(Minghui.org) Ms. Duan Yuying began practicing Falun Gong in April 1999 after seeking relief from her illnesses. Though her health improved drastically after she took up the practice, the 61-year-old's happy life did not last long. Three months later, then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin launched his campaign to eradicate Falun Gong, which resulted in her being arrested and detained. Her husband could not take the pressure from the authorities and divorced her.

Ms. Duan filed a criminal complaint against Jiang in June 2015 and holds him responsible for her ordeal. In retaliation, she was arrested on November 13 and is now being held at the Nangou Detention Center.

The following is Ms. Duan's personal account of what she went through at the hands of the Chinese communist regime.

Tortured in a Beijing Police Substation

I went to Beijing to petition for the right to practice Falun Gong in the afternoon of December 19, 2001. I was arrested the next day in an underground tunnel below Tiananmen Square. Police pulled my hair, dragged me to a police car, and took me to the Tiananmen Branch of the Beijing Police Department, where they locked me in a metal cage.

I was transferred to the Mentougou Police Department that night. They gave me a physical exam. I refused to let them take a photo. Therefore, they kicked and beat me. They pulled my hair and forced me to have a photo taken. I was taken to the Mentougou Police Substation at midnight, where I was handcuffed to a bench.

Torture Re-enactment: Locking in metal cage; sleep deprivation

I was interrogated the next day but did not cooperate, because I was innocent. They then hung me up on a basketball hoop with my hands cuffed to the frame. Police kicked away the rock on which I stood. I shivered from the cold after an hour, and was let town after two hours. They moved me back to the cell and handcuffed my thumbs to a chair. I could not feel my thumbs for several years.

During the two days and two nights in the police substation, they did not give me any food or water. They tried to “transform” me and force me to renounce Falun Gong, but I refused. They then shocked my thighs with electric batons. I had problems walking afterwards.

Tortured in the Fushun Detention Center

A staff member from the Fushun City Beijing Office took me to a local Fushun police substation. Li Haiyang confiscated the 300 yuan I had on me. Ma Jian transferred me to a detention center, which fined me 1,000 yuan.

I went on a hunger strike to protest the abuses, and they started to force-feed me a week later. About five men pressed down my head and hands, so I could not move. They inserted a rubber tube through my nose into my stomach, which hurt terribly. I was released 15 days after I went on a hunger strike.

Police knocked on my door on January 9, 2002 and took me to the Wujiabao Correction Center in Fushun. Because of my poor health, the center refused to admit me until they were manipulated by police.

In the correction center, we were forced to watch propaganda videos attacking Falun Gong. My health deteriorated.

I went on a hunger strike during the Chinese New Year. When the staff slandered Falun Gong during a meeting, we shouted, “Falun Gong is good!” Police then took us to a warehouse and stripped us.

Because I refused to be “transformed,” they forbade family visits.

On the Wanted List

My health worsened at the correction center. I escaped on May 6, 2002 and was put on the wanted list, so I could not go home. I lived a very stressful life because I constantly had to worry about staying out of the sight of police. I could not see my husband and son.

My family was monitored by police. My husband could not handle the pressure and divorced me. My son was left at home without anyone to take care of him.

I returned home on October 1, 2004, after which staff from the residential committee monitored and followed me for five years.

Background

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.

The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners during the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.

Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.

Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.