(Minghui.org) Ms. Jiang Meilan, 65, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Xintian County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. On September 7, 2012, she was arrested and sent to the “Law Education Center” of Changsha City, Hunan Province, which is actually an illegal establishment for brainwashing and persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. By late September she was in a critical condition due to being mistreated there. On October 1 her family took her home and then to a hospital, where she was given emergency care but to no avail. She passed away on October 2, 2012.
The so-called “Law Education Center,” actually a brainwashing center where Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted, was established by the authorities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is located in the Fengling Group, Zhongling Village, Laodaohe Town, in the Kaifu District of Changsha City. The local 610 Office called it “Base Camp.” Since September 2012 the Hunan Province 610 Office has directed police to arrest Falun Gong practitioners from all over the province and take them to the brainwashing center. The names of eight of the arrested are listed below:
Ms. Zhang Lingge, 44, from Changsha City, sent to the brainwashing center on September 1, 2012
Mr. Tian Changbao, in his seventies, from Changsha City, was arrested at home
Ms. Zhou Dongying, 57, from Yuyang City, was arrested at her home on September 2
Ms. Jiang Meilan, from Xintian Couty, Yongzhou City, was arrested by the Domestic Security Group of the local police station under the direction of the 610 Office of Xintian County
Ms. Huang Juxiu, 60, from Yueyang City, was arrested on September 2 at her home
Ms. Zhou Jinlian, in her forties, was arrested and taken to the brainwashing center after her son reported her to the local 610 Office
Ms. Yang, a schoolteacher, in her sixties, from Pingjiang County, Yueyang City
A 19-year-old female university student, whose name is unknown to us, is said to be have been arrested in Changsha City.
Ms. Zhang was sent to the brainwashing center after she was reported to the police when she was clarifying the facts about Falun Gong. Ms. Zhou, Ms. Huang, Ms. Jiang, and Mr. Tian were arrested when they were at home.
When CCP officers went to Ms. Zhou's home to arrest her, her family took issue, upon which the officers showed them an official notice stating that Ms. Zhou had been enlisted for a “training course.” They had been persecuted by the CCP for many times for their faith in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance since Jiang Zemin's regime began the persecution in 1999. Ms. Zhang was imprisoned for six years. Ms. Zhou had been detained many times. Ms. Huang had been arrested nine times and sentenced to four years in prison, with her wages suspended for nine years by her employer. The illegal arrests did them great harm both mentally and physically, while their families also suffered greatly.
About a month after Ms. Jiang Meilan had been sent to the brainwashing center, she was in critical condition. On October 1, when her son went to the center to take her home, she was unconscious, unable to recognize anyone, not even her son. Her son took her home to Xintian County to a hospital. She had bruises and injuries all over her body. Her mouth was filled with rotten tissue and her internal organs were seriously injured. Her private parts were bleeding. Given her critical condition, the hospital refused to accept her. Through some private connections, her son finally got her hospitalized. Ms. Jiang died on October 2. According to some of her relatives and friends, her body, ridden with terrible injuries, was too horrible to look at. She was in perfect health when she was arrested. It took the brainwashing center only 22 days to kill her.
In the brainwashing center Ms. Zhou Dongyin was closely monitored by Jiang, a former practitioner who the CCP coerced into turning against Falun Gong. Ms. Zhou was forced to watch TV programs that slandered Falun Gong around the clock. She was confined to a single room and was not allowed to leave it. She was strictly forbidden from reading any Falun Gong books or doing the Falun Gong exercises. She was frequently taken to the so-called “training courses” and not allowed to talk with other practitioners. The brainwashing center “lecturers,” all collaborators—former Falun Gong practitioners who enlightened along an evil path—were from Hebei Province, Hainan Province, and Chenzhou City, Huaihua City, and Yueyang City, Hunan Province. There were three male and three female “lecturers,” including Xu, a 40-year-old man who turned against Falun Gong in 2010; Song Yuesheng, in his forties; Li, a man who beat practitioners most violently; and three women, Jiang, Chen, and Fang. When Xu lectured, which included nothing more than slander of Falun Gong, Ms. Zhou refused to listen and Xu threw the chalk at her.
Ms. Zhou held a hunger strike to protest the persecution for 22 days. After 18 days without food and water, she was in a critical condition. She was then force-fed. Her mouth was pried open with a special tool. The operation was so violent that her teeth were loosened in the process. During the forced feeding her mouth was stuffed with food that was picked up from the filthy ground. She was then “massaged,” where her tormentors pinched, squeezed, and punched her head, back, elbows, and legs with their fists. She became emaciated, her body covered in bruises. When ordered to speak against Falun Gong she refused, and was punched in the face and spine. Seeing that their violence failed to work, the persecutors brought in two supposed news reporters, to talk to her. After that they restrained their violence.
A doctor was later called in to examine her. The doctor said that she had hypertension and needed to take medicine. Without letting her know, they ordered a female temporary worker, whose name was Yuan Xiaolian, to mix drug powders into her food. When Ms. Zhou was in a critical condition she was not released. Instead, Guo Shengxiang, chief of the Law Section of Yueyang City, hired Yuan Xiaolian, 54, to watch her. Yuan was paid 100 yuan each day, with Ms. Zhou's money. On October 6 she fell asleep after dinner. The next morning she could not wake up, which reminded her afterward that she had been fed with nerve-damaging drugs. She protested with another hunger strike. She was released on October 7. Her relatives were very sorry to see her in such miserable shape. Her nephew asked if she had been beaten in the brainwashing center. When she was arrested, the CCP officers had sworn to him that they would not beat her and she was going to none other than a “training course.” Thinking that her suffering in the brainwashing center was too horrible for anyone else to hear about, she kept herself from telling them anything.
Ms. Zhang Lingge, after many days on a hunger strike after her arrest, is now emaciated, but the authorities still refuse to release her.
In September 2011 Chen Shulin took the place of Shen Liren as the chief of the 610 Office of Hunan Province. After he took the post, Chen ordered subordinate 610 Offices at all levels to intensify the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. In October 2011, the 610 Office of Yongzhou City opened a brainwashing center in Jieluqiao, in the Lengshuitan District of Yongzhou City, and arrested more than 40 local practitioners. In late October 2011, the 610 Office of Chenzhou City opened a brainwashing center in the Party school in the Beihu District of Chenzhou City, and many practitioners were arrested. Audacious arrests of practitioners were also reported in many other places like Changde City and Shimen County.
Claiming to be “maintaining social stability” before the Eighteenth Congress of CCP Representatives in November 2012, Chen and Sun Jianguo, secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Hunan Province, intensified the persecution of practitioners in the province, closely following the deployment of the Central Political and Legal Committee of the CCP and Central 610 Office. Many practitioners from Hunan Province were arrested, monitored, and harassed. In September 2012, under the direction of Chen and Sun, the aforementioned Laodaohe Brainwashing Center was established in Changsha City.
In the brainwashing center all the practitioners are held in solitary in rooms of about 10 square meters with a toilet. They are closely monitored around the clock by persons assigned by the 610 Office and local residential committee. The practitioners are forbidden from moving around and can eat only the food brought in by the monitors. The rooms are on the third floor, facing north. Through the window bars one can see bare grassland and some low hills, creating an atmosphere of solitude and claustrophobia, where there is no space for personal freedom. The practitioners are forced to watch videos that slander Falun Gong and its founder, are forced to study books that defame Falun Gong, and are confined if they refuse to be “transformed.” They are threatened with forced labor and imprisonment if they refuse to give up practicing.
Practitioners held in the brainwashing center are now in real danger. We ask for help to stop the persecution. Any efforts to expose the crimes of the 610 Office in Hunan Province and information from anyone who knows more details or other sources of justice will be appreciated.
Parties involved in the persecution:
610 Office of Hunan Province
CCP Committee of Hunan Province, No. 1, Shaoshan Road, Changsha City, Huanan Province 410011
Switchboard: 86-731-822151618, 6-731-82219664, fax: 86-731-82219674
Chen Shulin, chief and deputy chief of Political and Law Committee of Hunan Province
Jiang Heping, deputy chief: 86-13907318701, 86-731-82215011 (Office), 86-731-84597005 (Office)
Yu Dingping, deputy chief
Jiang Yongzhong, deputy inspector: 86-13808422781, 86-731-82219459 (Office)
Hu Hongxiang, secretary of the Provincial CCP Committee: 86-731-82219465
Lei Qiuyun, chief of the Secretary Section: 86-731-82215161
He Xi, former chief of the Secretary Section: 86-13808474847
Political and Legal Committee of Hunan Province
CCP Committee of Hunan Province, No. 1, Shaoshan Road, Changsha City, Huanan Province 410011
Switchboard: 86-731-82217776, 86-731-82217182, fax: 86-731-82215151
Sun Jianguo, secretary
610 Office of Changsha City
Floor 11, office building of the CCP Committee of Changsha City, No. 218, Yuelu Road, Changsha City, Hunan Province 410013
Switchboard: 86-731-88666610, Fax: 86-731-88667551
Hu Yajun, chief: 86-13787151617, 86-731-88667548 (Office)
Shao Yunhui, deputy chief in charge of brainwashing centers and re-education section: 86-13975362119, 86-731-88667550 (Office)
Zhou Qiongzhi, deputy chief: 86-15807311088, 86-731-88667368 (Office)