Conditions and methods used in the Fujian Provincial Women's Prison as exposed by someone who has been imprisoned there.
Elderly Falun Gong practitioners are arrested and detained without justification or explanation.
The Brutal Treatment of Falun Gong Practitioners at the Fujian Provincial Women's Prison
All illegally sentenced female Falun Gong practitioners from Fujian Province are imprisoned in the Fujian Provincial Women's Prison. Two separate buildings constitute the prison campus. The old jail is located on Lianjiang Road in Fuzhou City, and the new jail is on Qianheng Road. In the old prison, prisoners are divided into ten large groups, which are further subdivided into two smaller groups; the new prison contains six large groups, also subdivided into two smaller groups. The conditions in the new jail are exceedingly worse than in the old jail. During the nine years of persecution, the prison officials have carried out the most brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
1. Prison Orientation Team
The Prison Orientation Team is the first station set up to persecute practitioners upon their arrival. One or two guards chosen from each large group take turns to brainwash practitioners, forcing them to watch videos that slander Master Li and Falun Gong. The jail is crowded, and the prisoners are forced to stand. Sleep deprivation and other means are utilized in the brainwashing sessions, where the perpetrators try to force practitioners to write "guarantee statements". Guards force practitioners to recite the prison regulations, perform exercises, and run in drill formation. Practitioners who refuse to wear a prison uniform are stripped by prison inmates who have been incited to do so by guards. Practitioners who remain steadfast and refuse to give up their beliefs are then placed in large groups for the next step in the brainwashing sequence.
2. Persecution in the Large Groups
There are several methods of forceful brainwashing used on practitioners. The amount of torture is decided by the head of each group.
(1) Practitioners are forced to read Chinese Communist Party propaganda, and write a report indicating their understanding. They are forced to continue rewriting until the guards are satisfied. Practitioners are not allowed to sleep until they finish.
(2) Practitioners are forced to perform detailed sewing tasks until 2 a.m. or 5 a.m. Again, they are not allowed to sleep until their workload is completed. Since the practitioners are already fatigued from severe lack of sleep, they often fall asleep during their work. Once practitioners fall asleep, the guards beat them.
(3) Long-term standing and sleep deprivation are another method of persecution. Criminal inmates within the jail are also placed on duty to take part in the persecution. Each inmate is assigned duty for a one-hour rotating period. Some of these inmates will begin abusing practitioners immediately after waking. Practitioners are also beaten if they sleep against a wall. Practitioners are not even allowed to use the restroom. Once, I went to the restroom without permission, and these criminals charged in, grasped me by my clothes and threw me forcefully to the floor.
(4) Three-person teams monitor and limit practitioners' movements. Every activity--including forced labor, walking, going to the restroom, and washing --requires a monitoring team to be present. This method is used to force practitioners to give up their beliefs. If a practitioner does not comply with any of the rules, two of the team's criminals will have points deducted from their records, which negatively affects the length of their prison sentences. Guards encouraging inmates to mistreat practitioners have significantly intensified the brutal persecution of practitioners. One practitioner did not give up her belief, so prison officials used this as an excuse to cancel the three-month appraisal of her monitoring team. The criminals reacted by stripping the practitioner and beating her for six to seven hours. The practitioner was severely injured.
(5) During the coldest part of winter, practitioners were stripped to the skin and dunked into a barrel of cold water. During the hottest part of the summer, practitioners were not allowed to take a bath for more than 20 days, forcing them to endure filthy, unhealthy conditions, followed by more beatings from the inmates. One practitioner's pants were stripped off, then she was suspended from a hallway ceiling, with her feet dangling in a toilet bowl.
(6) One practitioner went on a hunger strike to protest the severe abuse, and refused to work or wear a prison uniform. She was then force-fed by the criminal team. They pried open her mouth with a bucket handle and forced the handle into her throat, causing the practitioner to vomit blood. They cut her nose, held her throat firmly with their hands, then poured food into her mouth, nearly suffocating her.
(7) Guards also encouraged the criminal teams to soil practitioners' blankets with their shoes, and pour dirty mop water on them.
3. Forced Brainwashing Session
The brainwashing session was administered by the Provincial Prison Administrative Bureau and jointly conducted by the Women's Prison officials. The leader is surnamed Feng, a deputy chief, who carried out deceitful and wicked actions.
Practitioners are locked in rooms with surveillance cameras. All activities and movements are monitored. The guards delimit the use of room space, and allow practitioners to stay in only one half of the room. Anyone who crosses the line is tortured. Practitioners must request trips to the restroom or for washing. The guards force practitioners to treat themselves as criminals.
The guards also force practitioners to watch videos that slander Falun Gong for multiple 24-hour periods, played at maximum volume. They are forced to watch these repeating videos continuously throughout the night.
A practitioner may sleep only after the guards have agreed to let her. Sometimes, they do not allow you to sleep until early in the morning.
The guards handcuff practitioners and suspend them from the iron bars of a window. The toe tips barely touch the floor, so the whole body weight is placed on the wrists. This torture causes extreme pain. The handcuffs begin to cut into flesh like a saw. Practitioners' hands have black blisters from the torture. The guards do not remove the handcuffs, even when practitioners sleep; they are only removed for ten minutes during mealtime. Once the practitioner is finished eating, she is hung up again. The handcuffs are finally removed after both hands are swollen and numb.
Throughout the torture of being hung up by handcuffs, the practitioner is not allowed to go to the restroom unless she makes a specific request. Even when she is forced to urinate into her clothes, she is not allowed to take a bath, even in the summer. Even during their menstrual periods, the practitioners are not allowed to go to the restroom.
The brutal torture that is conducted in the brainwashing session is known only by the guards on duty there. Chinese Communist Party officials vigorously cover up these evil and despicable activities.
On January 4, 2009, the Domestic Security Team leader Gao Feng, along with policeman Hou Hongqi and two policewomen in Shanan District, Zhoukou City, Henan Province arrived at Falun Gong practitioner Mr. He Jinliang's home. As soon as Mr. He opened the door, the police immediately pushed him into the police car. Mr. He's wife realized that her husband had not come back in and went out to check on him. The policemen pushed her into the car too.
Right then, another retired employee, Mr. Feng Zijun from the Procuratorate in Zhoukou City, arrived to visit Mr. He. Feng Zijun saw the police car and that the door to the home was open, which is unusual. He realized something was wrong and attempted to leave immediately, but it was too late. The police took him away, too.
A while later, another retiree, Mr. Wang Tianyu, from Zhoukou Petroleum Company, arrived on his bike for a visit with Mr. He. He also decided to leave when he saw the strange signs. Mr. Wang circled the streets for a while before he returned home. But eight policemen, including Gao Feng and Hou Hongqi, followed him to his home. The policemen broke in and handcuffed Mr. Wang and his non-practitioner wife Ms. Wang Xiuling. Then they ransacked the home. After the search, the police undid Ms. Wang Xiuling's handcuffs and took Mr. Wang away.
Later on, officer Gao Feng led another five policemen to break into Mr. Jia's home. Mr. Jia is a retired worker from the Zhoukou City Water Conservation Department. They ransacked his home and arrested the 80-year-old Jia, taking him to the Domestic Security Team. He was released that same day. Six others, including He Jinliang, Feng Zijun, and Wang Tianyu are still locked up in the Zhoukou Detention Center.