(Minghui.org) On October 23, 2003, while working with practitioners Wei Changfeng and Cui Guifeng from Moqi County, Inner Mongolia, we managed to broadcast a 50-minute program on the Tiananmen self-immolation through a local TV channel in Nahe City, Heilongjiang Province. This drew the attention of the CCP Central Committee. Luo Gan, head of the state 610 Office, was involved in the investigation of the incident.
The police in Nahe City started a large scale search and arrest. More than 200 people were arrested from the city, plus 30 nearby townships and towns. Many practitioners suffered. They were beaten, put in detention, fined, and subjected to brainwashing in an effort to force them to give up their belief.
1. Tortured on a Tiger Bench in the Nahe City Armed Police Division
Five of us were arrested around 5 p.m. on October 29, 2003. Those included Mr. Liu Minkang, Mr. Wei Changfeng and his wife (a non-practitioner), Ms. Cui Guifeng, and myself.
In the Nahe City Armed Police Division, I was interrogated and beaten. I was bound to a tiger bench for 24 hours.
Torture Re-enactment: Tiger Bench
I was transferred to Nahe City Detention Center on the evening of October 30. Guard Li Ying beat me brutally, and I then started a hunger strike.
Mr. Wei Changfeng was hung up, shocked with electric batons, and brutally beaten in the Armed Police Division. His face was covered with bruises. He was put on a tiger bench for 36 hours before being sent to the detention center. He was detained there for more than three months. His wife was beaten and then released on the night of October 30.
Ms. Cui Guifeng was also beaten and shocked. An officer hit her with his shoe until her back was bloody. They also struck her head with water bottles and then dumped the water on her face and head. She was put on a tiger bench for 36 hours. She too was sent to the detention center and held for five and a half months.
Three of us were secretly tried on November 26, 2003, in a small court. We were tried by the Nahe City judicial system and by heads of the city 610 Office Fu Libin and Zhu Tianfu. Only three of our family members were allowed to be present in the courtroom. We were charged with “interfering with the implementation of the law.”
Mr. Wei was sentenced to 13 years in prison while Ms. Cui and I were each sentenced to four years. Mr. Liu Mingkang was tried separately. He was detained for three months and then released after having 80,000 yuan extorted from him. Moqi County 610 Office officials were going to persecute him again after he was released in Nahe City. He gave up his business, which was worth more than 300,000 yuan, and the whole family moved.
2. Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison
Ms. Cui and I were transferred to Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison on April 14, 2004. I witnessed how the guards and the inmates mistreated Falun Gong practitioners.
-Beaten, Cursed at, and Forced to Squat
On the first day, guard Wang Weili beat me because I refused to recite the prison rules. Wang struck me with her hands first and then with a hard folder when her hands hurt. I don't remember how long she hit me. I just felt dizzy and had pain. Later she called two inmates to handcuff me behind my back. I was forced to squat down until Wang was off work in the evening. I was then taken back to my prison cell.
At night more than 50 inmates slept on a large board bed. If one of us went to the restroom at night, there might not be a space left when she returned. I was watched by inmates every day and was not allowed to talk to other practitioners. I was closely followed even when I went to the restroom. Inmate Luo Wenli cursed me every day. Every day propaganda materials and DVDs that slandered Falun Gong and Master were read and played to us.
Because I refused to watch the propaganda programs, I was beaten for three days by inmate He Lihui. She slapped my face and hit my head. My face swelled, and I had headaches and tinnitus. I started a hunger strike to protest this mistreatment. Later, division head Lu Jinhua put me in a small cell for several days.
When I was sent back to the big room, I was placed in a position facing the wind tunnel. I was numbed by the cold wind blowing directly on me.
I appealed my case to Heilongjiang Supreme Court at the end of April in 2004. Three months later, I was transferred to No. 9 Ward.
-Forced to Sit, Handcuffed
I was forced to sit in a big “classroom” from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. every day, for more than 15 hours a day. My bottom hurt, and my legs were swollen and numb. I couldn't lay flat to sleep at night.
Whenever it was a sensitive day, the guards would search the cells for any Falun Gong articles. They would write the word “criminal” on the practitioners' clothes. Once I threw the clothes that had the word “criminal” on them and the white bed sheet into the restroom. The guard was afraid of being blamed. Inmate Chen Cunling told me she would buy me a new set. I said to her, “You tell Niu Cuiling (guard): Do not search my stuff!” After that, that guard stopped searching my things.
Because I practiced the exercises and refused to wear the prison uniform, division head Lu Jinhua ordered the inmates to handcuff me with my hands behind my back on October 29, 2005. I was cuffed from 9:00 am until after midnight. The cuffs cut deeply into my wrists.
-Searched, Closely Monitored
I was transferred to No. 6 Ward in the spring of 2006. The guards and some inmates were very vicious to the practitioners. Guard Liu Chang often searched the cells. There was a small scale search every three days and a large scale of search every week. Our underclothes clothes were thrown everywhere, and the word “criminal” was written on them. Inmates Ling Zhi and Cheng were assigned to watch me closely. They followed me everywhere, even to the restroom. I was not allowed to talk to other practitioners and was forced to sit on a plastic stool every day for seven to eight hours a day.
Practitioner Ji Hongbo was sent to a solitary cell where it was damp and there was no sunshine. She had scabies all over her, which was very painful. I talked to the head of No. 6 Ward, Zhong, about how practitioners were being mistreated. I also wrote to prison head Li Zhiqiang and detailed the human rights violations in No. 6 Ward. A few days later someone from the prison affairs section came to investigate the claim.
I was transferred to No. 1 Ward in the fall of 2006. Everyday the inmates watched, verbally abused, and beat me. Under a surveillance camera, I was forced to sit on a small plastic stool seven to eight hours a day. That fall, a new division called the “Fortification Fight Division” was formed to target practitioners. The guards and inmates in that division beat and tortured practitioners at will.
On sensitive days, steadfast practitioners were often mistreated badly. On September 28, 2007, several inmates led by Li Yanping held me down on the floor. They pulled my hair, punched me in the face and kicked me in the back and buttocks. They pinched my arms and put their hands in my mouth. I was dragged out of the cell by my bare feet.
-Naming Names
Inmates Li Yangping, Chen Hongmei, and Zhang Xueyuan in the No. 1 Ward often verbally abused and beat practitioners. Guard Zhou Ying would encourage them instead of stopping them. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Li from Shuangyashan City was beaten by inmates Wang Yumei and Man Yunyue and suffered an injury to her head. Zhou Ying pretended nothing happened. Practitioner Ms. Kong Fanying from Harbin City was beaten by the guard plus five or six inmates on the day she was going to be released, just because she refused to wear the prison uniform. She had to be carried out of the prison.
After serving three years and six and half months in prison, I was released on October 28, 2007.
3. Harassed by Local Police
When I was released, my family was scattered, and I was alone. Nevertheless, I was still followed and monitored by local officers from Moqi County No. 2 Police Station. Sun Changquan, head of the police station, gave the orders.
Sun Changquan often came to the company where I worked and encouraged my manager and colleagues to watch me in the spring of 2008. He often called to harass me in the spring of 2009 and forced me to move out of the residential area which was not under the jurisdiction of No. 2 Police Station.
In the fall of 2011, a man on the first floor of the building where I lived was hired by the 610 Office and the local police to watch me. He would check when I left home for work and when I came back in the evening.
