My name is Liang Chen (pseudonym) and I'm from Hebei Province. It has been over one year now since I was illegally incarcerated in the Fourth Team of the Shijiazhuang Labor Camp in December 1999. The following is a letter I wrote to Shang Changming, the Leader of the Fourth Team.
Hi Mr. Shang,
I am Liang Chen. You, as the Team Leader, the highest supervisor of the Fourth Team, have viciously and brutally beaten me on two occasions. These incidents aroused a strong reaction among the whole team.
Do you still remember last December 27 (on the Chinese lunar calendar), the Chinese New Years eve? I could never have imagined that [on that night] for the first time in my life I would be cruelly beaten without reason. That day, Ms. Su Xin (pseudonym), a Falun Gong practitioner in the same cell as me, was summoned to the team leader's office next door and didn't come back for a long time. At that time, someone came to our cell and said, "Somebody is being beaten in the office." Several Falun Gong practitioners in my cell all wanted to go to the team leader's office to see why they were beating our fellow Falun Gong practitioner. But other prisoners in our cell, who were supervising us, didn't allow us to leave the room and they closed the door. Another practitioner and I forced our way out and they followed behind, grabbing and hitting us. Prisoner Zhang Xinping seized my hair and pulled me back. At that time, several male and female team leaders came out of the office and asked that practitioner and me to enter the office. Right after we came into the office, one policeman ruthlessly kicked me and I heavily fell down to the ground. You, team leader Shang and another 3 or 4 policemen viciously beat me and swore at me. In addition to punching and kicking me, you also grabbed my hair, yanked up and down and tried to force me to kneel down. I wouldn't comply with your evilness, so I resolutely refused to kneel on the ground. So you seized my hair and repeatedly tortured me this way. And you, team leader Shang, kept slapping me so many times until my face became swollen and my mouth was bleeding. Then you handcuffed me and forced me to stand outdoors in the backyard. It was well below freezing at that time. I was forced to stand outdoors for the whole day, frozen and enduring pains all over my body. Many people, including my fellow practitioners, saw the blood on my face. When I went back to my cell in the evening, I was asked, "Why are there so many hairs on your clothes?" When I combed my hair with my hand, a lot of hair fell out and even one piece of skin on the right side of my head was torn off. Since I had been kicked down to the ground so heavily that the right side of my ribcage was very painful and I couldn't bend over, I had difficulty going to the bed. The pain lasted for over one month. Team leader Shang, please calmly think about it: what would have been the consequence if a non-practitioner around 50 years old was beaten so brutally?
On that evening, you called me to the office of the policeman on duty. I thus asked, "What kind of hatred provoked you to brutally beat me like that without saying anything?" Your answer shocked me. You said lightly, "Who beat you? I didn't beat you." If the authority goes astray, the subordinate will follow. A small number of people in power from the top to the bottom all rely on lies and suppression.
The other time [you beat me] was on April 25, 2000. In order to validate Dafa, dozens of Falun Dafa practitioners held group practice in the yard. This time you went mad. All team and sub-team leaders as well as other criminals all ran out to attack us. Some of them tried to pull us back inside and some beat us. When a criminal pulled me back, I looked back and saw my fellow practitioners being relentlessly beaten. Many of them fell down on the ground and moaned in pain. I was distracted. At that time, you, team leader Shang saw me and shouted at me angrily, "So you don't want to go back inside?" At the same time, you walked over to me and knocked me down onto the ground. You also stepped on my legs and shouted loudly, "You dare to take one more step forward?" With difficulty, I stood up and stepped forward toward the other practitioners. You knocked me down again and one supervisor pulled me up and dragged me to the workshop. Unexpectedly, after we had just entered the workshop, you chased after me with 4 or 5 policemen and knocked me down once again in front of all the other people in my group. You stepped on my legs and forcefully rolled them on the ground and shouted, "You dare to make one step forward. This is a dictatorship!" Other policemen also followed you to punch and kick me. One policeman tried very hard and kept slapping me until my face was swollen and my mouth was bleeding.
Team leader Shang, we have been detained here for over one year now. In this labor camp, we continue promoting Falun Buddha Law and writing letters and clarifying the truth to you, but you just ignore us. You are the highest-ranking leader in the Fourth Team. Due to your approval, other team leaders brazenly instigate criminals to slander our teacher. Due to your taking the lead, other team leaders have no scruples in beating Falun Dafa practitioners brutally and violating the law though you are all supposed to be the enforcers of the law. Due to your support, criminals use all kinds of dirty and cruel means to ruthlessly beat and swear at Falun Dafa practitioners. You don't discipline and stop such crimes but praise them like the group leaders or the good guards. They are praised in all kinds of meetings. The more vicious they swear, the more cruelly they beat Falun Dafa practitioners, the more they are awarded reductions in their sentences. You are possessed by the evil and abandon your duty as a protector of the people, assigned to eliminate the evil, encourage the good and safeguard the law. Instead you ruthlessly command the kind and innocent people.
Team leader Shang, human beings have both compassionate and evil natures. Without self-restraint and compassion in mind, people will be controlled by self- interests, desires and swelling evilness. To cherish the Buddha Law is to cherish one's own life. Those beings that insist on renouncing the universe's characteristics will definitely be eliminated from the universe and simultaneously repay their own karmic debts with endless pains. I hope you can distinguish righteousness from evil as soon as possible. You need to know that the good will be rewarded with good and evil with evil. Those with heavy sin have to help themselves out of it and wake up as soon as possible. Please fairly treat those good people who cultivate "Zhen-Shan-Ren" (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance).
November 20, 2000
The address of the Fourth Team of Shijiazhuang City Women's Labor Camp:
8 South Gaoji Street, Shijiazhuang City, 050061 P. R. China
Phone: (86)311-7793644.
