(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Yuhong has been arrested seven times and taken to a forced labor camp three times. She has been subjected to electric shocks, confined in a small dark room and forced to endure extremely cold temperatures. The following is Ms. Wang's account of the persecution she endured.
Held in Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp
Officers from Shuangjing Police Station arrested me outside my home on July 18, 2011. I was taken to the Chaoyang Detention Center, where I was handcuffed and shackled, and locked up in a small dark room. I went on a hunger strike to protest their unlawful conduct, and was force-fed twice a day.
I was taken to the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp on August 2, 2011, where I was tortured and abused.
1. Shocked with Electric Batons
I once lost consciousness as a result of being shocked with electric batons in the labor camp clinic. As I started to come to, I felt myself being carried to a car and driven somewhere. When we reached our destination, I was carried into a small room. I later learned that the room was in the Training Team of the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp.
Torture illustration: Shocked with electric batons
2. The Hidden Dark Room
The small dark room in the Training Team is not visible from the outside, as it is surrounded by high walls and connected to the guards' dorms. The room is less than two meters in length and has no windows. There is a bed and urinal in the room, and the walls are covered with padded foam. The room is very hot in the summer, and I found it difficult to breathe in there.
Two criminal inmates were assigned to monitor me, and I was supposed to report to them before I could eat, drink, use the urinal or go to sleep. I refused to listen to them and laid down to rest whenever I needed to.
When the guards called the labor camp doctor to check my blood pressure, they held me down and forcibly drew blood from me. I looked very pale by the tenth day. My hair turned gray and I was very thin. I felt dizzy and suffered chest pain, palpitations, edema and I was short of breath. I became very weak and could hardly walk.
3. Abused in a Small Room
I was later locked in another small room with five bunk-beds. I was given the bed facing the surveillance camera. The window on the door was covered with paper, leaving a small slit on the bottom right hand corner, so that the guards could see what was happening inside.
The only items I was allowed to have in the room was a wash bowl, a toothbrush, towel, a roll of toilet paper and a change of clothes. All my other belongings were kept in a storeroom, to which I was denied access. I was monitored by two or three inmates around the clock. If I needed anything, I had to ask the inmates to get it for me. The light was also kept on all night.
The inmates monitoring me had to keep a detailed record of all my movements. They recorded everything I said, my state of mind (e.g. stable, upset, downcast, etc.), the amount of water I drank, how much I ate, the number of times I used the restroom, the color of my urine and stool, details of my menstruation, how I slept and what I said in my dreams. The guards checked their “monitoring diary” every day so that they could adjust their plan of persecuting me accordingly.
I was locked in the small room for a long time. I could not breathe fresh air and was deprived of my personal freedom. I was not allowed to write to my family, call them or to talk with anyone. No one was allowed to give me anything, and I was not allowed to buy any food or use the restroom when I needed to. When I was allowed to use the restroom, I was given very limited time to do so.
Guards promised the inmates reduced sentences if they verbally abused me and beat me. As a result, I suffered both mental torment and physical harm. I had to stand still for long periods of time and was forced to sing songs praising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before each meal. When I refused, I was verbally abused.
4. Unknown Substances Put in My Food and Persecuted in the Hospital
One day, I noticed the porridge that I was given was a reddish color, but I still ate it, as I never expected the guards would put poison in my food. The next day, my stool was very dark. When the inmates informed the guards, they took me to the labor camp hospital.
The windows and the door of my room at the hospital were tightly shut, and it smelled awful inside. The food bowl was very dirty, with thick dust around the rim. My hands got dirty from just holding it. I was given very little food, hardly enough to survive.
I was stripped naked every day for a body search. When I refused to let them examine me, five guards and two inmates held me on the floor while a doctor repeatedly pierced my hand with the syringe needle. This went on for about half an hour. My bedding was torn apart during the search and all my things were thrown on the floor.
5. Some of My Teeth Knocked Out
I was kept in the labor camp hospital for 20 days before I was taken back to the Training Team. The guards then put something in my food again. My stomach felt very uncomfortable and I had pain in the area of my spleen. The stool I passed was now green.
The guards tried to find fault with me every day so that they had an excuse to torture me. One day, guard Zhang Jinmian ordered me to sit down, but I refused. He then told an inmate to pull me down, and when she was reluctant to participate, he slapped her as well.
Five people held me down and guard Li Shoufen put her hands tightly around my mouth. I couldn't move. Li pushed so hard on my mouth that some of my teeth were knocked out.
6. Forced to Have a “Check-up” and Have My Blood Drawn
Officials at Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp ordered that practitioners have a health “check-up” once every couple of months. One morning in September 2011, guards told the inmates monitoring me to go and have breakfast, but I wasn't given any food. They told me that it was because I was to have my health checked.
When I was ordered to go for a check-up in October 2012, I refused to go. Some guards then dragged me to the clinic, where I was forced to have an electrocardiogram (ECG) and my blood pressure was measured. The doctor also drew a full syringe of blood from me.
In November 2012, Li Shoufen told the camp doctor to check my blood pressure, claiming that it was very high. I didn't have any symptoms of hypertension and suspected that they were lying just to get me to take medication.
I was told that I needed another check-up in a month's time, but I refused to go again. This time I was carried to the clinic. A few guards held me down on a bed to draw my blood. My arm turned purple and took a long time before it looked normal again.
7. Freezing Cold in the Dark Room
The guards took me back to the small dark room on December 28, 2012. It was extremely cold in the room, as there was no heater in there. I was given a very thin blanket to sleep on and had no warm clothes to wear. My hands and feet turned dark purple due to the extreme cold.
An inmate felt sorry for me and put a thick jacket over me. When the guards found out, they scolded the inmate and ordered them to take the jacket away. Guard Li Shoufen instructed the inmates to beat, verbally abuse and humiliate me.
8. Continually Harassed after Being Released
Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp was dismantled in February 2013 and I was taken back home by my family members. However, the local police and people from the neighborhood committee still keep harassing me at home.
The First Time I Was Taken to a Labor Camp
I was arrested by police in February 2008 when I went to hand out truth clarification materials at the China University of Geosciences. I was taken to the Haidian District Detention Center, where I was hung up off the ground for the entire night. I was brutally beaten and shocked with electric batons. The guards also tried to force me to stand on a picture of Master Li Hongzhi and say bad words about Him.
My elderly father passed away in less than a month after my arrest, as he was unable to endure the anguish.
In April 2008, I was taken to the Tuanhe Dispatch Center in the Daxing District of Beijing, where I was force-fed with unknown substances. I almost choked to death.
Torture illustration: Brutal force-feeding
I was taken to the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp in May, where I was only allowed three or four hours' sleep every night and was subjected to various kinds of torture. I was force-fed unknown substances and had to sit on a small stool for long periods of time. The flesh on my buttocks developed festering sores. I was often abused and brutally beaten by the inmates, causing my ears to start bleeding.
Transferred to Hubei Women's Forced Labor Camp
On July 9, 2008, I was taken to Hubei Women's Forced Labor Camp, where I was deprived of sleep and forced to stand still for long periods of time. My back was beaten black and blue by the inmates assigned to monitor me.
I was transferred to the Hubei Legal Education Center, which is a brainwashing center, in late July. I was not allowed to eat and was force-fed on my third day there. I was tied to a chair and the guards thrust a wooden cork into my mouth. They then inserted a thick tube through my nostrils and into my stomach, and then pulled it out again. They repeated this a number of times. When they pulled the tube out, it was covered in blood. I was then force-fed with a large mug of dirty stuff.
I was taken back to Hubei Women's Forced Labor Camp on August 29, 2008. My husband and my children traveled thousands of miles to visit me, but the guards refused to let me see them.
Persecuted for Holding a Banner on Tiananmen Square
I started practicing Falun Gong in 1996 and became happy and healthy as a result. After the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, I went to Tiananmen Square on June 20, 2000, to hold a banner and appeal for Falun Gong.
An officer grabbed my banner and pushed me into a police car. I was taken to Qianmen Police Station. Many practitioners from around the country were detained there. Some of them were badly beaten by the police.
I was taken to Guangwai Police Station that afternoon, and was then transferred to the Xuanwu District Detention Center in the evening. I went on a hunger strike to protest my illegal detention. The guards tried to persuade me to eat, but I refused. On the seventh day, officers from the security section of my workplace came to pick me up.
Repeatedly Detained, Subjected to Brainwashing Sessions and Fired from My Workplace
On July 20, 2000, people from my workplace took me to the Shuangjing Police Station. I was then taken to a nearby primary school, where I was detained. I went on a hunger strike for three days and was forced to pay 100 yuan when I was released.
I was twice taken to the brainwashing center in Beijing's Xin'an Forced Labor Camp by the party secretary of my workplace in October 2000, and again on March 2001.
Just before New Year's Eve in 2001, while I was at work, a few collaborators in my workplace and the police carried me to a police car and took me to Shuangjing Police Station. I was later transferred to the Chaoyang Detention Center, where several hundred Falun Gong practitioners were being held.
When I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the guards instigated inmates to force-feed me. I became emaciated and half of my body went numb. I was released 15 days later as a result of my poor condition.
I was fired from my workplace in March 2006.
Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name
: Wang Yuhong (王玉红)
Gender
: Female
Age
: Unknown
Address
: Guangqu Rd, Chaoyang District of Beijing
Occupation
: Employee in the electricity sector of Beijing
Date of Most Recent Arrest
: July 18, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention
: Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp (北京女子劳教所)
City
: Beijing
Persecution Suffered
: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, drug administrations, hung up, solitary confinement, extortion, fired from workplace
