We innocent Falun Gong practitioners spent the 2001 Spring Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday, confined in the Wanjia Detention Center, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. Remaining in custody even though most of our prison terms had been completed, we suffered tremendously both mentally and physically.
One incident occurred while we sat miserably in a classroom. We suddenly heard noises from outside, so a 31-year-old female practitioner named Liu Dongyun opened the door and went to investigate. The noises came from a group of Dafa practitioners who were returning from a meal. Many of them were being beaten by guards because they had recited Teacher's "Lunyu" [the forward of Zhuan Falun] in the dining room. Then they were placed in solitary confinement. Therefore, all the practitioners in our class approached the chief of the detention center to request that the practitioners be released from the solitary cells. The chief and the guards not only rudely ignored our demand, but they also became exasperated and pulled us outside.
On that day, the sky was cloudy, and it was snowing and very cold. Once outside, we found that a number of Dafa practitioners were already there. They were being forced to stand by a wall. Soon, the guards pulled many more Dafa practitioners to this place. Some of the practitioners were knocked down to the ground and violently punched and kicked because they repeated, "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is righteous!" They were then dragged into the solitary cells.
The detention center chief, whose last name was Shi, yelled at Liu Dongyun. Liu calmly replied, "We are innocent and the guards were wrong to beat people." Shi became frenzied, grabbed Liu's hair, and pushed her to the ground. Shi then ordered, "Beat her!" A bunch of policemen surrounded her and began to beat and kick this defenseless, weak woman. They then grabbed her hair and dragged her into a solitary cell. During the beating, she almost lost consciousness. She later found that her hair had been ripped out in tufts.
Another Dafa practitioner, 56-year-old Pan Xuanhua, was also viciously beaten. The guards knocked her to the ground, grabbed her hair and arms, and dragged her to a solitary cell. Then several guards came to the cell to beat her, kicking her head fiercely. After the beating, her arms and legs became numb; her mouth, eyes, and face became deformed, and blood gushed from her swollen mouth. Nevertheless, the wicked guards still forced her to sit in an iron chair [a method of torture] for 8 days and nights. Due to the severe pain in the back of her head, she could not lower her head and had to sit there, stiffly, for 8 days and nights.
Another malicious incident happened when we returned to the building. When the police ordered us to enter the room, we were forced to say, "We will follow the rules and regulations of the detention center." Wu Jiyang, a 34-year-old practitioner who did not consider herself a prisoner, said, "I do not follow your rules and regulations. I take the Fa [law and principles of the universe] as my guidance. Falun Dafa is a righteous way of cultivation." Chief Shi and several guards then forcefully sent her to a solitary cell by rolling and dragging her. They also punished all of us by making us stand there. To protest the torture and protect her own innocence and legal rights, Wu started a hunger strike. Because of this, the guards cuffed her hands to the top of the cell door, which made her hang in the air, without regard for her fragile body. Subsequently, she fainted because of her weak physical condition and the torture.
Liu Dongyun, who was put in the same cell as Wu, called the guard. The guard came over slowly and said to Liu, "Don't make a fuss. It's none of your business!" He then walked away. After seeing that the guard had not returned for a long time, the practitioners in the opposite cell called him back again. He yelled, "Why are you shouting?" At that time, Wu Jiyang could hardly breathe; she was dizzy and could not maintain her balance. As a result, her entire body weight was on her wrists, so the cuffs cut her wrists and made them bleed. To lessen the pain, Liu Dongyun supported Wu's whole body from her back. At this point, the guard removed the cuffs from Wu's hands and ordered Liu Dongyun to stand there. Because Liu Dongyun was suffering from exhaustion, dizziness, and a headache from her previous brutal beating, and because she believed that she was innocent, she refused to be punished by standing there. Wu Jiyang also objected and said, "We are innocent and refuse to be punished by standing." Paying no attention to Liu's health condition, the guard cuffed her hands to the door of the cell, and made her hang in the air. The guard then said to Wu Jiyang mercilessly, "Since you cannot stand, you sit in the iron chair."
Six days after Wu started her hunger strike, hospital attendants attempted to force-feed her. When other prisoners tried to remove her from the iron chair, she fainted because she was so frail and suffering from extreme exhaustion. When she regained consciousness, they pinched her nose and force-fed her with milk. After the force-feeding, the guards put her in the iron chair again. When she went to the toilet in the afternoon, she fainted again inside the bathroom. When she regained consciousness, she found herself lying in Pan Xuanhua's arms. Only then did she realize what had happened to her.
Another brutal attack happened to a 54-year-old Dafa practitioner named Xu Lihua. She was knocked down to the floor because she tried to stop the guards from beating people in the hallway. She stood up with the help of other practitioners and was then pulled into a solitary cell by guards. At that moment, Pan Xuanhua was ordered to sit in the iron chair after being beaten. But then a guard came to beat Xu Lihua, and Xu said, "You can't beat people." Because of this, Xu was locked in the iron chair for 8 days and 7 nights with her mouth sealed with tape.
There were a total of 28 practitioners who were put into the solitary cells. All of them were tortured to various degrees. Here we have described the sufferings of only a small number of practitioners.
March 3, 2001
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