(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioner Ms. Wei Yaxia from Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province endured much persecution for her persistence in practicing Falun Gong. She was brutally tortured in Wanjia Forced Labor Camp. After being released from the labor camp, she still encountered harassment and abduction by the police. Ms. Wei was then forced to leave her home to avoid further persecution. Although she died in April of 2004, the cause of her death is yet to be determined.

Ms. Wei Yaxia was born in 1953 and was an employee of the Wuchang City Traffic Control Center in Heilongjiang Province. Before she practiced Falun Gong, she had many chronic diseases. Since she started to practice Falun Gong in 1996, she came to understand the meaning of her life, raised her moral standard, and thus benefited both physically and mentally.

Ms. Wei went to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong, once on June 15, 2000 and again on November 14, 2000. She was illegally detained both times. The second time she was detained, she went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was released on December 30, 2000. However, 10 days later, on January 9, Ms. Wei was arrested again with no legal procedures and was sentenced to one year in the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp.

In Wanjia Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Wei was brutally tortured for persisting in practicing Falun Gong. The police deprived her of sleep, force-fed her, and forced her to stand or squat in a fixed position for long periods of time. She was put on the "Tiger Bench" (1) twice, each time for a day and night, with handcuffs cutting into the flesh of her wrists. She was confined in a small solitary compartment many times for many days. In July 2001, Ms. Wei was tortured with the "Big Hang Up" (2) method for a long time. Every day she was only put down for a short while after the inmates came back from their work. Then before everyone else went to work, she was hung up again. Sometimes she was hung in a men's cell. When Ms. Wei's son called in to inquire about her situation, the police told him that Ms. Wei was in the men's cell at the time. Once Ms. Wei vomited a lot as a result of being hung up too long, and the inmate who was ordered to guard her reported her situation to the guards. The guards then asked her if she would still practice Falun Gong. Ms. Wei answered, "Yes," so they gave orders for her to remain hanging.

Later, Ms. Wei had scabies all over her body and suffered greatly from the severe itching. The labor camp used a tactic called "Scratching the Itch," which made people bleed all over and was very painful. Ms. Wei did not relent under such a huge tribulation, but instead was able to see through the tactics of the police. Before she was released, the guards wanted to take pictures of her and other Dafa practitioners who had scabies, and they claimed that they would only release those whose pictures were taken. Ms. Wei firmly refused to have the pictures taken and was the first one to be released ahead of term, without any conditions. She walked out of Wanjia Forced Labor Camp with dignity.

Upon returning home, the officials from her work unit kept applying great pressure on her. The police department and officials from the "610 Office" often went to her home to harass her. In April 2002, Wuchang City Police and the "610 Office" together started another round of arrest of Dafa practitioners. Ms. Wei was dismissed from her job by her work unit. There were policemen and police vehicles stationed around her home. In addition, they viciously applied pressure on her family members and threatened to fire her husband and to make her son unable to work normally. It caused great psychological burdens on Ms. Wei and her family. Ms. Wei had to leave home and go from one place to another to avoid persecution. She hid in an empty house of a relative. According to the neighbors, on the evening of April 25 they heard someone knocking on the door of the room where Ms. Wei was hiding. On the morning of April 26, Ms. Wei was found dead outside of the building. The details of her death are still unknown.

However, the vicious persecution against Ms. Wei did not even end with her death. The authorities kept making up rumors saying that Ms. Wei went insane because of practicing Falun Gong and committed suicide. They tried to use this to frame and slander Falun Gong and to deceive people. Ms. Wei never had thoughts of suicide, even under so many brutal tortures and difficult situations. How could she just fall out of the building? What actually happened is still unknown, but one thing is certain: this is another crime that the Jiang regime has committed in its persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners.

(1) "Tiger Bench" -- A torture method commonly used on Falun Gong practitioners. Practitioners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall, with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force them to remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioners' lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse (see illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html)

(2) "Big Hang Up" -- A torture method commonly used on Falun Gong practitioners. There are two forms of this torture: (a) With both hands shackled behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to metal window frames; (b) One hand of a practitioner is handcuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. One feels extreme pain as the body is stretched.