(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Zuo Zhongyou was a young teacher at the Dayubu Middle School, Yi County, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province. He was twice sent to a forced labor camp for his belief in Falun Dafa. After long-term abuse and persecution, he suffered a great deal of physical and mental trauma. His heart, lungs and kidneys deteriorated and he suffered brain damage. Zuo Zhongyou passed away on May 29, 2006.
Zuo Zhongyou was 36 year old. He began to practice Falun Gong in 1997. Since 1999, when the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong, Zuo Zhongyou and his family members made several trips to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was incarcerated in the Yi County Detention Center in October 1999 and was later sentenced to two years of forced labor. In late March 2000, Mr. Zuo escaped from the labor camp and went back to Beijing again to appeal. Unfortunately, he was arrested at the Xingcheng Railway Station and brought back to the labor camp.
Zuo Zhongyou was first detained in a small cell at Jinzhou Forced Labor Camp for seven days. Later he returned to the camp's Team Six. Guards Liu Huaizhong and Xu Guangquan cruelly tortured him. They first kicked him hard. Later they shocked his back, neck and other places with two electric batons. His skin was severely burned for days. During the day, he was forced to work wearing handcuffs; at night he slept with handcuffs on. The guards assigned him extra work and often verbally abused him.
On October 12, 2000, former political commissar Zhang Haiping and deputy head Jin Fuli ordered team leader Liu Tielin and some criminal inmates to attack several Falun Gong practitioners using electric batons. The victims included Zuo Zhongyou, Liu Yongsheng and Shi Zhongyan. Afterwards, guards Zhang Haiping, Jin Fuli, section chief Chen Ligang and the No. 2 Team leader Han Lihua launched a brainwashing session to try to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up Dafa. They made practitioners wear a safety helmet, handcuffed them and then made them sit at a corner table. Two guards and one common inmate were assigned to monitor each practitioner. They were forbidden to sleep or even sit down and were forced to watch videotapes of fabricated lies about Dafa. If a practitioner closed his eyes, lowered his head, or showed any sign to resist the program, the guards and inmates would not hesitate to hit their head with a stick, or shock the head, as well as the face, genitals, stomach and the rest the body. They even tied people to a metal chair for the whole day.
To protest the persecution, Zuo Zhongyou and several other practitioners went on a hunger strike. The guards and some criminal inmates subjected them to force-feeding, not out of concern for their lives, but as a torture method. The solution they fed the practitioners consisted of very salty corn meal gruel. They also forbade Mr. Zuo to sleep. All the hunger strikers were forced to sit on a small stool continuously for 44 hours. Subsequently, the stool-sitting torture became a 20-hour-a-day daily routine, from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Anyone daring to challenge the torture was handcuffed to the stool. When camp doctor Chen subjected Zuo Zhongyou to force-feeding, he used a hard tool to pry open his mouth and damaged Zuo Zhongyou's teeth. If Zuo Zhongyou refused to open his mouth, Chen would use his fist as a "drill" to twist his face. After a one-month hunger strike, Zuo Zhongyou became emaciated and his blood pressure dropped very low. His leg suffered from edema. Doctors in the Jinzhou Labor Camp were afraid he might die on their hands, so they invited the chief of the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp Hospital to see him. That doctor said, "He is ok. We have someone in Masanjia who went on a hunger strike for 80 days." Zuo Zhongyou compromised with the evil under the severe persecution, the pain and the huge mental pressure, and was thus released on April 25, 2001.
In October 2001, Zuo Zhongyou was arrested again after he openly said, "Falun Dafa is good." He protested the subsequent arrest with a hunger strike again. Later he was sentenced to two years of forced labor and suffered tremendous tortures in the Jinzhou Forced Labor Camp. Compelled by the guards, three criminal inmates beat him badly. Once, the guards used four electric batons to shock him. They locked him in a small cell, forced him to sit on a metal stool and deprived him of sleep for a long time.
In July 2002, officials at the Jinzhou Forced Labor Camp started another round of ruthless persecution against steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. They called this action "psychological correction." Guards Yin Jiejin, Jiao Zhonghua and Zhang Huidong attacked Zuo Zhongyou violently. Zuo Zhongyou suffered severe injuries and his legs were badly swollen. Persecutor Yin Jiejin repeatedly threw punches at his chest 50 to 60 times, making his chest swell and leaving bruises that lasted more than ten days. It was too painful to touch. He didn't even dare cough. Zuo Zhongyou wore handcuffs for the following three months. He also had to sit on a stool for 15 hours a day, with only three bathroom breaks. This stool sitting torture lasted more than four months.
On the evening of March 31, 2003, guard Feng Zibin led a group of criminals to escort practitioners Li Zhongjie and Zuo Zhongyou to a small room on the second floor. When the others were watching TV, they stretched Li Zhongjie's arms apart with handcuffs to form a cross. Criminal inmate Guo Weibin said, "Now we have orders from higher up to beat them anyway we want." Then they started a round of unrestrained violence against Li Zhongjie and Zuo Zhongyou.
Despite the torture, this time Zuo Zhongyou refused to compromise. Before he was detained, he weighed 75 kg, but in the Jinzhou Forced Labor Camp he weighed only 45 kg (approximately 92 lbs); he was in critical condition. The labor camp feared that his physical condition may cost them money; or, if he died in custody, they would have to take responsibility. They sent him home in September 2003. By then Zuo Zhongyou vomited every day and coughed badly; even family members and friends could not recognize him after his release.
After he got home, the labor camp guards often harassed him by telephone. Before he had recovered his health, ten people from his school, including several leaders, came to his house to pressure him to give up Falun Gong. To avoid another detention or additional persecution, he escaped to his relative's house. By this time, Mr. Zuo had poor heart, kidney and lung functions following the long-term abuse under the persecution. He coughed frequently. He often felt disoriented, had trouble walking, and could not perform normally at work. Zuo Zhongyou died in the afternoon on May 29, 2006.
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