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8. Women, Children, and the Elderly
8.1 Brutality against Women and Senior Citizens: Women were Handcuffed, Stripped, Beaten and Tortured
Case 1
Message received on February 8, 2000
Victims: Zhou Ximeng (female), and others in the Tangshan Labor Camp, Hebei Province.
Location of incident: Tangshan City, Hebei Province
Description:
Zhou Ximeng, a former contact person of Falun Dafa Shijiazhuang assistance center, was seen by a fellow practitioner in the first women’s labor camp of Tangshan City on January 27, 2000. It was the 8th day of her hunger strike. Many other practitioners were also on hunger strike. The total number of practitioners was unknown. Their situation was very life threatening. On January 19, 2000, all practitioners detained in the first women’s labor camp of Tangshan City started a hunger strike to protest the physical torture. They were forced to stand outdoors at 15oC; some practitioners’ hands and other parts of body became numb with the cold.
Case 2
Message received on January 8, 2000
Victim: Cheng Fengrong (female, 42)
Location of incident: Nihe Detention Center, Shunyi County, Beijing
Description
Five practitioners including Cheng Fengrong, a 42-year-old woman, were arrested by Shunyi police department. A policeman slapped Ms. Cheng while handcuffing her to a tree. She was later brutally beaten by the policeman with a broom so hard that the broom was broken into two pieces. Then she was forced to stand barefoot in the snow. She was handcuffed to the tree and forced to squat down. She was punched and kicked when she could no longer stand firm. The policeman also poured two basins of cold water down the back of her neck. The water froze at her feet. As of the date this report was received, black and purple spots are still visible on her legs. Another 52-year-old practitioner also had bruises from police tortures. A police officer used a string of keys to scratch back and forth on the bridge of her nose. The bruises in her face were very obvious when she was sent to the detention center.
Case 3
Victim: Gao Yulan (female)
Location of incident: Gao’s home, Jiangsu Province
Description:
Gao was arrested at 5am on December 31, 1999 when she was practicing Falun Gong at home. A policeman dragged her hair, slapped her face and kicked her. The police even pushed her head under the water to punish her. She was held for 16 days, and suffered various kinds of inhumane treatments.
Case 4
Victim: Wang Shuzhen (female, 78)
Location of incident: Dongchenggen Street, , Chengdu City, Sichuan Province
Description:
Wang Shuzhen was a 78-year-old woman living in Dongchenggen Street of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Wang went to Beijing on December 26 of 1999 in order to tell the truth of Falun Gong to the central government authorities. She was taken by police and was escorted back to Chengdu City. Because of her old age, she was kept under house arrest instead of being sent to detention centers. The police informed all her neighbors that they should immediately report to the police if they saw anyone paying a visit to her.
Case 5
Message received on February 15, 2000
Victims: Shong Shaomei, Wang Chuixiang, Lu Xiufang, Lu Yuanmei, Su Chuiliao
Location of incident: Linglong local police station, Shandong Province
Description:
On their way to Beijing to appeal, these five practitioners were detained and then taken back to the Linglong local police station on December 28, 1999. The head of the security department of the local police station forced them to strip off all their cloths to be searched, including their underwear. It was in a very cold winter. During the night, they had to sleep on the bare concrete floor of the iron cell with no blanket. The guard intentionally left all the windows open. With the freezing temperature, they trembled throughout the night. They were also denied access to the restroom. They were detained in this cold, iron cell for two days and two nights. During this time, Shong Shaomei’s life was in danger and she had to be sent to the hospital.
Case 6
Victims: Chen Lingmei, Zang Cuiqing, Chang Hengchun, Xing Junhua
Location of incident: Yangmatou District, Zhuozhou City, Hebei Province
Description:
On November 19, 1999, Chen Lingmei was detained when she was at Tiananmen Square on her way to peacefully appeal to the government. She was then sent back to the police station of Zhuozhou city, Hebei Province. She was beaten up while being interrogated. Then she was sent to a training center along with Zang, Chang and Xing to be “re-educated”. They were forced to write statements promising to give up Falun Gong, and to read newspapers that slandered Falun Gong. They refused to write the promises and, as a result, they were taken to the next room one by one to go through various tortures. The police used electric clubs to shock them all over their body from head to toe. They slapped the practitioners’ faces and kicked them. They even used a one-foot long wooden stick to hit their faces. The torture did not stop until sometime around midnight.
Case 7
Victim: Bai Lili
Location of incident: Beijing
Description:
On October 25, 1999, Bai Lili went to the Central Committee and State Council Appealing office. She was received by police officers instead of officials of the appealing office. She was sent to the Dongcheng Detention Center. Police stripped off her clothes to search her, and they found two Falun Gong books. Several police officers dragged her arms and some pulled her hair in order to take the books away, but failed. The next day, they tied up her two feet and two arms, and then pushed her onto the ground. They seized her books and tore them apart, and then squeezed the pages of the books into Ms. Bai’s mouth. She almost choked to death.
Case 8
Message received on October 15, 1999
Victims: Wang Wei (female), Hu Shuzhi (female), Ning Guiying (female)
Location of incident: Yuemingshan Detention Center, Anshan City, Liaoning Province
Description:
Three contact persons of Anshan in Liaoning Prvince, Wang, Hu and Ning were arrested at their homes on September 24, 1999. They were detained in the Yuemingshan Detention Center. They were hung up to a heating pipe and were beaten for a whole night because they all declared they would continue to practice Falun Dafa. By the date the report was received, Wang was not yet released.
Case 9
Message received on October 23, 1999
Victim: Chen Yajun (female), Ulumuqi, Xinjiang Province.
Location of incident: Beijing
Description:
On September 19, 1999, in an apartment in Beijing, Chen was arrested along with 15 other practitioners from Jilin and Shaanxi Provinces, and Ningxia Autonomous Region. They were detained by the ChaoYang branch of Beijing Public Security Bureau in the early morning of September 20th, 1999. Before they were taken into prison, policemen performed a full body search, forced them to take off all their clothes and bend down. Chen started a hunger strike on September 20. Her hands were handcuffed behind her back during the entire time she was imprisoned until September 24. She was forced to stand for 13-14 hours without any place to lean on and without giving a chance to go to the restroom. The prison official verbally and physically abused her. In the afternoon of September 25, three policemen forced her to lie on the ground, tore her mouth open and inserted pipes from her nose into her stomach to forcefully feed her. Her nose bled when she was struggling, and blood was spread all over her clothes and on the wall.
Case 10
Victim: Huang Xiuling (female, 52), retired worker of the Second Chemical Plant of Beijing.
Location of incident: Beijing
Description:
On September 9, 1999, Huang was arrested by policemen and was then taken to Tiananmen Police Station. She was transferred to the Majuqiao Police Station and then to Qiaozhuang Detention Center that night. The policemen checked her bag and asked her to turn in her Falun Dafa books, but she refused. Then the officer sent her to No.9 room of Cell 2, and ordered the prisoners to beat her up in order to force her to hand in the books. The prisoners dragged her arms and legs, punched and kicked her. They even stripped off her clothes. Finally they took the books away. During the night, Ms. Huang was beaten up again for practicing Falun Gong exercises. The next day, the leader of the prison cell reported to the officer that Ms. Huang practiced the exercises at night. She was ordered to recite the rules in jail, but she refused. The officer then used an electric club to shock her and also asked her whether she would continue to practice Falun Gong. After she said yes, the officer punched her, and then asked the prisoners to strip her clothes off and pour cold water on her body. After Huang refused to recite the rules again, the officer put handcuffs and shackles on her. She was dragged to each cell, and was shocked with the electric club as a warning to other prisoners.
Case 11
Message received on October 7, 1999
Victims: Zhang Xihong (female), Jin Gang (female)
Location of incident: Qiliqu Detention Center in Changping County, Beijing.
Description:
The following are some of the incidents that occurred in the women’s detention center from late August to mid September, 1999. On Sept. 7, 1999, sixty detained practitioners began a hunger strike and continued for about 9 days. During the strike, they were interrogated for 2-3 hours every day, and were yelled at, beaten up or punished by the police officers in the detention center. On the third day of their hunger strike, a policeman forced them to stand under the burning sun for 3 hours. Some practitioners vomited and became dehydrated. But the police did not allow them to drink water or take a rest, and even beat those who could not stand any more.
Zhang Xihong had been on strike for 10 days and was still chained. Her hands and feet were locked together so that her head almost touched the ground when she walked. There were about 10 practitioners who were handcuffed for practicing Falun Gong exercises in the detention center, or because they were suspected of doing the exercises. On the evening of Sept. 14, a drunk chief officer yelled at the practitioners and violently beat them when they made any sound. He also handcuffed those who did not sit in the “right manner”. The policemen in Office 5 of Pre-trial Department used whatever instruments he could find, including belts, iron wires, screwdrivers, to torture practitioners. Moreover, they forced practitioners to bow 90 degrees with their hands elevated behind them. The policemen kept torturing practitioners until the practitioners almost lost consciousness. One practitioner named “Jin Gang”, meaning “hard as a diamond” in Chinese, was beaten up twice simply because they did not like her name. She had not had any food for 7 days and her stomach ached terribly after she was beaten up. There were bruises all over her back.
Case 12
Victim: Wang Yan (female, 56)
Location of incident: Fuzhen Police Station, Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province
Description:
Personal Account
On July 22, I was caught by the police in Shanhaiguan City, and was detained there for a night. On July 23, I was first sent to Jinzhou, and then Liaoyuan, and detained in the Fuzhen Police Station. That night, the police ransacked my home, and took away Falun Dafa materials. I was transferred to the street office where they forced us to watch TV programs and newspapers full of fabricated slanders about Falun Dafa. They watched on me closely, and forced me to write a statement of guarantee promising that I would give up Falun Gong and would not go to appeal again. I refused to do that. They thus beaten me up and swore at me.
Case 13
Message received on November 1, 1999
Victim: Gu Zhiyou (female, 63), a teacher in Chongqing Tax School, Sichuan Province.
Location of incident: Chongqing City, Sichuan Province.
Description:
Gu was arrested on July 19, 1999. In the jail, she was treated with 24 types of inhumane torturing devices, including the “Tiger Stool”(lash thighs on a bench and then bent legs to the opposite direction by adding bricks under the heels), piercing through fingers with sharp bamboo sticks, electric chair, and electric shocks between the head and anus, etc. She was still in custody when the report was received.
Case 14
Message received on January 7, 2000
Victims: Zhang Xuefeng (female, 22) and other Falun Gong practitioners
Location of incident: Daqinjia Town, Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province
Description:
On January 1, 2000, two officials from Daqinjia Township government, Sheng and Yu, went to Xiaozhuanshan Village to arrest Falun Gong practitioners. They started to beat the practitioners with sticks and clubs in the village office, and continued the beating after they arrived at the County office. Practitioners Liu Xirong and Li Juhua’s faces swelled up due to the beating. Zhang Xuefeng, a 22-year-old girl, was beaten to the ground by Sheng and others. Sheng then grabbed her breast to pull her up and kicked her crotch madly, cursing “I will make you unable to give birth ...” After Zhang was tortured to lose her consciousness, Sheng even spat into her mouth for several times. After Ms. Zhang gained her consciousness, she found that she had lost control of excreting and started to vomit terribly.
8.2 Humiliations, Abuses, Sexual Harassments and Assaults of Women including Pregnant Women in Detention Centers and Prisons
Case 1
Message received on December 8, 1999
Victim: (Anonymous), female, a Falun Gong practitioner.
Location of incident: Longfeng Detention Center, Helongjiang Province
Description:
Below was part of the experience sharing essay written by the practitioner.
“On September 28, 1999, I was detained by police at the local police station. One day, around dinner time, a male prisoner approached the window of my cell and said “you strip your pants and I want to watch you do Falun Gong exercise naked.” I told him “I am a practitioner and I don’t want to be like you.” After hearing that, he shouted from outside “Strip off your pants”. At that moment, the guard opened the door of my cell. That man jumped on me. He pushed me down on the bed. I struggled with all my efforts and asked for the help of the guard, but the guard did not stop the prisoner at all.”
Case 2
Message received on November 01, 1999
Victim: Li Juhua (female, 25)
Location of incident: Meichen Town, Anhua County, Hunan Province.
Description:
On July 25, 1999, Li was taken away by local Joint Defense Team (a subordinate organization of the government public security system). She was subsequently raped by a group of team members and went insane after the incidents.
Case 3
Victims: More than 300 Falun Gong practitioners detained in Balibao prison of Changchun City, Jilin Province
Location of incident: Balibao prison, Changchun City, Jilin Province
Description:
More than 300 Dafa practitioners were detained in Balibao prison of Changchun city before October 1 for refusing to write the so-called “confessing statement”. The practitioners suffered all kinds of tortures. Some practitioners were burned by cigarettes, some were beaten by big clubs so hard that the clubs were broken during the beating. A woman (Falun Gong practitioner) who was released from a Changchun detention center said, “Regardless of whether they are male or female, they are being beaten up with all their clothes stripped off. Wounds can be found all over their bodies. Even pregnant women haven’t escaped such inhumane treatment. Ms. Xu (a practitioner) was handcuffed, hung up by a rope, and beaten. There are wounds all over her back.”
Case 4
Victims: More than 800 practitioners detained in Beijing Shijingshan Stadium
Location of incident: Beijing Shijingshan Stadium
Description:
On July 21, 1999, more than 800 practitioners were detained in Beijing Shijingshan Stadium, including pregnant women, women who were breast feeding child, and the handicapped. “...Especially shocking, a police officer used his leg to kick a pregnant woman’s belly. The pregnant woman’s face was twisted in pain, and the sweat due to the pain covered her face...” witnessed by a Falun Gong practitioner who was in the stadium.
Case 5
Message received on March 2, 2000
Victim: Lu Yunzhen (female, 31)
Location of incidence: Fengcheng City, Jiangxi Province
Description:
Lu Yunzhen was a 31-year-old pregnant woman. In January of 2000, Lu went to the Appealing Bureau in Beijing to tell the truth about Falun Dafa. She was detained and sent back to Fengcheng police station. In order to detain her for a longer time, the police forced her to have an abortion.
8.3 Persecution and Punishment of Young Practitioners including Children
Case 1
HONG KONG, Nov 18, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Five Hong Kong members of the Falun Gong spiritual group banned in China were detained when they held up one of the group’s banners in Beijing, a Falun Gong source here said Thursday. The five practitioners, mainly women including a young child, were detained in Beijing on Wednesday when they tried to display a Falun Gong banner in Tiananmen Square, the source said.
Case 2
Message received on November 12, 1999
Victims: Ma Xuejun (male), practitioner with his kid
Location of incident: Jiamushi City, Heilongjiang province.
Description:
Ma Xuejun, a contact person of the Falun Gong assistance center in Jiamushi, was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment. He had a child who was attending school. After he was sentenced, his family lost financial income. Based on a new policy made by the Jiamushi local government, if one adult is sentenced with imprisonment because of practicing Falun Gong, the child will be sent to an orphanage instead of leaving the child to the spouse. Therefore, his child was sent to an orphanage.
Case 3
Victims: Zhang Yumei (female), Dongshen Dongfu Santiao 13-3, Erdao District, Changchun City, Jilin Province; Han Xueyan (female), Zhao Shuxia (female), Zhao Xiaoxia (female), Changchun City, Jilin Province
Location of incident: Changchun City, Jilin Province.
Description:
Below is the description given by Zhang Yumei:
In the evening of September 23, 1999, the police went to the couple Shao Zhenkun and Han Xueyan’s home. The police asked them whether they would continue to practice Falun Gong. They answered yes. Then they were taken into custody by the police, leaving behind their 92-year-old mother. In the evening of September 19, 1999, the police went to Zhao Xiaoxia’s home and took her into custody. She was not allowed to go home for the whole night. The next day, she was thrown into jail. On the morning of September 25, 1999, the police went to Zhao Shuxia (mother) and Xu Yanggang (son)’s home. The police claimed that they came to check their identification cards but confiscated their ID cards after they got hold of them. The next morning, Zhao Shuxia was arrested and her son was also arrested from his school.
Case 4
Message received on September 20, 1999
Victims: A group of practitioners including a 16-year-old girl
Location of incident: Yaojia Detention Center, Nanguanling, Dalian City, Liaoning Province
Description:
...Among the practitioners detained in the Yaojia Detention Center, there was a 16-years old student of a business/accounting school in Dalian City who lived in Pu Lan Dian. She was arrested when she was doing Falun Gong exercises outdoors. After she was released she was expelled from the school. She was submitted to all the tortures that had been applied to the adult practitioners in prison with no exception, and had endured great suffering.
Case 5
Message received on October 2, 1999
Victim: Gao Shanshan (female, 16), No. 1 High School of Qiqihaer City, Heilongjiang Province.
Location of incident: Beijing
Description:
Zhou Yingjie, a Chinese woman living in Tokyo, Japan, went back to China to visit her family. Her daughter, Gao Shanshan, a 16-year-old high school student, went to Beijing to meet her in a hotel on September 20, 1999. The owner of the hotel saw the Falun Gong book brought by Gao, and sent her to the police department. Gao was given a piece of stiff steamed bread after being detained for 7 hours. During that time, a policeman interspersed his talk with curses and added some foreign sub-stance to a plate of lamb. Then the policeman pulled Gao’s hair and forced the lamb into her mouth. Other policemen in the room joked and made fun of her. There were also other tortures to this young girl. Her mother was threatened that if Gao Shanshan still insisted to have “no regrets” for practicing Falun Gong, she would be arrested. There were more students facing the same punishment in the No. 8 high school of Qiqihaer City.
Case 6
Victim: Cheng Shuhua (female), Department. of Advertisement, the Cable TV Station of Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province.
Location of incident: Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province
Description:
Cheng Shuhua was escorted back from Beijing in September, 1999. Her husband, sister and brother-in-law were also detained because they refused to give up Falun Gong. In both families, since all the adults were detained, the two teenagers were left at home alone.
Case 7
Victims: Guo Fenren (female), and other Falun Gong practitioners from many places who went to Beijing to appeal and did not want to go back to their hometowns.
Location of incident: Qiliqu Detention Center in Changping County, Beijing
Description:
A policeman using a string of keys beat Guo Fenren, and there was blood in her mouth and nose. Her eyes got hyperaemia. The police beat another practitioner with a screwdriver and her eye socket became black and blue. There was a little girl (also a practitioner) who was beaten. The inner side of her lower lip was split open because of the beating.
Case 8
Message received on October 25, 1999
Victim: Chen Ying (female,18), a high school student of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province.
Location of incident: On the train from Beijing to Heilongjiang Province
Description:
At the beginning of August 1999, Chen was arrested in Beijing when she tried to appeal to the Chinese Central Government. She was deterred and sent back to Heilongjiang Province under escort of the policemen. On the trip from Beijing to Heilongjiang Province, she was insulted, beaten, and threatened by the policemen to such an extent that she jumped out of the running train and died.
Case 9
Victim: A Female College Student
Location: Central Appeal Office in Beijing
Personal Account:
I am in my junior year of college and also a cultivator
of Falun Dafa. I would like to share the incredible experience I have had in the last couple of days... on June 18,
1999. I went to the Central Appeal Office located at
Yong Ding Men, Jia #1.(in Beijing)... They arrested me
without any reason and without showing me any official
government document...the guard at the door grabbed my glasses and hit me in the head. I said: you arrested
me illegally, and hit me. Before I finished, the guy
slapped me in the face. I started to black out and fell to
the ground. The waitresses in the lobby saw this when it
happened. I was unable to walk anymore. Someone
dragged me into the elevator and I lost one of my shoes.
In the elevator, I started to cry. I felt very tired and sad;
and I could not stop crying. They put me into a guestroom. I could not open my right eye. My lips were
swollen terribly.
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