilongjiang Province "610 office" and the Harbin City Public Security
Bureau secretly sent me to Wanjia Forced Labor Camp. The torture and abuse
continued. On December 6, I was sent to the hospital for so-called
"treatment." In order to step up the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Jiang
Zemin's regime had allocated funds to construct a new building for the Wanjia
Forced Labor Camp hospital. Its facilities are the most up-to-date. Doctors and
staff are on the first floor and there is a big monitoring room on the second
floor. Most people on the wards of the second floor are female Falun Gong
practitioners who have suffered serious torture. Male wards are on the third
floor. There are male Falun Gong practitioners who were transferred here from
the Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp. Doctors, nurses, and the clerks in the
director's office are all involved in the forced-feedings. Forced-feeding is a
violent, vicious method of torture. It is one of the methods used by police
officers to torture Falun Gong practitioners. During the past four years, at
least 16 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death in this place. á I was actually not treated at the Wanjia Hospital. Instead it was an
indefinite period of detention. When I was first transferred to the Wanjia
Forced Labor Camp, guard Yu Fangli tried to coerce me to write a "Guarantee
Statement" [A statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for
practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go
to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and to never associate with any Falun Dafa
practitioners again.] to give up practicing Falun Gong. I refused. Later she
told me, "From today on, you will not be allowed to see anyone. If you are
beaten to death, we will say you committed suicide. The camp will cremate you
directly. Your relatives will not even be able to see your remains. Jiang Zemin
will back us." Before I arrived, several Falun Gong practitioners had died from torture. To
regain my strength, I started doing the Falun Gong exercises, but the guards hit
me across the face with mop handles and bounced me off the walls while holding
me by my hair. At the same time they shouted, "Serves you right if you are
beaten to death, there is no place you can sue us." Batons, and mop handles
were broken while beating us. Guards Hu Bo, Han Yushan, and Yu Fangli shouted
while beating me, "We never beat you! We never beat you! Where can you sue
us?!" To force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their righteous belief and to
mentally control them, Jiang Zemin's regime used scores of brainwashing tactics,
including both mental abuse and physical torture. Torture included being forced
to write the "three guarantees" [Practitioners are coerced under
brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their
belief. Created by the "610 Office," the three statements consist of a
letter of repentance, a guarantee to never practice Falun Gong again, and a list
of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who
practice Falun Gong.] Female Dafa practitioners were thrown into male jail
cells. Practitioners were stripped and beaten, shocked with electric batons and
bound with rope. The female practitioners had their nipples pierced with needles
and then shocked with electricity. We were forced to sit on a steel chair,
soaked with water and then shocked with electric batons. We were deprived of
sleep, shut away in mini-cells and shocked with electric batons (a mini-cell has
a temperature of over 40 Celsius degrees (over 104oF) in summer and
extremely cold in winter - most detainees developed scabies in it). We were
forced to squat or were bound in an airplane posture. We were hung up and beaten
up. Scabies were scraped off with non-sterile knives. Handcuffs were so tight
they cut into the flesh and practitioners were beaten up with clubs. We were not
given proper clothing in cold weather and forced to remain out in the freezing
cold. We could not move while being forced to sit on a small stool for a long
time and we were brutally forced-fed. Brutal Force-Feeding at the Wanjia Labor Camp Most Falun Gong practitioners refused to give up their belief. We went on
hunger strikes to protest our unlawful arrest and the inhumane torture and
persecution. The police would then further torture us with force-feeding. They
kicked and punched us many times. They insulted and handcuffed practitioners to
the beds in order to force-feed them. One day in December 2001, male doctors Jiang Chao and Chang Fan, along with
guard Hu Bo, administered force-feeding on practitioner Shang Yuqiu. They
grabbed her hair and knocked her head against the wall. I was in the same cell
as her and she told me about the torture afterwards: "I became dizzy and
saw stars in front of my eyes. My face, nose and mouth were all bleeding. The
swelling on my head was as large as an egg. The scene was an unbearable sight. A
nurse grabbed another practitioner and pulled her hair and pinched her face and
body. As a result, this practitioner got black and blue marks all over her
body." One day in January 2002, I saw female practitioner Guo Mingxia, one of my
cellmates, have difficulty breathing with her entire body twitching after
receiving "treatment" after a force-feeding. The so-called treatment
she received was being beaten from the top of the stairs until she fell down to
the bottom. She was then injected drugs that harm the central nervous system.
After she was sent back to the cell, she spat out a lot of blood. I held her
hands tightly and wiped off the blood. When I told the guards and doctors that
she was dying, guard Yu Fangli pointed to the coffins in the courtyard, and
said, "We have orders from 610 and higher up to put [the dead
practitioners] in the coffins and cremate them!" On another day I heard a man desperately crying in a room. It was the husband
of practitioner Ding Yanhong. He had asked for all kinds of help to be allowed a
visit to his wife. However, what he saw was doctors Chang Fan and Jiang Chao,
along with guard Yu Fangli, force-feed his wife, who had been on hunger strike
for over 70 days, right in front of his eyes. Ding Lihong struggled to resist
the brutal force-feeding. Unable to bear to watch the scene, the man covered his
face and cried out loud. I will never forget that day. The guards often beat practitioners at will, yelling all day long,
"we'll beat you to death." They also claimed, "We're not afraid
of beating you to death. We have more than enough coffins!" On January 14 2002, practitioner Zhao Xiru was rushed to the hospital
affiliated to the labor camp because he was in critical condition after torture.
He was diagnosed as having a very serious "heart problem." On the 17th,
he was extremely weak. He had not been able to eat anything for seven days, and
he would throw up even after drinking water. He could barely stand up on his
own. At about 8 that night, he had a heart problem and his face was very pale.
Even so, he was still brutally beaten by guards Hu Bo, Wang Junping and Han
Yushan. Practitioners present all tried to stop the crimes. But the guards just
beat them up instead. He Miao, who had been on hunger strike for 89 days, was
knocked down to the ground. So was Kang Cuixian, a 53-year-old practitioner.
Guard Han Yushan grabbed Zhao Xiru's hair tightly and kept beating him. Practitioners beaten on that night include Zhao Xiru, He Miao, Lu Huiwen, Sun
Lizhi and Sun Yanfang. Therefore, the incident of Wanjia labor camp driving
people towards suicide happened in the evening of January 19. The incident shook
the whole Provincial Police and Provincial Labor Re-education Bureaus, yet none
of the abusive police officers have been punished. Treated as if I was in Hell Due to the damp and dirty environment in prison, many Falun Gong
practitioners have been infected with serious Impetigo; their whole bodies are
covered with abscesses and blood, and the abscesses can be as big as a peach. It
is unendurably painful in the day with pus and water continually flowing out,
while at night it itches terribly, making sleep impossible. Some experiences were totally unforgettable for me. A newly arrived prison
doctor, who was a university undergraduate, washed and picked my sores one by
one as was normal practice in treating the body of a Falun Gong practitioner.
Upon seeing this, Song Zhaohui, the director of Wanjia Hospital, came over,
pushed the young doctor aside, and began to chop at the abscess with a steel
spoon. Every Falun Gong practitioner infected with Impetigo was forced into a small
room and pushed down onto the ground. The criminals imprisoned in the camp were
ordered to dig out the abscesses all over the practitioners' bodies with sharp
steel knives and spoons. The spoons moved up and down in the practitioners'
bloody flesh, as they were pushed onto the ground. Some of them were miserably
shouting, shivering and moaning, their faces covered with tears. After suffering
such torture, those with blood on their bodies were asked to stand against the
wall and be washed by having cold water poured on them. The water was not normal
tap water, but dirty water, filled with rust. The temperature of winter in
Harbin is about minus 35oC, and the cold dirty water, mixed with pus
and blood, flowed down the practitioners' tortured bodies. Shi Yingbai, the director of Wanjia Forced Labor Camp, once claimed that
"we have exhausted all the methods to deal with you practitioners!" It
is the high level of protection from the evil Jiang regime, as well as direct
encouragement from the camp director, that makes the employees of Wanjia Forced
Labor Camp behave so terribly, and cruelly torture Falun Gong practitioners. Forced Brainwashing -- Brutal Murder in Wanjia Originally, there were male and female Falun Gong practitioners located in
Wanjia Forced Labor Camp. Later, the male practitioners were moved to Changlinzi
Forced Labor Camp, as Wanjia Forced Labor Camp had become overcrowded with Falun
Gong practitioners. The total number of people confined at Wanjia Forced Labor
Camp, who were mainly convicted of robbery, drug-related crimes and
prostitution, was only around two or three hundred before the persecution of
Falun Gong. However, from the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong in July
1999 till April 2002, the time when I was released, the number of imprisoned
people in Wanjia Forced Labor Camp increased sharply to more than one thousand,
most of whom were Falun Gong practitioners. They were persecuted both mentally
and physically to different extents. 189 confirmed and named cases of
practitioners experiencing serious torture have been recorded. This labor camp,
as implied by its name "the home of ten thousand evils", has really
become a "camp" for Jiang's regime to persecute Falun Gong
practitioners. The prison terms of Falun Gong practitioners were prolonged as long as they
refused to be brainwashed into renouncing their belief in Falun Dafa and the
principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance". At each
large-scale meeting of Wanjia Forced Labor Camp, Lu Zhenshan, the director of
the labor camp, always delivered a speech using words that were popular during
China's Cultural Revolution. For example, he often cited that "this is a
vital life-or-death battle which we must carry out to the end. The
transformation of practitioners has to be fulfilled without any condition, and
using any force required." A "Falun Gong practitioner prison term extension meeting" was
illegally held on June 18 2001. Since the afternoon of June 19th, 15
Falun Gong practitioners had been seriously tortured by male and female police
officers. The cruel methods consisted of beating the heart with an electric
baton, being hung up with the body forced into the shape of a plane, and so on.
When hung up, the practitioners were not allowed to have their shoes on, and
their heels were forced off the ground. With time moving on, the hanging gets
higher and higher while the banding of the body gets more and more tight. The
arms became extremely painful. Practitioners were not allowed to sleep, talk or to go to the toilet. Some
practitioners had to urinate in their own trousers. Their noses and faces bled a
lot, and their mouths were banded with tape. The scene was just too miserable to
witness. Under the instruction of Lu Zhenshan, the policemen increased the
height of hanging three or four times and swore at the practitioners. They even
pulled hard on the hair of female practitioner Yang Xiuli and dashed her head
against the wall. Yang asked to go to the toilet several times but was always
refused. She had to urinate in her trousers. The policemen soaked a mop in the
urine and shoved it into Yang's face and mouth, while continually swearing at
her. Yang lost consciousness when she was finally lowered down to the ground. A
policeman insulted another female practitioner in public by touching her breasts
and other sensitive parts, counting her ribs and so on. A stunning brutal murder happened in Wanjia Forced Labor Camp on June 20th
2001, when 15 Falun Gong practitioners were brutally tortured, including Li
Xiuqin, Zhang Yulan and Zhao Yayun, who did not survive. Top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party were worried and disturbed that
news of this brutal murder case would reach the public and media. After the
murder, all entrances to the camp were kept closed and even the mobile phones of
the labor camp staff were forcibly confiscated. All employees, including
temporary workers, were enclosed in the camp for a whole week. Despite the use
of such methods to control information, news about the Wanjia brutal murders on
June 20th did go abroad and was exposed, raising serious and critical public
concerns from all kind-hearted people who heard about it. It is estimated that at least 16 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured
to death at Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in the past four years. I was on the verge of death, but the labor camp shirked their
responsibilities In Wanjia Forced Labor camp, I once again appealed by hunger strike and this
time I would continue firmly to the end. In over one hundred days, they inserted
plastic tubes by force into my nose to fill it with salt water. The plastic
tubes were never sterilized - just rinsed in a basin. Every time after the
forced feeding, I would vomit. Sometimes there was no food at all in the
"force-feeding"; they just stirred inside my stomach with the tube. I
collapsed completely. Every time they put something into my stomach, I would
expel it. After I had been forced-fed for over a hundred days, I was at the
limit of my endurance: I cannot describe that kind of suffering. Every moment I
longed to escape out of this Hell in the human world. For a long time I ate no
food or water; every day was filled with physical and spiritual suffering. I
collapsed in bed, feeling the sky darken and the earth revolving. My sight was
dim. In this movement suppressing the general public, I saw so many ordinary
people standing up to the violent torture and killing. If these people who
believe in "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" are guilty, what will be
left to human beings? Is good and evil judged by power rather than by human
hearts? We hold on to our own thoughts. What we want is just the right to
peacefully and legally practice Falun Gong. What is our crime? Confronted by slander and persecution, Falun Gong practitioners around the
world are holding on with a peaceful and tolerant attitude. Though I, one of
tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners, was imprisoned, I knew that
hundreds of thousands of kind-hearted people were together with me. Prison bars
may imprison my body, but how can they imprison my heart? If I had to choose
between life and conscience, I would choose to hold on to the truth to the point
of losing my life. I would never submit to the evil. At that time I had no
concept of life or death, with no food or water. My energy was exhausted. You
cannot imagine how much suffering and pain it was! At that moment I only had one
thought in my mind - hold on till the end. There was a written regulation by
Heilongjiang Bureau of Justice: people who are not sentenced to a labor camp
should not be detained there. At that time I was not yet sentenced to a labor
camp. The head of Wanjia Hospital, Song Zhaohui, pointed at me and claimed,
"As long as Jiang Zemin is alive, I will detain you until your death."
He was directly involved in torturing me. Just one month before I was released my nose was blocked, which made the
force-feeding pointless. Song Zhaohui personally organized people to cruelly
force-feed me, pinching my neck and forcing my head down. Every time I struggled
to pull out the tube, he would instruct the evil policemen to insert it into my
nose again by force. This happened so many times that I was left in terrible
pain. My tears and blood were dripping. I could not open my eyes. One staff
member was too scared to look at me, and wore a pair of dark glasses. He did not
dare to come into my room. Without practicing Falun Gong, how would I have been
able to get through this?! Song Zhaohui attempted to extort money from my family
several times with bills for the force-feeding and hospitalization, but my
family always firmly refused. When I was finally released, Song still didn't
give up his. He extorted 3,000 Yuan force-feeding charges from some of my
relatives who didn't know the truth. He had been fierce when force-feeding the
Falun Gong practitioners who were later tortured to death in Wanjia hospital. He
often struck and kicked the practitioners, bombarding them with filthy words and
often claiming, "It is futile to attempt to go home by hunger strike! Give
some drugs to her - she needs a 'rest'!" They forcibly injected
practitioners with psychotropic drugs that damage the central nervous system.
This left the practitioners unconscious for a couple of days. In my room, Guo
Mingxia, He Miao etc. from Team 12 were injected with such drugs. (Now Song
Zhaohui has experienced his retribution, as he was sentenced to seven years'
imprisonment for corruption.) Finally the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp released me in order to shirk their
responsibility. At that time my nose was blocked, which prevented them from
force-feeding me. I had problems breathing, my body and mind were devastated and
I nearly lost my eyesight. Going abroad and suing Jiang Zemin To avoid further persecution, I fled to the United Arab Emirates on June 1st
2002. However, Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong is not limited to China. It has
been reported by several overseas media organizations that the Chinese embassies
in other countries have pressured different governments to suppress Falun Gong
on many occasions and have interfered with the activities of overseas Falun Gong
practitioners. I went to the places where many Chinese visitors gathered to tell
them the truth about Falun Gong being persecuted in China, as well as the
mistreatment and suffering that I experienced. The Chinese embassy said that I
was a terrorist. The UAE police arrested me under pressure from the Chinese
embassy and were going to deport me back to China. I was lucky that Canadian
Falun Gong practitioners asked the Canadian government to rescue me just in
time. Within two days I was granted a special visa by the Canadian Department of
Foreign Affairs, which enabled me to come to Canada on November 11th
2002. I am so grateful to the Canadian government and the kind-hearted people
who rescued me! From then on I started to publicize what I suffered and witnessed in the
prisons and labor camps of China through the overseas media, revealing many true
inside stories about Jiang Zemin's regime persecuting Falun Gong practitioners
in China, making public the persecution I suffered, and exposing a great deal of
crimes that the Wanjia Labor camp committed when I was detained there. Many
international media organizations carried reports about this. In November 2002, when the head of the "610 Office" (a Gestapo-like
institution specifically created to persecute Falun Gong practitioners) Li
Lanqing visited France, I and some other Falun Gong practitioners submitted a
complaint to the court in France to sue him. My relatives were persecuted Because I revealed Jiang Zemin's crimes in persecuting Falun Gong
practitioners and launched a lawsuit against him in the international community,
this made him extremely scared and angry. His regime committed a series of
abuses against my relatives in China who are not Falun Gong practitioners, such
as threatening and following them. My younger brother was illegally arrested on
January 17th 2003 by the Heilongjiang Public Security Bureau, my younger sister
was illegally arrested in Guangzhou on March 19th and my older sister was
illegally arrested in Manzhouli on the same day. My sisters were taken to Harbin
for detention. This implication of innocent people is unjust and ruthless. They
held my relatives as hostages, attempting to stop me from revealing their crimes
to the international community. The suffering of my family aroused concern from the international community,
particularly the Canadian Members of Parliament and international human rights
organizations. They worked quickly and hard to rescue my brother and two
sisters, writing letters to the Chinese government requesting their release.
Many MPs also wrote to me by fax or email, expressing their deep concern for the
suffering of my family members. They gave me a lot of kind support by writing to
the Chinese authorities at different levels. On April 17th and 18th 2003, my
sisters were released by the Chinese authorities, and my younger brother was
finally acquitted on August 19th. Through what my family and I have endured, we
can see the painful suffering that tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners
in China have experienced. We can also see how extensively this persecution has
caused suffering for many innocent relatives of Falun Gong practitioners who do
not practice Falun Gong. I would like to thank the Canadian Government and
international human rights organizations, who have given me and my family great
support. Today, I publish my testimony to the lawyers and to the court. As a survivor
of this persecution, I cordially request you, judges and lawyers, to uphold
justice for me and the tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners who are
still suffering ruthless persecution, to stop these abuses of human rights and
belief, and to stop the killing and imprisonment of the innocent.
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/10/2/58092.html
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