(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Ziqin is a 55-year-old practitioner from Shibao Town, Gulin County, Sichuan Province. Below is her personal account of the persecution she and her family have suffered:
I was once plagued by severe migraines, gynecological illnesses, stomach and intestinal problems, and a bad temper. I had to take pain pills almost every day to make myself feel just a bit better. My husband, Luo Zhenggui, contracted atrophic gastritis. By the time he finally went to seek treatment, it had progressed into stomach cancer. We went everywhere to borrow money to pay for medical care. I almost collapsed under the unbearable pressure.
Things changed in 1998 when I began to practice Falun Gong. Soon I got rid of my bad temper and was able to conduct myself according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. My illnesses went away shortly afterward. My husband picked up the practice in April 1999, and his stomach problems disappeared just one month later.
My Family Broken and My Loved Ones Died
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started its open persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, the local authorities came to my home numerous times to harass and intimidate my family. This persecution stole the lives of three members of my family.
My elderly father first witnessed my capture and illegal arrest on January 19, 2001, and then saw my husband sentenced to prison in 2003. He fell ill and died shortly afterward.
In 2008, my daughter-in-law delivered a baby who developed health problems right after birth. At that time our whole family was being harassed. We didn’t have money to seek treatment for my grandson, and our little angel died just a few days later.
His father, my eldest son, decided to leave home and go from place to place to avoid further persecution. Feeling lonely and facing enormous pressure, my son then became sick but had no money to see a doctor. He died in pain in April 2011.
Harassment and Intimidation
One day around the beginning of 2000, about a dozen strongly built men broke into my home to threaten my family. Another time a group of people shouted outside our window in the middle of the night, but disappeared when we got up to check.
Policeman Ma Fei and his accomplices from the Shibao Town Police Station came to my home uninvited numerous times, trying to make my husband and me break away from Falun Gong.
When I visited my parents’ home in Pule Village in August 2000 to celebrate my father’s birthday, Shibao Town Police Station agents tracked me there and dispatched a driver to seize me and drive me back to the police station.
Detention and Monetary Extortion
In the summer of 2000, my husband and I, along with more than 70 fellow practitioners, went to Gulin County, hoping to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to the government officials. Gulin County Police Department officials dispatched its police force to arrest us at our hotel; police interrogated us for a whole night without allowing us any sleep. Afterward, my husband was jailed in the Gulin Detention Center for 37 days.
Around October 2000, two fellow practitioners and I were arrested by Yongle Town Police Station head Wang Hongyou. We were taken to the police station, where we were kept in a damp room on the first floor for one night. The next day Yang Zejun and a few others from the Gulin County 610 Office took the three of us to the county police department for interrogation. We were detained there for more than 10 days.
In 2001, suspecting that I had gone to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, Shibao Town Party head Fu Zhigao and Treasury Bureau head Xiao Jiangkkui ordered policemen Lei Qingmin and others to go to Beijing to find me. Without my husband’s consent, they deducted more than 4,000 yuan from his pension to cover their travel expenses.
Torture Suffered at the Gulin County Detention Center
Under the directive of Shibao Town Party head Fu Zhigao, local police station head Hu Dianbo led his subordinates and stormed into my parents’ home in Pule Village on January 19, 2001. They found me there and took me to the Gulin County Detention Center, where I was subjected to the following kinds of persecution and torture:
(1) Paraded in the Streets
Chen Hanzhao from the Gulin County 610 Office and the Gulin County Police Department head ordered the guards to tie me and several other practitioners up with thin ropes and then hang a small bulletin board with Falun Gong-slandering words around our necks. They loaded us onto several trucks and had fully armed police escort us to a field for a public gathering to announce our arrest. Afterward, they paraded us in the streets through several villages and towns. We shouted the facts about Falun Gong along the way. The police tried to stop us by tightening the ropes around our necks. The ropes cut into my flesh, and my neck bled.
Torture Re-enactment: Paraded in the streets with a bulletin board around the neck
(2) Death Bed
More than ten people, including Chen Hanzhao from the Gulin County 610 Office, the Gulin County Police Department head, officer Lu Changhong, Gulin County Detention Center head Xiong Jun, doctor Liu and guard Zhang Xianwen carried me to the death bed, where they handcuffed my limbs to the four corners in a spread-eagle position. There was no mattress, just metal slats, which hurt my back greatly. I asked doctor Liu to loosen my handcuffs, but he tightened them instead.
Torture Re-enactment: Death Bed
(3) Injection with Unknown Drugs
A group of guards held me down and injected me with unknown drugs. Afterwards, I felt chills all over and twitched uncontrollably for a long time. They also force-fed me with unknown substances.
Torture Re-enactment: Injection with unknown drugs
(4) Savage Beatings
One day detention center deputy head Xu Yongzhong beat me so hard that my whole face was burning with pain.
Torture Suffered at the Miaoxi and Jianyang Prisons
After Gulin County court officials sentenced me to four years of imprisonment, the police sent me to Division Two of the Jianyang Prison in October 2001. One month later they transferred me to the Miaoxi Prison, but took me back to the Jianyang Prison again in the summer of 2002, this time to Division Seven.
I was subjected to the following kinds of torture at the two prisons:
(1) Hung Up by Handcuffs
Miaoxi Prison guards once put me through this torture for close to 20 days. They handcuffed me behind my back and then hung me up by the handcuff to the metal window beam, with only my big toes touching the ground. They didn’t allow me to wash myself, nor did they give me any water to drink. They let me down three times a day for meals and restroom breaks, with each break lasting only eight minutes. After nearly 20 days of torture, my legs and feet became extremely swollen, and the skin broke and was oozing pus. The handcuffs cut deeply into my flesh; my arms were dislocated. I felt pain everywhere--on my hands, arms, feet, and back. I often lost consciousness due to the excruciating pain. It was extremely difficult for me to remain clearheaded.
Torture Re-enactment: Hung up by Handcuffs
(2) One-Arm Handcuffing
The guards switched me to this after the torture of being hung up, as described above. They handcuffed one of my arms to the window frame and had me stand straight, facing the wall, for long periods. I was already extremely weak. I had great difficulty standing straight and couldn’t help leaning forward and hitting the wall. I tried to pull myself up, only to lean forward again. As a result of repeatedly hitting the wall, I had numerous bumps on my chest, which soon turned black and purple.
(3) Handcuffed behind my Back
The guards pulled one of my arms over my shoulder and linked it by a handcuff to my other arm, which was twisted behind my back. I felt excruciating pain no more than 30 minutes into this torture. Division Seven head Yu Zhifang at the Jianyang Prison took the handcuffs off me for just a little while before she handcuffed me in this position again. She did this repeatedly for a total of several hours, despite the fact that my arms became dislocated earlier in the torture session.
Torture Re-enactment: Both Hands Cuffed Behind the Back
(4) Handcuffed to a Basketball Hoop
From mid-February to the summer of 2003, Yu Zhifang frequently handcuffed me to a basketball hoop outside, exposing me to the elements.
(5) Handcuffed with Arms Twisted in the Back to Embrace a Tree
Division Seven guards twisted my arms behind my back to embrace a small tree and then cuffed my hands together. I had to remain in this position for a long time and was hurt severely.
(6) Handcuffed at Night and Forced to Squat
At night, the guards cuffed one of my hands to the top bunk of one bed and the other hand to the bottom bunk of another bed. This way I couldn’t stand straight and had to squat, with both arms stretched and handcuffed for a whole night.
Torture Re-enactment: Both Hands Cuffed during Sleep
(7) Injection with Toxic Drugs
The guards at Miaoxi Prison injected me with unknown drugs. Not long after, my head felt like it was splitting. I rolled out of bed and lost consciousness.
(8) Force-Feeding
The guards at both prisons used force-feeding as a means of torture. They used various kinds of force-feeding methods to make me suffer.
Guards at the Miaoxi Prison made me stand with my back facing the window and then had some inmates pull my hair from outside the window. They next ordered the ones inside the room to hold on tight to my hands and feet. They intentionally inserted the feeding tube into my windpipe. I immediately could not breathe and dropped to my knees. But they didn’t let me go and kept force-feeding me. At the same time people pinched my hands and nose.
Sometimes the guards pressed me down and pried my mouth open to force-feed me. They also urged criminal inmates to stomp on my knees.
The guards at the Jianyang Prison cuffed my hands behind my back and force-fed me. They inserted the feeding tube through my nostril into my stomach and often left it inserted for many days. My nostrils became swollen, and mucus and saliva kept dripping.
Yu Zhifang at the Jianyang Prison made me lift my arms and then handcuffed me to the metal prison gate. She ordered a group of inmates to stand in front of me and pinch my nose. When I had to open my mouth to catch a breath, they force-fed me with food. At the same time she directed another group of inmates to punch me in the back. I could barely breathe as a result. The long-term force-feeding left my mouth injured and infected from being pried open and my face injured from being pinched.
(9) Tied up with Ropes
One day Yu Zhifang and a few inmates dragged me to a top floor and ordered me to stand straight, with my legs touching each other. They pulled one of my arms over my shoulder and linked it by a handcuff to my other arm, which was twisted behind my back, and then tied my legs with one-inch-wide ropes from my ankles to above my knees. Then they forced me to kneel and cursed me at the same time.
(10) Back Bent with Hands Touching the Ground
The guards had me stand with my feet together and my knees straightened, and then ordered me to bend my back, with my hands touching the ground. They forced me to remain in this position from evening to the next morning and didn’t allow me to move. The whole time I felt my blood rushing to my head; it was extremely uncomfortable. Even though they allowed me to stand straight on the second day, they forbade me to sit down to rest.
(11) Beaten; Clothes Stripped Off
Yu Zhifang led a group of criminal inmates to put me in the restroom, where they forcibly stripped off my clothes and whipped me with sticks made of Herba Epimedii, an herb that made me extremely itchy. They also hit my naked lower body with broomsticks.
(12) Stripped Naked and Humiliated
One day while I was being handcuffed, Yu Zhifang grabbed scissors and cut my clothes into pieces. Then she directed criminal inmates to hold my hair and take nude pictures of me. As if that was not enough humiliation, she called in a male guard to stare at my naked body. She left me there to "feed the mosquitoes"; I had mosquito bites everywhere on my body as a result.
(13) Tied onto a Tiger Bench
The guards had me sit on one end of the tiger bench with my upper body tied with ropes in a crisscross pattern and my hands cuffed behind my back. Next, they tied my legs to the bench. To make me suffer even more, they lifted my feet to rest on several layers of bricks. They often made me sit on the bench for several days in a row, without any toilet breaks.
(14) Body Rubbed against Rocks
The ground at the Division Seven location was neither level nor smooth, with little rocks exposed everywhere. Yu Zhifang ordered criminal inmates to drag me on the ground by one or both of my legs while running back and forth. They intentionally let my body rub against the rough surface. They also grabbed my feet and repeatedly slammed me on the ground. My skin was broken and bleeding.
Monitoring and Brainwashing
After my release from the Jianyang Prison on January 20, 2005, Shibao Town Party head Wang Hongyou ordered Yang Lin and policeman Ma Fei to shadow and monitor me all the time.
In September 2005, Wang Hongyou, Shibao Town Police Station head Shao Guanghui, and policemen Tang Xinglong and Ma Fei arrested me and sent me to the Jianzhu Town Brainwashing Center. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Under the directive of Gulin County Political and Legal Committee head Xia Chuanhui, Chen Mingquan and a few others forced me to stand still for long periods of time. They also force-fed me with unknown drugs and chilli soup.
Harassment and Roundup of my Whole Family
Just a few days after my release from the brainwashing center, Shibao Town Police Station head Shao Guanghui and policeman Ma Fei broke the window of my rented residence and ransacked my place. Shibao Town Party head Wang Hongyou and Shao Guanghui next directed Zhu Haifei to forcibly take me to the Shibao Town Government Residential Area, where they had people watch over me around the clock.
In 2008 my husband and I lived in my daughter’s home while she was out of town. One day Shibao Town deputy head Chen Zhenglong, Shao Guanghui and Village Party head Wu Zhujun broke in and looted our Falun Gong books.
Under the directive of Zhou Qiang from the Gulin County 610 Office, new Shibao Town Party head Xu Bin led Yang Lin from the Comprehensive Affairs Office, Yang Kang from the Armed Forces Bureau and a policeman with surname Zhang to raid my son-in-law Zou Anyong’s home in Pule Village on April 5, 2009. They ransacked his neighbors’ homes as well, attempting to find my husband, my eldest son and me.
On May 4, 2009, by promising a reward, Xu Bin and town head Xu Huaili lured villager Li Bangmin to spy on my in-laws’ home in Pule Village around the clock. At the same time, they stationed police there and one police vehicle on the roads behind my parents’ home, also in the same village. When the night fell, Li Bangmin led a group of people with bright lights in their hands and searched for us everywhere – on the main roads, back roads and in the woods.
Xu Bin and Treasury Bureau head Xia Jiangkui also froze my husband’s pension in May 2009 and took over our apartment. My 80-year-old mother was left with no one to care for her. She was forced to leave home and become homeless.
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