(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhou Yuzhen is 53-years-old, and lives in Guta District, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province. In 2001, she got into an altercation with someone in the stock exchange market. The other person scratched her face while she bit the person's hand. Ms. Zhou was detained in Jinzhou City Detention Center for refusing to pay her fines. However, the experience started a new page in her life.
At that time, she had many health problems, including tendonitis, tenosynovitis and arthritis. She was on herbal medicine for months using all kinds of herbal medicinal patches. She was depressed and could find no purpose in life.
Encountered Falun Dafa While in Detention
At the detention center, Ms. Zhou got to know five Falun Dafa practitioners. She could feel their peace of mind from their behavior. They had no complaints or hatred, maintaining compassion and kindheartedness in the face of the abuse and violence directed at them. Ms. Zhou's outlook changed significantly after hearing the truth of Falun Dafa. Three days later, she told the practitioners that the first thing she would do after she got out was to look for a copy of the book Zhuan Falun. While in the detention center, she started to learn the exercises. She learned a lot that from the practitioners. Thirteen days later, assisted by her sister and brother-in-law, Ms. Zhou paid the fines to the person she hurt.
Ms. Zhou did not waste any time looking for a practitioner in her area to find a copy of Zhuan Falun. On October 18, she found a practitioner and got her copy of Zhuan Falun. It was the most unforgettable day in her life.
From then on, Ms. Zhou conducted herself according to the principles outlined in Zhuan Falun. When things did not go smoothly, she did not blame anyone. Although it was very difficult to change her longstanding notions, eliminate her negative mentality and change her behavior, she studied the Fa steadfastly, which guided her behavior. She strived to be a good person.
Her health improved greatly after she started the exercises. Since she picked up Zhuan Falun, she has not had to take any medication. She previously had sore muscles all over her body, especially around her legs. She would have been exhausted even from doing little things. Now she has ample energy.
Ms. Zhou became a practitioner during the Fa-rectification period when Falun Gong practitioners were being persecuted the most viciously. Witnessing the contrast between truth and lies, compassion and villainy, she became steadfast in her practice of Falun Dafa.
Arrested for Distributing Falun Gong Materials
On June 7, 2003, someone tipped off the local police when Ms. Zhou was distributing truth clarifying materials. She was arrested and taken to the Public Security Bureau in the city, where she was interrogated for many hours. They asked her where she got the materials. She refused to answer. On the second day, she was sent to the city's No. 2 Detention Center.
Ms. Zhou went on a hunger strike for 19 days to protest her detention. The guards sent her many times to the local hospital to force-feed her or to give her intravenous injections. After she became very weak and could not longer be force-fed, they were going to send her to a forced labor camp. However Masanjia Forced Labor Camp refused to admit her due to her physical situation. On June 25, after more than 20 days of abuses, she was sent home, where her mother was suffering from a stroke, a debilitating disease of the nervous system and waiting for her to come back to care for her.
Arrested for No Reason and Sent to Forced Labor Camp
On May 31, 2004, at around 7:30 a.m., Ms. Zhou was arrested and taken to Jingye Neighborhood Office by three police officers. She was then sent to a brainwashing center inside the Geology Exploration Department (organized by the local 610 Office led by Li Xiejiang in 2004).
The staff strip searched Ms. Zhou and confiscated items in her pockets and purse, including the key to her home. They took the key and opened the door of her home and confiscated a DVD player, cassette player, a VCD of Dafa, Dafa books and the teacher's picture along with other truth materials.
At the brainwashing center, Ms. Zhou continued to do the exercises and went on a hunger strike to protest the detention. The 610 Office was afraid that she might end up influencing the other practitioners so they sent her to the No. 2 Detention Center. On June 3, with no due legal process, she was sent to Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.
At the Women's No. 2 Camp in Masanjia, Ms. Zhou was strip searched and later locked in a very dark and narrow storage room shaped in a triangle, where there were no windows and no bedding, except for a mattress made of hay. Every day, a group of two or four people would speak in front of her non-stop to brainwash her, to confuse her normal thinking. At the same time, they tried to make her sit on a small bench. Ms. Zhou resisted these abuses and refused to sit on the small bench torture device.
During the Five and a Half Months Hunger Strike, Ms. Zhou Endured Unbearable Abuse and Torture
Force-feeding had left her stomach, esophagus, nose and vocal chords injured. One month later, she was moved downstairs to be put in a hidden place for further abuse. They stretched her limbs and shackled them to the bed. At the same time, they took off her pants and inserted a tube into her urinary track. She was not allowed to get up at all. Then they inserted a tube into her nostrils and kept the tube there at all times. She was force-fed three times a day with a kilo of liquid at a time. As a result, she vomited constantly. The inserted tube felt like a knife in her stomach. At night her vomiting worsened. She vomited black and green material mixed with blood. The abuses went on for over a week.
Despite the treatment she endured, she never forgot her responsibility to tell people that Falun Dafa is good.
She also had to put up with the filth on her body brought about by constant vomiting, the sweat and the blood that soaked her, due to the brutal, longstanding, frequent force-feeding (She was later force-fed four times per day).
Over the five months when she was force-fed, the guards increased the doses every time. In the end, her head and face were swollen beyond recognition. She could no longer sleep. She lost her consciousness, but even then the guards did not release her. They said to her, "You cannot go out like this. It is indecent."
Later, Ms. Zhou started to have some food. She still continued to shout "Falun Dafa is good," "Stop the persecution," and "Stop illegal detention!" The guard was afraid that her shouting might be heard, so they moved her away from the others. Ms. Zhou started to do the exercises. To "transform" her, the guards kept changing the people who were supposed to monitor her and transform her. But they never succeeded in "transforming" her.
In February, 2005, Ms. Zhou was sent to a ward for regular inmates including drug addicts, prostitutes and thieves, in Masanjia, where vile acts on the parts of the inmates as well as the guards were rampant. Ms. Zhou shouted to all people there "Falun Dafa is good" to tell them the truth. At first, every time she shouted, she was beaten by those on duty around her. On one occasion, as soon as she opened her mouth, they pushed her to the ground, her head hit the floor, and she lost consciousness. Once she shouted "Falun Dafa is good" twice and a guard hit her on the head and dragged her inside. Ms. Zhou continued to shout. The guards pushed her to the bed and beat her head until the bed sheet was covered with blood. While Ms. Zhou was still resisting, they dragged her to the floor and stomped on her stomach. They were going to drag her to the washroom so they could hit her where no one could see. Ms. Zhou stopped them by telling them that she was telling them Falun Dafa is good from the bottom of her heart, not for them to abuse her.
In order to get back her energy, she started doing the exercises. The guards sent two inmates to watch her so she could not sit in the lotus position. It was impossible to do the standing exercises. They even wanted Ms. Zhou to do labor for them. She refused, and as a result, was shackled to the radiator. When Ms. Zhou sat down to meditate, the head of the brigade, Wang Yanping, kicked her and ordered some inmates to watch her so she could not sit in the lotus position. She was shackled for two days before she was let go.
Guard Wang Yanping is one of the most vicious ones. Once she shocked an inmate on her face with an electric baton, causing the person disabilities. She spared no means when she tried to hurt people. She poured cold water on the floor and made people stand in the water. Then she used the electric baton to shock the water. The person would not be able to stand due to the impact of the shock.
On May 7, Ms. Zhou started to eat less or not at all. She even refused water to protest the detention. As she was losing weight, the guards gave her intravenous injections to keep her there. After four months, Ms. Zhou was very thin. Every time she had a checkup, her blood pressure was at a dangerous level. She also had an irregular heartbeat and a severe headache. Ms. Zhou did the exercises, and the inmates watching her would try to stop her. Ms. Zhou said to them, "I am not bothering anyone by doing exercises here. It's up to me how I move my legs and arms. What you and the guards did to me is illegal and a crime. You guys are bullies."
At that time, there were seven other practitioners jailed on the second floor with Ms. Zhou. They all resisted the slave labor. The guards directed the inmates to separate them so the practitioners could not talk to each other. However, the practitioners demonstrated compassion, sincerity and tolerance towards these inmates. In the end, the inmates realized that the practitioners are kind-hearted people and all that was imposed on them was illegal. So they watched out for the practitioners while they did the exercises so the guards would not find out. After Ms. Zhou started the exercises, she started to eat normally and her health improved immediately.
On November 20, 2005, Ms. Zhou decided to eat less or none, or drink less water or none to protest her detention. She was all skins and bones. On January 24, 2006, she had a bump on her left neck. The left side of her face also swelled up and her left eye would not open. Fluid was coming out of her ears. The camp suspected that she had mumps and was afraid that it might be contagious. On January 26, they ordered her family to pick her up. On January 27, 2006, Ms. Zhou's brother picked her up. She finally walked out of the hellish place after 20 months of tribulations.
To avoid further persecution, Ms. Zhou had to leave home. And all this is because she wanted to be a good person following the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.
