(Minghui.org) Time can heal physical scars and wounds, but can't erase the painful memory of over a decade of brutal persecution and suffering.
Ms. Ge Xiuli, who practices Falun Gong, is a resident of Xiangzhuang Village, Jing County, Hebei Province. For more than ten years, she and her family have suffered tremendously because of the persecution of her peaceful cultivation practice. As an ordinary peasant, Ms. Ge has extraordinary courage and strength, and has persisted in her belief under the brutality of the seemingly all-powerful Chinese communist regime.
Ms. Ge was illegally arrested in September 2013 and has been detained since then. Her husband and child are very worried but have no channel with which to appeal on her behalf.
Average citizens have been learning about and awakening to the injustice and brutality of the persecution of Falun Gong, and more and more are courageously stepping forward and appealing on behalf of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Ge's fellow villagers started a petition on her behalf and have thus far gathered 897 signatures calling for her release.
897 Signatures on petitions for Ge Xiuli's release
Police Break In Without a Warrant
Over twenty police officers in four vehicles from the Hengshui City Police Department, the Jing County Police Department, and the Liuji Township Police Station converged on Ms. Ge's home at around noon on September 13, 2013. They surrounded it, climbed over the fence, and broke in.
Ms. Ge and her daughter were arrested. Several officers beat her daughter, who is not a Falun Gong practitioner. They also ransacked the home, and confiscated 6,700 yuan in cash, along with computers, printers, and other personal belongings.
Mother and daughter were taken to the Jing County Police Department. Ms. Ge's daughter was released that night. When Ms. Ge's family went to visit her, they found her handcuffed to a chair, soaking wet and cold, as the police had poured cold water all over her body.
Ms. Ge is currently being detained at the Hengshui City Detention Center. Her family has retained a lawyer for her defense, and hopes for her early release.
Persecuted for Years after Benefiting from Falun Gong
After Ms. Ge started practicing Falun Gong, all her illnesses, including chronic gastroenteritis, heart disease, neurasthenia, and rheumatoid arthritis, disappeared within the first few months.
Through practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Ge came to understand the purpose of life, and became known by the entire village as a good and kind person. She developed a harmonious relationship with her mother-in-law and neighbors.
Ms. Ge went to Beijing with several practitioners to speak out for Falun Gong after the persecution started in 1999.
Ms. Ge and nine fellow practitioners were arrested and taken to the Liuji Township Police Station on July 19, 1999, for a three-day detention.
The township government sent officials to her home in late October, and tried to coerce her into signing a pre-written statement promising to give up her practice. She was taken to the township government offices for refusing to sign.
The county police handcuffed Ms. Ge the next day, and transported her to the local detention center. After 25 days, the police department interrogated her and extorted 8,000 yuan from her family before releasing her.
Fearing that Ms. Ge would go to Beijing again, township officials deployed people in June and July 2000 to monitor her. They followed her when she went to visit her parents, when she went to the market, and even when she used a public restroom. During the period of a little over a month, Ms. Ge was arrested three times and detained for over ten days.
Ms. Ge managed to escape the surveillance on July 31, 2000, and go to Beijing again. She was arrested on Tiananmen Square and locked up in an iron cage by the Beijing police. At midnight, Liuji Township police head Xu Feng took her back to Jing County Detention Center where she was detained for 15 days.
Zhao Mingguan, head of the Jing County Police Political Security Section, put Ms. Ge on a 15-day detention on September 1, 2000, and charged her with “public practice of Falun Gong,” distributing Falun Gong flyers, and “disturbing the social order” (a blanket charge used by the Chinese Communist Party against any persecuted group). On the eighteenth day of detention, when Ms. Ge pointed out that the 15-day limit had expired, the authorities immediately filled out a second warrant for continued detention.
The township officials once again assigned personnel to follow and watch Ms. Ge's every activity on a 24-hour basis in late 2000, causing her family's normal activities to be tremendously disturbed. When she pointed out that the intrusive surveillance was a violation of her human rights, township personnel accused her of assaulting public officials.
Arrested on New Year's Day
Ma Jiangang and Tao Lichun, deputy township heads, went to Mr. Ge's home to arrest her on New Year's Day 2001. They beat her about the head and face, grabbed her hair and collar from behind, and threw her three meters into the next room. She developed a large bump on her head that kept bleeding. A piece of skin was torn off when her arm hit the ground.
Ms. Ge's neighbors and fellow villagers heard the commotion and came over to her home. They were angry at the scene of the two township heads beating her so brutally, and denounced the criminal acts of the two officials. The two men fled but returned with over twenty police officers. They arrested Ms. Ge, and threatened to arrest anyone who dared stand in their way. Ms. Ge was thrown into the back of a minivan and taken to the township government compound.
Wang Chenyu, head of the 610 Office and head of the township Politics and Law Committee, used a bamboo ruler to strike Ms. Ge's face, shouting, “We will not be held responsible even if we beat you Falun Gong practitioners to death.”
Tao Lichun, Deng Jianyang, and other officials kept beating Ms. Ge in the face. Her lips swelled badly, and her face was covered in bruises. Her eyelids were so severely swollen that she could not open her eyes more than a slit.
Zhang Baoshun, township Party head, along with Shen Jianguo, township head, shouted, “We will torture you every day until you sign the statement [renouncing Falun Gong]. We will give you a taste of living in hell.”
Persecuted in Forced Labor Camp
Twenty-three Falun Gong practitioners were secretly transferred on January 19, 2001, from Jing County to the Hebei Province Forced Labor Camp in Shijiazhuang City. Ms. Ge was among them. She was sentenced to two years of forced labor on the charge of “disturbing the social order.”
In the Fifth Team where she was assigned, team head Liu said disrespectful things about Falun Gong and its founder. When Ms. Ge spoke up to stop her, she slapped Ms. Ge's face many times.
Afterward, Ms. Ge was hung up by handcuffs to the iron grille of a dingy, damp, solitary cell for seven days. The freezing cold in the cell reached into her bones. She became numb all over, and her arms and legs turned purple. She was not allowed to use the toilet for over ten hours at a time.
Because she refused to wear the labor camp uniform (as a form of protest), Ms. Ge was forced to stand for long hours, and was beaten by the guards. Two male guards grabbed her arms, while others took turns beating her with rubber clubs. When she collapsed to the ground, she was propped back up and the beating continued. Her hips and legs became purple and swollen, and there is still a lump on her hip. The guards frequently slapped her face and punched her head until blood ran from her nose and mouth, staining her face, hands, and clothing.
Because Ms. Ge refused to write a statement promising to give up her practice, the guards held her fingers on a table and beat them with bamboo sticks. They also shocked her armpits and breasts with electric batons.
Torture illustration: Electric shocks with multiple batons
Although she did not know how many batons were used simultaneously on her, Ms. Ge remembered hearing the guards suggesting that they use higher-voltage electric batons. With each shock, her body felt like it was being gathered together in a sudden spasm. The pain was beyond words.
As she gradually lost consciousness, one guard said, “She's faking it. Pour some water on her, then hit her even harder.” The other guards eventually realized that Ms. Ge was on the verge of death and sent her to the emergency room of a local hospital.
When he heard Ms. Ge talking to the doctor about the cause of her injuries, Wu Liangyu, head of the labor camp, immediately taped up her mouth. Although the doctor told Wu not to do it during the oxygen therapy, Wu did it anyway.
During the intravenous injection, Ms. Ge was still handcuffed to the bed frame. A guard grabbed her hair and banged her head on the bed frame, saying, “I can't take a rest after hours because I have to come here and watch you!”
Because Ms. Ge's injuries were very obviously caused by severe abuse, the labor camp authorities feared that the public might notice. By noon the next day, they moved her out of the hospital and isolated her on the first floor of the labor camp building.
Ms. Ge was transferred from the Fifth Team to the Fourth Team on June 12, 2001. In July, head Liu Junling tried to coerce her to write the guarantee statements renouncing Falun Gong. Ms. Ge told her, “Falun Gong teaches people to be good and improves their health. What's wrong with that? What is shown on TV [referring to the constant barrage of anti-Falun Gong propaganda] is totally false.”
Liu then tried to force Ms. Ge to read books which slandered Falun Gong. When Ms. Ge refused, Liu beat her with rubber clubs.
A group of inmates was ordered to “transform” Ms. Ge. They subjected her to sleep deprivation for three days. Once she closed her eyes, they twisted her ears, pinched her eyelids, and forced her to stand. Due to the extended lack of sleep, Ms. Ge could no longer think clearly.
Liu tried to take advantage of her confused mental state to force her to write the guarantee statements. Ms. Ge still refused.
When Liu tried to force practitioners to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong, Ms. Ge refused. Liu kicked her but Ms. Ge did not react. Then Liu grabbed her hair, shook her head violently, and slapped her face back and forth.
Labor camp officials forced Falun Gong practitioners to watch slanderous videos in November 2001. When Ms. Ge took the opportunity to tell the guards the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution, she was beaten. She started a hunger strike to protest this severe violation of human rights. The guards made fun of her, “As a Falun Gong practitioner, you still talk about human rights? The central government has ordered 'transformation' by force on you guys. We just follow whoever is in power.”
The guards started to force-feed Ms. Ge with a tube, which was left in her nose for nine consecutive days. The tube caused extreme difficulty in breathing, and her stomach and throat hurt severely whenever she coughed, due to constant irritation by the tube. When the tube was eventually removed, a lot of blood came out with it. The captain told Ms. Ge, “The cost for the IV and force-feeding are coming out of your pocket! You won't be released unless you pay it off.”
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