Practitioner Pan Gang from Nongan County, Jilin Province Describes the Persecution He Suffered

(Clearwisdom.net)

1. The First Time I Was Detained

After July 20, 1999, Nongan County's Tax Bureau, my workplace, followed the orders of the 610 Office. They detained me at work, and forbade me from going home unless I wrote something for them defaming Dafa. They deprived me of my freedom.

The chief director, Peng Yanfu, once told me, "The authorities persecute those who disagree with them, that's how politics are conducted in China." Then my work and the police sent me to a detention center. In the detention center, the guards beat and insulted me. Our meals consisted of corn buns and congee and our blankets were very thin. I suffered from starvation and cold there. Even so, I had to pay more than 20 yuan a day for food. Although I was required to make these payments, I was never given any receipts.

2. The Police Brutally Beat Me

On New Year's Day 2001, police officers Cui Ping and Chai Lidong from the Baota Police Station came to my home around 8 a.m. They said they were following orders issued by the police station, but they didn't show any warrants. As soon as they came in, they began ransacking my home. They took away all of the books and materials about Falun Dafa. Despite the presence of my child and my mother, who was 88 years old, they sent me to the police station and then I was held in the jail.

On January 3, 2001, officers Zhao Yunlong and Yao Guoqing of the vice squad took me to a room on the second floor of the police station. Once there, they beat me until noon. In the afternoon, Yao Guoqing beat me with a wooden stick one meter long so violently that the stick broke. Even then he didn't stop, and went on beating me with the broken stick until he was too tired to continue. The next day, Wang, the director, had Zhao Yunlong and Yao Guoqing beat me again with the same broken stick. My lower back and hips were black and blue. Wang grasped the stick and beat my head and back before he left. His expression was terrifying.

In the jail, I suffered beatings, abuse and torture from a police officer named Liu Zhong. Once, he sent me to the second floor and gave me a good beating. After that, he forced me to go through all kinds of corporal punishment. At last he said, "If you don't give up your belief, I will shoot you, then claim that you tried to grab a gun and attack the police. You will die in vain. I can ask anyone in this center to be a witness." And then, he found some prisoners willing to bear false witness. On February 28, 2001, they sent me to Jiutai Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp for the further persecution.

3. Tortured in the Jiutai Forced Labor Camp

Right after I arrived at the Jiutai Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp, Xie Guoxin, the director of the so-called "Education Team" talked with me. His intention was to force me to give up cultivation of Falun Dafa. I kindly clarified the truth to him, but he responded by hitting me in the face.

In early April, at noon on the day I arrived at the Second Squad, a prisoner named Liu Yuemin beat me. Because I refused to give up Falun Dafa, I suffered brutal persecution there. In the middle of April, we were forced to dig and remove soil for the pond. The instructor, Li Yunpo, the director, Li Chengzhou, and the unit director, Guo Yiping, ordered prisoners to persecute us. They designed detailed persecution methods for each practitioner in order to transfer us. They adopted the "take a turn" method to torture me. While I carried the soil, they forced me to run faster than the others. They pushed and dragged me. They each rested in turn, but didn't allow me to stop. During the whole afternoon, every one of them was too tired to move, but I was still full of energy. The next day, when they found I was still in a good condition, they would pack down my load of wet dirt after it was full and then add on to it, so that my load was much heavier than the others'. They put it on my shoulders after they saw that I couldn't lift it. Several practitioners were injured to varying degrees by the end of that day. My feet were black and blue and the nails of my toes turned black. The prisoner Lin Yaomin hit my back and legs with a board, rendering me unable to move. After several days of this torture, two of my toenails fell off. I kept my fallen nails as evidence of torture in order to expose their persecution.

4. Because I Shouted, "Falun Dafa is Great," They Kicked Me and Broke a Rib

Before breakfast one day in July, I was beaten by a group of prisoners because I shouted "Falun Dafa is great!" and then I was dragged to the office. An officer, Zhao Jiusheng, shocked me with electric baton. In the morning, officer Li Yunbo, General Director Li Chengzhou, and Director Guo Yiping punched and kicked me in front of all the prisoners. One of my ribs was broken. I could no longer tolerate the persecution and I went on a hunger strike to resist it. During this period, they handcuffed me and fed me with salty water. I did not cooperate with the force feedings. Dr. Jin directed prisoners to hold me down on a bed, and pricked my arches, fingers, and philtrum (The median groove on the external surface of the upper lip) with needles. I bled immediately. I still didn't cooperate with them. Then they made prisoners scratch the sensitive parts of my body, and knead my cheeks until my cheekbones were broken. On November 13, 2001, by order of Li Yunbo, a prisoner named Yin Chunlong pried my two incisors out with pliers. In December, Guo Yipeng handcuffed me to the radiator and beat me with an electric baton until I lost control of my bowels. Because I still held to my beliefs, they extended my term. My forced labor term was supposed to be over on December 29, but they extended it to February 1, 2002.

5. Detained in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp

After my work unit heard that I was back, they ordered me back to work at once, but they didn't pay me. Neither did they allow me to go out to work elsewhere to make a living. Liu, the former general manager, Zhang Yiwen, the current general manager, and Jiang Rihong, the director of human resources, required me to go to the office everyday, but I was given no assignments and no pay. They asked police from Laibaota Police Station to put me in a brainwashing center operated by the local 610 Office and said they would send me to the forced labor camp if I didn't write the "five statements." At the brainwashing center, I went on a hunger strike to resist the illegal arrest. On the third night, I broke the lock, and grasping a telephone line, I jumped from the third floor while the guard was not in the room. That was how I broke out of the brainwashing center and went back to my home county. When they heard I was out, my work unit and the police kept searching my home and my relatives' homes. They knocked down the door in the middle of the night and threatened them. In order to resist the persecution, I decided to go to the Chief Bureau and sue them. When I saw the staff of Communist Party Committee Office of the bureau calling my work, I knew their bad intention and I left right away. From then on, I lived away from home to avoid further persecution.

I was arrested again in January 2003, and the police and the local 610 Office once again sent me to the forced labor camp to persecute me. On the first day, the deputy director of the Fifth Squad ordered the prisoners to give me a cold shower and then beat me in the cell. I began a hunger strike on the third morning, and a group of guards beat me. Among them, the guard named Gao Zhi was the most vicious one. They beat me to the ground so brutally that I couldn't open my eyes. After the beating, they asked a group of prisoners to hold me down on the floor, pried opened my mouth and fed me with salty water. In the Fifth Squad, Gao Zhi often beat me.

On March 18, I was transferred to the First Squad, and I was again given a cold shower. The guard then had prisoners Zhang Tiejun, Wan Youguang, and Han Yuanzhi push my head to the bed and beat my hips and legs. Those parts turned black and blue at once. They forced me to sit on the cement floor everyday. Once prisoner Han Yuanzhi told me, "It is the team leader who wants you to be tortured like this. The goal is to destroy your body, insult you, torture your spirit, control your behavior and food supply, and hurt you financially. As long as you live, you'll suffer torture, but we won't have you die."

6. I Was Tortured by Stretching for 9 Days and Detained in the "Small Cell" for 33 Days

In the forced labor camp, it is very common to be beaten and insulted. I was forced to sit on the cement floor for more than 40 days without a full meal. They robbed the money from my home. It was very difficult to spend even one day under these conditions. On July 19, I tried to run away when we went out to work, but they found me and I was taken back. The director Zhang Fengming and Gao Zhilu beat me until my face was swollen, and then I was placed in the "small cell."

On July 22, the labor camp held a meeting to announce term extensions, and they forced prisoners to denounce Dafa. As soon as the person who was to denounce Dafa stepped forward, I shouted loudly, "Falun Dafa is great!" That person stopped at once. Then I was dragged out of the meeting to the office. After the meeting, the general manager ordered a group of guards to torture me with electric batons and he himself beat me. Then they cuffed my hands behind my back and put a stick into the handcuffs so that it cut deep into my flesh. Guard He from the Fifth Squad and guard Wang from the First Squad lifted me up in the air and then slammed me down repeatedly, until they were too tired to continue. Then the general manager took my clothes off, doused me with water, and shocked me with an electric baton. Finally they locked me in the "small cell," and hung me with the handcuffs. I suffered this way for 9 days. They finally took me down on the tenth day after seeing how the handcuffs were cutting into my wrists. During that period, I was given half rations and I had to sleep without a blanket. I had to sleep on a hard board after 10 p.m. The window was kept open so I'd suffer the cold and mosquitoes. I was detained in the "small cell" for 33 days.

7. I Was Tortured so I'd Lose Weight Until I Weighed Only 40 Kilograms

In the Second Squad, the prisoners also beat me. Prisoners Wang Zhichao, Zhan Peng, Tang Jidong, and Sun Hongwei often beat me. One day around noon in late September, prisoner Zhan Peng kicked me in the chest, and I immediately began to choke. I reported it to the guards. Guards Liu Xiaoyu and Su Guangwen wouldn't listen but beat me instead. After punching me, they found a belt, and after removing my clothes they started beating me with it. The scars from that beating are still very clear. Deputy Director Zhu Kun was present at that time, but he pretended not to see what was happening. I was beaten until I lost consciousness, and then they splashed me with foul water from the spit-pot and dragged me to the washroom to throw cold water on me. After that, my body began to fester all over. Even so, I was still forced to crawl under the bed to mop the floor and I had to work until late in the night. In December, my right foot became so swollen and inflamed that I couldn't even put on my socks, and I had to wear a pair of size 47 shoes (metric shoe measurement). My muscles atrophied and I only weighed 40 kilograms at that time. Every day felt like a year. I began a hunger strike after being beaten by officer Zhu, and the leader of the squad made the prisoners force-feed me with salty water. Another one of my teeth was pulled out because I wouldn't cooperate with the force-feeding.

They didn't release me even when I'd reached the end of my term. They illegally extended my term by three months. After these three months, they still didn't release me. The labor camp informed the 610 Office, and they sent me directly to a brainwashing center. In the brainwashing center, they never let me sleep. Finally, on June 7 I was released.

After I returned home, Zhang Yiwen and Jiang Rihong, the chief and deputy directors of the Nongan County's Tax Bureau, forbade me from working. The only way they would allow me to go back to work was for me to write the "five statements," following orders from the 610 Office. Because I didn't give in, they didn't let me work. To this day they haven't paid my salary for four years and denied all my benefits, as well as my bonus for the year 2000. It has caused great difficulty for me and my family.