On February 21, 2000, when I validated Falun Dafa in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, I was taken into custody at Beijing Dongcheng District Detention Center and sentenced to one-year forced labor. I was then transferred to Harbin City Wanjia Re-education Labor Camp [Heilongjiang Province] on April 19, 2000. Now I will relate what I suffered and witnessed in the labor camp.
On April 26, 2000, many riot policemen put 6 Dafa practitioners including Wu Jiyang, Pan Xuanhua, Zhang Hong, Tan Guizhen, Fu Lixiang, and Cao Limei into solitary cells. Before she was put into the solitary cell, Wu Jiyang had been on a hunger strike 2 days in protest of the persecution of Falun Dafa. She was on a hunger strike for a total of 7 days. Even so, the guards still forced her to sit in an iron chair [a way of torture] for 10 days and 9 nights. Every day the practitioners in solitary cells could have only a little corn gruel, and a little drinking water. They were tortured this way for as long as 38 days. Fifty-five year-old Pan Xuanhua had her Dafa articles confiscated when she was put into the solitary cell. She asked the guards to give them back to her. Instead of getting the Dafa articles back, she was beaten up by 6 policemen. She suffered internal injuries in her chest and spat blood for several days. After this, she was forced to sit in the iron chair for 3 days and 2 nights. During that period of time, she was still on a hunger strike. Twelve days later, she was forced again to sit in the iron chair for 7 days and nights. Her hunger strike lasted 17 days. She was thus tortured in the solitary cell for as long as 45 days.
May 13 is Teacher's birthday. At lunchtime, about a dozen of our Dafa practitioners went to the sports ground to practice Falun Gong exercises despite the rain. We sat in a circle and mediated in the rain; our clothes were soaking wet. The male guards rushed up and started to kick and beat us. On the same day, labor camp associate chief Zhang Po punished us by making us stand facing the wall. During the whole night, we were not allowed to change our wet clothes, neither were we allowed to sleep. Zhang Po ordered several criminal prisoners to take away our clothes, daily necessities, eating utensils, and money, and discard them in the warehouse. He also ordered several prisoners to beat me up in the restroom, as a result, my body was covered with bruises.
On May 14, we started to practice exercises at 7:30 pm. The guards called in some criminal prisoners and had us tied up to heater pipes with our hands behind our backs. We could neither stand up nor squat down. They did not release us from this torture until after 10:00 pm, when some practitioners showed signs of losing consciousness. However, they still did not allow us to go back to our cells to rest. For a long time, we did not have spare outfits. In the hot summer, we were still in thick clothes.
On June 20, Wanjia Labor Camp held a so-called leniency-punishment meeting. In this meeting, those who betrayed and slandered Teacher with fabricated rumors were released on the spot, while those determined Dafa practitioners, who protected Dafa, revealed the truth, and did not give in to the heinous forces, were put into the solitary cells for further punishment. During the meeting, I stood up and chanted loudly: "Falun Dafa is a righteous way of cultivation!" I was thus put into a solitary cell by the riot police. I was forced to sit in the iron chair 22 days for periods as long as 14 hours each day. During this time, I was often beaten, cursed, and tied up with my mouth sealed up by adhesive tape. Sometimes, I was not released from the iron chair torture even during the night. Also on the day of the meeting, Wang Fang, Gao Shuyan, Chen Yali, Li Yanhong, and Cui Xiuqin were tortured. After they were forced to sit in iron chairs 28 days, they were handcuffed on the iron door of solitary cells and tortured 2 days.
In October, to improve the rate of transforming practitioners and gain political benefits, the labor camp leaders intensified their efforts in torturing those practitioners who are determined to cultivate Dafa. On October 20, six practitioners were hung up in the air and forced to write repentance statements. On October 23, seven practitioners of us were put together and were to be severely punished. The seven practitioners were Wu Jiyang, Han Shaoqin, Zhang Yuhua, Gao Shuyan, Bai Lixia, and Sun Jinkui. On October 25, Han Shaoqin was put into a solitary cell. In order to force her to write repentance statement, they hung her up over 3 hours with her hands behind her back. She refused to give in. She was thus detained in the solitary cell for two months and three days. Wu Jiyang, Gao Shuyan, and Liu Dongyun were forcibly taken back to their homes for further re-education.
On November 2, guard Sun took me to a bedroom on the 2nd floor and asked me to read a book slandering Teacher. I refused. Then guard Sun, labor camp leader Shi Yingbai, associate chief Zhang Bo, and other two persons ordered a male guard to tie me up to the bunk-bed with my hands behind my back to force me to give in. I refused again. So they hung me up this way from 3:00 pm to 7:00 am the next day. In the interim, since they were afraid that other practitioners knew my situation, they changed the cells several times where I was hung up with my hands behind my back all the time. I was in extreme pain. On November 5, they tried again to make me read the materials that slandered Falun Dafa. When Zhang Bo heard my refusal once more, he ordered the people who had been transformed to tie my hands from my back to the bunk-bed. My legs were also tied up. Zhang Bo said relentlessly: "There are only two roads ahead of you, one is that I ask the camp leaders to notify your family to come to claim your corpse, and the other is that you "read" the material. I will give you this whole morning to make your decision." I was determined not to surrender. Later, chief Qi and guard Zhang took me away for interrogation. After I read only one page of their prepared material, they took the material away and asked me to sign on it. I found the information was not in accordance with the truth, I refused to sign my name. Several days later, I refused again when Qi and Zhang asked me to sign for another time. Their purpose was to use the fabricated lies to cover up the truth and to aggravate the persecution. When I was sent back to my cell, other practitioners told me that my prison term had been added for half a year.
On August 10 [November 10?], six practitioners including Zhang Hong, Zuo Xiuyun, Li Yanhong, Pan Xuanhua, Wang Fang, and I were taken away from the dinning room and put into the solitary cells. Wang Fang, Zuo Xiuyun and Li Yanhong had many pustules and blisters on their bodies from previous tortures. The camp leaders asked several male prisoners to hold them down and they started their barbarous "treatment". They used scraping knives and spoons to scrape practitioners' bodies. The practitioners groaned in pain. Their bodies, after the torture, were covered with blood and flesh. It was terrifying. They trembled and groaned and tears stained their faces. Even the male prisoners did not dare to watch them. It was really too harrowing. Even after such torture, the persecution did not stop. They had to lay down on the dirty floors of the solitary cells, having neither spare clothes nor bedding. They were given only a little cornmeal mush twice a day.
They tortured Zhang Hong, Pan Xuanhua, and me continuously with many different techniques. At the beginning, they made us stand from early morning to late night. Six days later, they cuffed our hands together behind our backs until late night. Subsequently, they cuffed us separately to an iron door for several days. Thereafter, they brought a sound box, and loudly played noises that slandered Dafa from morning to late night. The volume was set to the maximum, and the guards closed the door. They felt that the torture with loud noises was not enough, so they kept cursing, accusing, and humiliating us. Zhang Hong and Pan Xuanhua were tortured in the solitary cells for more than 5 months. There were 240 practitioners who were recently detained at Wanjia Detention Center. Some of us veteran practitioners had gone through so many tribulations, but we were still determined in cultivating Dafa, the detention center isolated us from the newly-arrived practitioners.
On January 31, 2001, the practitioners who were newly detained were beaten up in the dinning room. Male guards grabbed the hair of several practitioners and pulled them out of the dinning room. Another group of male guards rushed up to beat and kick these practitioners. About two dozens practitioners were put into the solitary cells.
Amidst the severe tribulations, Dafa practitioners have always kept the mighty and righteous thoughts, because truthfulness-benevolence-forbearance has deeply rooted in our hearts.
A Dafa Practitioner from Harbin City
February 28, 2001