(Minghui.org) Mr. Wang Guijin, a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2002 and was brutally tortured. His wife and three-year-old son have been forced to move frequently to avoid being persecuted and still, even today, live in fear. His son asked him recently, “Papa, when will we settle down and not need to hide from the police? When will those police stop coming for us?"
The following is Mr. Wang's own account of what he has endured.
My name is Wang Guijin. I'm 38 years old and live in Muling City, Heilongjiang Province. I was accused of “disrupting of the law by practicing an evil religion” and put in prison from May 7, 2002 to May 7, 2007.
I started to practice Falun Gong with my wife in November 1997. Previously, I disliked any form of Qigong. However, when I witnessed a member of my wife's family become healthy after practicing Falun Gong, my wife and I decided to give it a try. My wife had severe tuberculosis, which damaged her right lung, requiring daily medicine via an intravenous drip. After practicing Falun Gong, her lung was healed and her tuberculosis cured.
Just as my family was enjoying the happiness Falun Gong brought us, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution in July 1999. My wife and I went to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong. In July 2000, we went for the second time, bringing our seven-month-old son with us. We opened a banner with the words, “Falun Dafa is good!” on Tiananmen Square and called out, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Restore Falun Dafa's reputation! Restore Master's reputation!” We were taken to Qianman Police Station near Tiananmen Square and sent home that night.
To avoid any local police harassment after we returned home, we moved to Mudanjiang City. At the end of 2001, we returned to Muling City.
1. Arrested and Subjected to Forced Interrogation
I was arrested on the afternoon of May 7, 2002, by several officers from Mudanjiang City and the No. 2 Police Station in Muling City. I was handcuffed and taken to the police car. They took my cell phone, a printer, and some truth-clarifying booklets. I was taken to Yangming District Police Department in Mudanjiang City that night.
I was cuffed to a chair made of steel bars and forced to sit directly on the bars without a cushion. There were metal hoops on the foot-rail and handrail of the chair. Once restrained in the chair, one was not able to move, no matter how they tortured you.
A guard came in and slapped my face several times without saying a word. I almost fainted. He shook his head and grumbled, “Why did it hurt so much?” I asked him, “Why did you hit me?” He got angrier and whipped my head with his belt. He kept saying, “Do I have to have a reason to beat you? If you die, it is considered a suicide. I don't have anything to fear.”
The guard stopped when he got tired. Another guard came in and said, “It's my turn. You should learn a better way to do that.” He took the belt and started to whip my feet, saying, “Striking his feet will make his toenails turn purple and eventually fall off.” He kept whipping my feet. I couldn't move them since they were cuffed to the chair.
I screamed in response to the pain when he first hit my feet. He gloated and said, “See, it's effective!” I refused to make another sound. After a while, he started to hit my thighs. My feet were purple and swollen. The pain was indescribable.
He got tired of hitting my thighs and started to dig into my thigh with the heel of his shoe. Then he took out something very sharp and said, “Let me see how you feel if I scratch your ribs with this.” He rolled my clothes up and started to scratch my ribs from top to bottom. There are no words to describe the pain. I screamed out. He was then satisfied and said, “Wait until later. There are other, better ways to deal with you.”
When he stopped, I thought he was tired and would not hurt me anymore. However, he suddenly grabbed and squeezed my testicles, and I passed out from extreme pain. He threw cold water on me to wake me up and said, “Now, tell us your crimes.” I stumbled and said, “I practice Falun Gong to be a good person. I didn't commit any crime.”
They got angry and took out a plastic bag. They covered my head with it and tied it around my neck. After a while I couldn't breathe and started to suffocate. I just stared without moving. One of the guards hurriedly cut a small opening near my nose. After I took a breath, he threw a cigarette butt into the bag. Smoke filled the bag, choking me. Just before I passed out, he untied the bag, saying, “Now you should be able to say something, shouldn't you? Or maybe you want me to try some other ways?” I responded, “You already know what I know. What else do you want me to say?”
They wanted to know who I was in contact with in Mudanjiang City, and I told them I had no contacts there. I said that I worked alone, just downloading the materials from the Internet and compiling them by myself. One guard said, “You're still fooling around.” He left to look for something. He came back and muttered, “You got off easy this time. The electric baton is not available right now, but we have other ways.” He called two other guards over. They forced me to lay prone on the floor. He stood on my legs while the other two dragged my arms toward my head, which they hoped would break them.
2. A Dark Detention Center
The next day I was sent to the No. 2 Detention Center in Mudanjiang City. Before they took me there, one guard asked, “Do you have money? If so, it will be easier to handle your case.” I knew they were attempting to extort money from me and said, “No, I don't have any.” They tightened the handcuffs so that they cut into my flesh.
They forced me to walk, even though my feet were so badly injured that I was hardly able to move. In the detention center, a guard asked the same question, “Do you have money?” I gave him the same answer and was put in a cell with the poorest inmates.
The head of the inmates asked me, “What is your crime?” I answered, “I have not committed any offense. I practice Falun Gong.” He called, “Zhu, another one like you.” The man he called smiled at me. His name was Zhu Zhaocheng. He was also a practitioner and he had been detained there for more than three months.
At night, the guards called Zhu and me out. An inmate said, “You are going to get a beating now.” Our cell was close to some of the female cells where the female practitioners insisted on doing the exercises and reciting the Fa. The guards were unable to stop them, so they blackmailed them by beating male practitioners. Several male practitioners had suffered beatings before me. That night it was our turn. Zhu and I stood there. Shortly the guard came back and ordered us back to our cell. The female practitioners had given in because they didn't want the male practitioners to be beaten.
I was held in the No. 2 Detention Center for a month and then transferred to No. 1 Detention Center in June. The food was poor, and we slept on the floor side by side, tightly crammed together. It is very hot in the summer, but even though we sweat a lot, we did not like to get up at night for fear of losing our space. If you went to the toilet at night, you would have to stand and wait for an empty space in the sleeping area.
We were forced to do slave labor making chopsticks. When we not working, we had to sit still and were not allowed to move around or talk. Use of the toilet was limited – we were granted 1 minute only. During six months of detention, I was never able to brush my teeth. My family was not informed of my whereabouts and couldn't send me any daily necessities. The guards didn't allow other inmates to give me either a toothbrush or toothpaste.
3. Horrible Prison
In October 2002, I was sentenced to five years and sent to the No. 10 Ward in Mudanjiang City Prison. My family finally knew where I was.
The guards did not allow practitioners to talk to each other. We were not allowed to buy daily necessities, write letters, make phone calls, or receive visits from family members.
Falun Gong practitioners were forced to do labor such as picking beans, making disposable chopsticks, or sewing car seat cushions. We got up around 4 a.m. and worked until 10 p.m. If we were unable to finish the quota on time, we would have to keep working until finished, no matter how late it was. The food in the prison was as poor as that fed to pigs, and there sand in the bottoms of our bowls. A pet would eat better than we did.
From time to time, we were taken to the prison hospital for blood tests. Other inmates were envious and said, “The government treats you well and provides regular medical check ups.” It puzzled us. Now we know the reason - the blood tests were in preparation for organ harvesting.
My five-year detention ended on May 7, 2007 and I was able to finally leave the prison.
4. My Family Suffered Also
After I was released, the local police often came to harass my family and my parents. I was told to report to them every day and needed to get permission to go anywhere. They often drove to my home in their police cars to check up on me.
My parents are honest farmers. They had never had to deal with the police before. During my five-year detention, my parents were so worried about me that their hair turned white. My mother developed a severe heart problem due to the stress of frequent police visits. When my younger sister married and needed to change her residency, the local police refused to do it because of me. Even now, she is still unable to change her residency, which has affected her job and ability to make a living.
My wife moved from place to place to avoid the persecution when I was in prison and has been living in extreme fear. Our son has been moving around with us since before he was born. He had no father for five years and had to remain in hiding with his mother. To this day, we are still hiding and living in fear.
My son has asked me, “Papa, when will we settle down and not need to hide from the police? When will those police stop coming for us? I would like to live with my grandparents.” I looked at my lovely son and said, “When the Chinese Communist Party is defeated.”
My son and I are looking forward to that day coming soon! Those who know the truth are looking forward to that day, too!
