(Clearwidsom.net) On the evening of January 25, 2005, a group of people pushed Ms. Tan Shaolan out of a car in front of a run-down house in the Sichuan Cotton Factory dormitory area. Tan Shaolan, a Falun Gong practitioner from Chengdu City, Sichuan Province had been abducted and then illegally imprisoned for one and a half years by officials in charge of the persecution of Falun Gong in Chengdu. People were shocked to see that Tan Shaolan now looked catatonic, with her eyes staring vacantly into space and her face, half-obscured by a tangle of hair, showing no expression. Severe abuse had left her in a state of semi-consciousness.
Ms. Tan Shaolan, 49, a retired worker from the 1st Sichuan Cotton Factory, started practicing Falun Gong in 1995. During the five-year persecution, government officials regarded her as a key target for brainwashing, because she persisted in practicing Falun Gong. During the past several years, Ms. Tan has been imprisoned almost continuously by police from the Tiaodenghe Police Station: She has been imprisoned in police stations, detention centers, and brainwashing centers. She has been imprisoned repeatedly without a break. At most, Tan Shaolan would be allowed to go home to take a shower; then a few hours later police would show up again and drag her away. After Tan Shaolan's factory was placed under the control of the Xinhong Road Police Office, she was confined in the Xinjin Brainwashing Center. When Ms. Tan was finally released, she appeared to be in a state of mental collapse.
In September 2003, policemen from the Xinhong Road Police Office, in collusion with the Department of Security of the Sichuan Cotton Factory, abducted Tan Shaolan from her dwelling in the factory's unmarried persons quarters and took her to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center to attempt to coerce her to give up her practice. Ms. Tan was tortured there continuously for about one year and four months. During this time, her younger sister made a great effort to ascertain Tan Shaolan's whereabouts. When she finally succeeded in locating her sister, she was still not allowed to see her.
On the evening of January 25, 2005, a group of unknown people pulled up in front of a run-down house in the Sichuan Cotton Factory dormitory area and threw Tan Shaolan out of the car as though she were a piece of luggage being discarded. The people who came to check on her discovered that Tan Shaolan did not respond to her name even when people shouted at her, that her eyes were dull and empty and her face slack and unanimated. She appeared to be catatonic. Because she had been persecuted and abused so horribly and for so long, Ms. Tan has lost the ability to describe the terrible things that had been done to her.
People who knew her all felt extremely shocked. One said: "To persecute such a nice person, who used to sing and dance well, to reduce her to such a miserable state; the Chinese Communist Party is just too vicious!"
Tan Shaolan's relatives have implored the local Party office to review Ms. Tan's case and to return her back wages, which have been illegally impounded for five years, because her relatives need the money to treat Ms. Tan's illness. Tan Shaolan's living expenses are now wholly borne by her younger sister, who does not have a job. Her sister is unable to provide for Ms. Tan any longer. But the people from the Party office and the Xiaolongqiao Community in the factory dormitory area have all shirked responsibility, each blaming the other. As a result, nobody is able to look after Tan Shaolan.
The parties responsible for the persecution of Tan Shaolan are as follows:
Chengdu Municipal Party Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
Address: Yangshi Street, Chengdu. Zip code: 610015
Tel: 86-28-866344794
Person responsible for the persecution: Li Chuncheng, the Chengdu Municipal Party Committee secretary, Provincial Party Committee member, director of the City National People's Congress
Politics and Law Committee of the Chenghua District Party Committee of the CCP
Address: Yangshi Street, Chengdu. Zip code: 610015
Tel: 86-28-86632832
Chengdu People's Government of the CCP
Address: Renmin West Road, Chengdu. Zip code: 610015
Mayor (The Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee): Ge Honglin