(Minghui.org) A middle school teacher in Gansu Province, who was tortured in a labor camp for practicing Falun Gong, is now taking legal action against Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese Communist Party leader who directed the suppression of the spiritual practice.
Mr. Guan Kejian from Zhuanglang County filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin on August 9, 2015 with the Supreme People's Court, citing damage to his physical and mental health and financial losses as a result of the persecution.
Husband and Wife Arrested, Tortured for Their Belief
Following Jiang Zemin's order to crack down on Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, officers from Yuebao County Police Station broke into Mr. Guan's home on July 22 and confiscated his Falun Gong books. Officers threatened Mr. Guan and his wife Ms. Li Airong in an attempt to force them to give up practicing Falun Gong.
Between 1999 and 2008, Mr. Guan was arrested three times and tortured while he was detained for six months and held in a labor camp for one and a half years. In 2003, he went on a hunger strike and was brutally force-fed.
His wife was also detained for more than three months, during which time she was shackled and tortured. Their two sons, aged 13 and 9 at the time, were left alone at home. In school, they faced discrimination and insults from teachers and students.
Mr. Guan lost part of his pension and suffered total financial losses of more than 270,000 yuan, forcing him and his wife to find work after retirement. However, the authorities threatened their employers and ordered banks not to approve their loan applications.
Brainwashing, Physical Abuse in Detention
Mr. Guan traveled to Beijing with his wife in December 1999 to protest the persecution of Falun Gong. He was beaten by police on Tiananmen Square, detained in Beijing for one week, and taken to Zhuanglang County Detention Center in Gansu Province.
Like other Falun Gong practitioners, Mr. Guan was beaten upon his arrival at the detention center. He was then forced to stand naked in extremely cold weather for two hours.
To force practitioners to renounce Falun Gong, guards made them watch propaganda videos, starved them, held them in solitary confinement, and did not allow them to use the toilet. Guards also imposed military-style physical training and punched and kicked practitioners who did the exercises improperly.
In February 2000, the detention center's chief and deputy chief allowed Mr. Guan’s brother-in-law and his classmate to torture Mr. Guan so severely that he passed out and had three ribs injured. His request for medical treatment was ignored.
That June, Mr. Guan was sent to one and a half years in Gansu First Labor Camp (also known as Lanzhou Pingantai).
Beatings, Harsh Conditions in Labor Camp
In the labor camp, Mr. Guan was watched and followed by drug addicts around the clock. He was made to clean floors and restrooms and perform heavy farm labor at an orchard. Guards forced him to work barefoot in the cold winter, and work shirtless in the orchard under the scorching sun. He was also deprived of sleep and restroom use.
Guards and prisoners directed by them frequently beat Mr. Guan. One such beating on a summer day ruptured the blisters on his shoulders. The area became infected and festered, causing excruciating pain.
Due to chronic starvation, overwork, and various forms of torture, Mr. Guan was emaciated when he was released in December 2001.
Continued Abuse by Police, School District
Less than a month later, Mr. Guan was reported for transporting pamphlets about the persecution of Falun Gong and arrested. He was then beaten in Yuebao Police Station for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, and held in Zhuanglang County Detention Center for more than a month.
In July 2002, Mr. Guan refused a school principal's demand to sign a guarantee statement stating that he would stop practicing Falun Gong. He was effectively put under house arrest in September under the guise of “learning new knowledge” at the Vocational Education Center, where he was closely monitored and confined to a particularly damp house without daily living items.
On March 9, 2003, plainclothes officers broke into Mr. Guan's home at midnight and took him to the Zhuanglang County Detention Center. To protest the illegal arrest, Mr. Guan and six other practitioners went on a hunger strike. Seven days later, they were tied to a long bench and force-fed with plastic tubing, which injured their mouths and caused severe bleeding. Mr. Guan was detained there for 19 days.
In the fall of 2003, Mr. Guan was transferred to a remote elementary school where insubordinate teachers were sent as punishment. Three years later, he was transferred to another school, where he was frequently harassed by the administration.
During the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the authorities set up a police station in Mr. Guan’s village to monitor Falun Gong practitioners. The harassment and surveillance have continued since.
Background
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the CCP, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the CCP established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
