A Practitioner from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

September 2000

On October 18, 1999, my mother, my sister and I went from Shenyang City to The National Appeal Bureau in Beijing to appeal. The police vans had been waiting there for a long time and many Falun Gong practitioners (including my mom and my sister) were thrown into the vans after being beaten up. Later the sign outside the National Appeal Bureau was also removed. We had no way but to go to Tiananmen Square to unfurl a banner that reads "Peaceful petition of Falun Gong practitioners" to call for the attention to the injustice against Falun Dafa. I was arrested on October 25, 1999 and charged with organizing tens of followers to commit a crime. I was sentenced to labor "education" for one year.

I was detained in Beijing Dongcheng Detention Center for two months. The International Excruciation Commission identified this center as "Number one Detention Center in Asia". The staff there tortured Falun Gong practitioners in many brutal ways. They slapped and kicked practitioners until they were exhausted. Practitioners were often forced to stand for long a period without being allowed to sit or move. They even pulled practitioners' hair to bump the wall. I once saw the police shackle a white-haired elderly lady and pull her back and forth in the hallway. Practitioner Wang Hui from Shenzhen City was also in my cell and she fainted after being kicked by the guard Zhang Haiyan. However, Falun Gong practitioners endured all these tortures peacefully.

I was transferred to the first Labor Camp in Hebei on December 28, 1999. This is a frightening camp. The living conditions there are very poor. The main assignment here is to make bricks, which is a very heavy workload that requires 16 to 17 hours of work a day. It's very inconvenient to use water and restrooms. What we had for meals were poorly cooked buns and rotten potatoes. Oftentimes we still felt hungry after the meal.

On December 31, 1999, I was handcuffed because I practiced the exercises. They handcuffed me for 3 days because I refused to admit that I was wrong. During the three days they handcuffed me to a tree and hung me in the air, sometimes on the basketball stands. They even beat me in a place where nobody else was present before they sent me back to the cell. Later they changed their strategy because I would always begin practicing Falun Gong exercises once they removed the handcuffs from me. They sent two people to follow me, so I had to stop practicing. I went on hunger strikes seven times because we were deprived of the right to practice our beliefs.

Practitioners who came to the labor camp earlier had a much harder life here. Among them were Zhou Ximeng, Bai Yuzhi and Qiu Liying, Duan Jingjing and He Jing, who were from Shijiazhuang City, and Kang Shuxiang from Langfang City, and Lu Fangchun from Sanhe City. They not only went on hunger strikes for a long time but also were beaten and insulted. The staff members in the labor camp even stuffed their mouths with dirty underwear, sanitary napkins and other filthy things when they were reciting Falun Gong teachings. Qiu Liying and Bai Yuzhi were punished to stand outside with only underwear on their bodies many times in the early morning of the freezing winter. Qiu was frozen numb and Bai was even frozen to a state of unconsciousness.

Falun Gong practitioners were often handcuffed to the trees because we asked for the right to study and practice our beliefs. Later the staff members dragged us in order to stop us from practicing. On June 21, 2000, we were reciting teacher's articles together and the staff members couldn't stop us by just dragging us, so the guard Bao Junmei who was on duty rushed to us with two sticks in her hand and shouted to the staff members, "stuff their mouths." She ran to Liu Guimei (from Langfang City), slapped Liu on the face and then lifted Liu's clothes to stuff Liu's mouth. Later the guards found that many non-practitioners detained here felt sympathetic towards us, so they could only ask a few bad people to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Since July 22, we had been locked up in separate and were deprived of the freedom to move about, not to mention to get in touch with each other. In order to create conflicts between non-practitioners and practitioners, the labor camp placed pressure on all people, and placed restrictions on entering and leaving one's cell. . All detainees spent the summer in their cells. No one was allowed to eat in the dining hall or take a rest in the yard. The camp also forced non-practitioners to watch practitioners. Because most people know us very well and respect Falun Gong, the camp failed to cause conflicts. So they had to change their strategy. On August 23, dozens of guards broke into the cells and seized Falun Gong materials from practitioners. Then each team spared one room to lock up practitioners who were on hunger strikes.

There were 50 people on hunger strike at that time. There were 11 practitioners in my cell and they were Yu Shumei, You Zhijian, Wang Yuhua, Zhang Yongqing, Shi Yurong, Yang Fengqin, Guo Lixia, Yan Fengxia, Cao Guifang, Zhu Yourong and Jing Tian. The camp decided to force-feed us on August 24. To avoid being force-fed we held each other together and recited Teacher's articles. We pulled back whoever was pulled away. After a short while the guards Bao Junmei and Li Junqing came. They pulled and kicked us. I was pressed to the ground and got several kicks on my head. Because we were very weak due to long time hunger strike, two of us were pulled away. Yan Fengxia got her head hit by the doorframe and her clothes were torn apart. They dragged her on the ground after she was force-fed. The skin on her back was scraped badly and she wasn't able to sleep on her back for several days. You Zhijian also got her clothes and feet dragged. Zhang Yongqing was banged into the heater and the guard Bao Junmei beat her to the ground. Zhang Yongqing was too weak to get up from the ground. The team head realized force-feeding was going with great difficulty so he came in and tried all means to persuade us. Later, seeing Guo Lixia also bumped into the wall to prevent being force-fed, the head had no way but to stop force-feeding.

On August 25, they kept force-feeding the rest of us. I asked others to hold me and I pulled Shi Yurong's arm tightly but the guard Li Junqing kicked them hard. We were weak physically because of the hunger strike, and I was carried away because I am the lightest. In the force-feeding room, I saw Zhang Yongqing being placed on the wet ground and I was put in the bed. Several people pressed me. Shortly after I was force-fed and sent back, Yang Fengqin was also pulled back. Yang's legs were badly wounded and she couldn't even stand up. Guo Lixia also got some injuries.

Now they began to give some of us intravenous injection (Yan Fengxia, Shi Yurong, Zhang Yongqing and Jing Tian). If we do not eat after injection, then we might be sent to the mental hospital for electric needle treatment. We know Zhang Deyi just got out of there. We don't know Qiu Liying and Duan Jingjing's whereabouts after they were sent to the hospital.

Bai Yuzhi from Shijiazhuang City and Miao Peihua from Jinan City were transferred to Baoding labor camp from here, and they are still on hunger strike. They don't have family members to take care of them and I am very concerned about their situation.