(Minghui.org) Practitioner Ms. Zhang Guangyuan of Anshan City, Liaoning Province has been persecuted many times since July 20, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong. She was arrested at the end of 2002 and illegally sentenced to prison. She was held in the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison for nine years. Below is her narration of the experience:

I was arrested and taken to the Anshan Brainwashing Center in September, 2001, and was released a week later after I went on a hunger strike. However, a month later I was arrested again and held in the Anshan Detention Center for 17 days. I was again arrested in November, 2001, and held for over a month. After I escaped from the detention center, I was forced to stay away from my home.

I was arrested and taken to the Anshan City Prison on February 4, 2002, sentenced to nine years in prison in September, and taken to the Liaoning Women’s Prison in November.

Torture re-enactment: death bed

On the day I arrived at Liaoning Women’s Prison, I was taken to the storage room because I refused to admit any guilt or call them “sir” or “madam.” I was then pressured to “transform.” I went on a hunger strike a few months later, and was tied to the death bed to be force-fed. They tied my hands and feet to the four corners of the bed with my arms and legs straight. All urine and bowel discharges were done right on the bed. A month later the guards untied me when my husband and child came to visit me, but my arms and legs were all out of my control and I could not walk or raise my arms. The death bed could paralyze a healthy person in a short time.

Crimes Committed in the “Ghost House”

When I was held in Squadron 5, guard Jiang Yingcun attempted to get a promotion through persecuting practitioners. She ordered felony inmates Hou Xuhong, Zhang Wenyan and others to force practitioners to “transform” by using all sorts of persecution measures.

There was a small room specifically used for “transforming” practitioners in the shop of Squadron 5, where cruel tortures took place.

They beat or kicked those who refused to “transform,” stripped off their clothes, used screwdrivers to jab them, scalded them with hot water, forced them to squat all day, hung them up with ropes tied to the heating pipes, and kept them there until they agreed to “transform.”

Torture illustration: Scalded with hot water

In the coldest part of winter, they tortured practitioner Han Xuejun from Dalian City by pouring cold water into her overcoat and forcing her to stand in the courtyard. It was snowing at the time and the temperature was below zero Fahrenheit. Because she refused to “transform,” they viciously thrusted the toilet plunger from the restroom into her mouth. Ms. Han was persecuted continuously for over a month, and became mentally disordered. Her eyes were dull, and she could not control her urine and bowel movements.

She later went on a hunger strike, and was tied to the death bed to be force fed. Her lower body began to fester after about 20 days. The ward treated her as a mental patient and took her to the quarters for the mentally ill in the prison hospital. I once passed by her and saw that she was curled up in bed, hands tied behind her back, feet tied together, and mouth taped. I learned from other inmates that this was because she kept yelling “Falun Dafa is good.”

Torture illustration: Force feeding

This is only the tip of the iceberg of what I saw. No one knows how many evil schemes were used to torture people. To meet their goals, the guards totally lost their humanity. They even stripped 70-year-old practitioner Li Wensheng and sexually abused her by inserting a stick into her vagina.

I told all of the captains, managers, administrators, and ward directors about the atrocities that occurred in the “ghost house,” and they were shocked. They knew that they were “transforming” practitioners in that room, but did not expect it was so brutal and degrading. Indeed, if I had not experienced it, I would not have believed it myself.

When I was being persecuted in the hospital, Ms. Han was also taken to the hospital because she went on a hunger strike. I later heard that she became handicapped.

Some older inmates in Squadron 5 told me that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began there in October 2002, when Jiang Zemin issued the secret order before he stepped down: “The prison must 'transform' 100% of its Falun Gong practitioners. Beating them to death was no fault. Those who were killed would be counted as suicides.” Since then the women’s prison became a place that the authorities arbitrarily abused practitioners and committed crimes. Many steadfast practitioners were beaten to death or rendered paralyzed. Every practitioner in Ward 5 was taken into the “ghost house” to be forced to “transform.” Those who refused would be tortured continuously day in and day out.

I ended my hunger strike after about 50 days and the manager transferred me to another team. I learned later when I went back to Ward 5 that the “ghost house” had been dismantled. But the persecution against practitioners did not stop; it was only done in a more covert way.

A Practitioner Beaten to Death in an Elevator

Team lead of Ward 5 Zhao Xiaohong (who shot her husband) persecuted practitioner Shao Changhua in 2004 when she was just taken to the prison. To force her to “transform,” they took her to a cell and shocked her with electrical batons for over an hour, and ordered inmates to strip off her clothes and beat her.

Torture illustration: Shocked with multiple electrical batons

From the persecution I suffered, I developed symptoms of hypertension, a heart condition, and headaches. I once went back to my cell early because I did not feel well. It happened that Ms. Shao was taken back too by two of the inmates watching her. I found that half of her face was bruised, and her eyes were blackened. She had only a blouse and a pair of thin pants on and she was freezing. I learned that her bruises were from the beating by inmate Li Mei. They brought her back to the cell early to avoid being seen. I did not know how many more bruises were under her clothes.

Ward 5 was dissolved at the end of 2005, and I was transferred to Squadron 4. The persecution of practitioners there was more concealed. They utilized two collaborators to deceive practitioners with fake articles that were purportedly from Teacher, and combined it with high pressure to force practitioners to go astray. For those who were steadfast and would not budge, they would drop the false front and beat them, deprive them of sleep, and force them to squat and stand.

The newly arrived practitioners would be isolated right away. They tried to “transform” them in the activity room during the day, and have them sleep in a storage room at night. There was no heater in the storage room in winter and it was cold and damp. Some practitioners found it difficult to walk after awhile. Others who refused to “transform” were watched intensely and deprived of sleep. All of this was done behind the scenes. Other inmates dared not talk about them, as though nothing had happened. A new inmate was made to squat for half a day because she had a conversation with me. A more righteous inmate told me in private that once a practitioner was beaten to death in the elevator.

The women’s prison is still continuing its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. I hope that the righteous people in the world can step forward and stop these crimes against humanity.