(Minghui.org)
Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name : Zhang Fengde
Gender : Female
Age : 67
Address : Langfang City, Hebei Province
Occupation : Art museum curator
Date of Most Recent Arrest : June 5, 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention : Shijiazhuang Women's Prison
City : Shijiazhuang
Province : Hebei
Persecution Suffered : Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, fired from workplace, physical restraint, interrogation, detention
Ms. Zhang Fengde is a Falun Gong practitioner who worked at an art museum in Langfang City, Hebei Province. Because she believes in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Ms. Zhang was sent to brainwashing centers, detained three times, suffered three years of forced labor, and endured four years of imprisonment. Here is her story in her own words.
1. A Tumor Came Out by Itself
I used to work in the Common Art Museum in the Anci District, Langfang City, Hebei Province, and was recognized as an excellent employee. I won prizes in several provincial and municipal art competitions, always placing first or second.
I used to have multiple health problems such as arthritis, Meniere's disease, and stomach pain. Not long after I started to practice Falun Gong, all of them disappeared. Once when I was on the way home from group exercise, a tumor the size of a date came out of my mouth from a sinus cavity. I caught it in my hands and exclaimed, “How wonderful Dafa is!” I didn't know I had a tumor. If I had had to have brain surgery to have it removed, it have been very dangerous. Since then I have never had any doubts about Dafa and firmly believe.
2. I Was Detained Because I Told the Truth
When I was enjoying being so happy to practice Falun Gong, the CCP launched the persecution on July 20, 1999.
I went to Beijing to appeal on September 12, 1999. Authorities at the Beijing Appeals Office refused to listen to me. I was illegally arrested and sent back to the local detention center on September 14. That night, I was interrogated by police from Anci District Armed Police Division. I was put in handcuffs and shackles and had to sit in a cold metal chair. I was not allowed to go to the restroom and was interrogated all night.
My employer was contacted to come and get me after 15 days. Fearing they would be implicated, my co-workers were too afraid to pick me up. My family asked an officer from Xidajie Police Station to bring me home. The next day I was told to write the guarantee statement, which I firmly refused to do. Xidajie Police Station officers then took me back to the detention center for another 35 days.
3. Under House Arrest and Forced to Leave Home
After I was released from the detention center, I was placed under house arrest in an office in the art museum where I worked. The order for my house arrest came from Li Dezhong, head of the Art Bureau; Zheng Guanglin, head of the art museum (who has since died); and Gong Junsheng, head of the security section. My co-workers, the art museum staff, were scheduled to take turns watching me. One night I escaped. I had no choice but to leave home.
A fellow practitioner and I went to Beijing to appeal again on Chinese New Year's Eve in 2000. When we got there, Tiananmen Square was completely fenced in and surrounded by seven or eight rings of railings. We jumped over each set of rails and finally made it to the center of the square. The police quickly arrested us.
4. Beaten and Tortured in the Detention Center
I was taken to the Anci District Police Department on February 2, 2000, and then transferred to the Langfang City Detention Center. On February 8, all the practitioners in cell 5 started to loudly recite “Lunyu{{” {{ Zhuan Falun. Soon, eight or nine guards, led by Xing, head of the detention center, came in and began beating us viciously. They cuffed one of my hands and dragged me to the storehouse about 30 meters away from the detention building. My clothes were torn off and the flesh on my back was torn open.
I was cuffed back to back with two other practitioners, Dong Ying and Liu Guimei. We faced three different directions, and the slightest movement would cause us all to experience extreme pain. At night, the guards forced us to walk back to the cell still cuffed to each other. Every step was agony. When the handcuffs were finally removed, our hands were bruised, dark, and swollen. For a long time we lost all sensation in them. We were held in the detention center for two months.
5. Beaten in Kaiping Forced Labor Camp
Beginning on April 5, 2000, I endured three years force labor with three other practitioners, Yi Xiuyun, Zhang Meilan, and Liu Guimei. We were sent to Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City.
The guards there encouraged the inmates to beat practitioners at will. Every day, several practitioners could be seen hanging from the big trees. Some practitioners were detained in cells that were filled with water. As a form of torture, Chou Liying and several other practitioners were sent to mental hospitals.
Inmates An Qi and Pi Peixia often beat and cursed practitioners. When the practitioners protested the mistreatment through hunger strikes, the inmates force-fed them with food in which they mixed their urine and excrement.
One day, guard Liu Xiaohua told inmates An Qi and Pi Peixia to take me to an empty room. claiming that the division head wanted to talk to me. As soon as I walked in, several inmates came up and stripped off my clothes. They beat me with their shoes. Some of my hair was pulled out and I was covered with dark bruises.
6. Tortured in Baoding Forced Labor Camp
Several practitioners including Chou Liying, Zhao Yuhuan, and I, were secretly transferred to Baoding Forced Labor Camp in December 2000. We were not allowed to bring our clothes or bedding with us. Practitioners were treated worse in Baoding. The guards there tortured practitioners with electrical shock, the death bed, and solitary confinement.
Torture Re-enactment: Death Bed
Practitioner Xiao Hua from Zhuzhou City was put on the death bed for 11 days by guards Yan and Li Dayong. I was there when Xiao Hua was released. She was not able to speak and her body was numb. She was like a vegetable.
One night around midnight, I was awakened by miserable screams. Guard Yan and Li Dayong were shocking a practitioner with electric batons. I could see the blue light flashing and heard the sizzling sounds from the electric batons coming from a room on the second floor of a nearby building. Chou Liying and I started a hunger strike to protest the brutal torture of fellow practitioners. I wrote a letter to the authorities to document how practitioners were being mistreated, but my letter was intercepted and never got out of the labor camp.
7. Force-Fed in a Brainwashing Center
I was sent to the municipal brainwashing center on March 13, 2005, after a Xinkailu Police Station officer saw that I had a photo of Master displayed in my home. I started a hunger strike to protest the arrest. An officer and several people from my work unit took me to Beidajie Hospital to force-feed me. They put an unknown substance in the food that caused me to vomit constantly on the way back. I lapsed into a coma and my condition became critical.
Even though I was on the brink of death, they still held me in the brainwashing center and forced me to read the materials that slandered Dafa. I was held there until April 26, 2005.
8. Tortured in Shijiazhuang Women's Prison
I was arrested again on May 5, 2006, while I was trying to help an arrested practitioner. I was sentenced to four years and taken to Shijiazhuang Women's Prison in Hebei Province.
Practitioners in that prison were subjected to electric shock, hanging, standing for long hours, sleep deprivation, confinement, beatings by inmates, and insults.
One day, Han, who was the head of the prison, and several female guards came into the cell where I was being held. Each one held an electric baton and threatened me. I was on a hunger strike at the time. Han ordered the inmates, “Make her less spoiled.” They started to insult me. I was not allowed to sit against the wall or a bed. They touched me or pinched me at will. One of my tormentors would laugh at me while another one would cry at me. Their constant barrage of insults almost drove me to a mental collapse.
On February 3, 2007, I was detained in the storehouse by Li Cunhua. Four inmates were assigned to watch me. They often searched me and made me stand for long hours. I was not allowed to sleep for several nights. This went on for three months.
On October 12, 2007, guard Han Xuexin ordered several inmates to surround me. She cursed me and shocked me with electric batons for half a hour. I called out, “Falun Dafa is good!” They suddenly gave up and stopped torturing me. I was encouraged and became even more steadfast.
On March 3, 2010, I refused to sign the release paper because I didn't commit any crimes. Finally, they allowed my co-workers to take me home.
