(Minghui.org) Ms. Hou Manyun has been arrested 12 times, illegally detained for a total of five years, and tortured for practicing Falun Gong since the Chinese communist regime launched its persecution of the spiritual practice in 1999.
She filed a criminal complaint in June 2015, holding Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party, responsible for what she and her family have suffered.
“More than a hundred guards and officials were involved” in her abuse, she said. “Among them, 63 tortured me.”
Ms. Hou's husband, Mr. Wang Fushun, who also practices Falun Gong, has been arrested and detained multiple times. Their two boys – a twenty year old and a five year old at the time of her first arrest, were left without a stable home.
“In the past 16 years, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, including myself, have been arrested, detained, and tortured. Some were even killed for their organs. I hope Jiang and his followers will be brought to justice.”
Below is Ms. Hou's personal account of her suffering over the past sixteen years.
July 1999: Arrested for Appealing in Beijing
After the persecution started in July 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for my constitutional right to freedom of belief. I was arrested on July 24 and detained at a local middle school, where I was beaten and verbally abused. I was forced to stand outside for three days under the hot summer sun.
I was transferred to the Laiyuan County Detention Center three days later. They handcuffed my arms behind my back. A young officer kicked me from behind, and I fell to my knees. He slapped me multiple times, taking breaks to ask if I would continue to practice Falun Gong. When I said yes for the third time, more than a dozen officers joined him to beat me. I lost consciousness when an officer hit me with a rubber club. I was released two weeks later.
September 1999: Charged With Disturbing Social Order
A group of police officers broke into my home at around 11 a.m. on September 10, 1999 and took me to the Chengguan Police Station. Officer Yang Jun asked who did the Falun Gong exercises with me that morning. When I replied, “Nobody has time to practice during the day,” he punched my chest. I fell backward and knocked over a fan.
One of my clients told the police that Ms. Li Yanping, a local practitioner, was at my shop that morning. Though I had receipts and witnesses to prove that she was a client and bought a part for her television set, Yang arrested both of us.
Officer Zhang Fang took us to the detention center and cursed at us during the ride. We were admitted without any paperwork or warrant. Two weeks later, we were charged for “disturbing social order,” a generic term used to charge practitioners.
Aggravated Assault
I was transferred two weeks later to the Laiyuan County Detention Center, where I was held for eight months. The next morning, guard Lin Jianghua made me stand by a wall and kicked me between the legs. I tried to protect my groin with my hands, which infuriated Lin.
My hands were bleeding, and my thighs and lower abdominal area were badly bruised. For refusing to remove my hands, he used a key chain to hit my face and head. Blood oozed out of the wounds on my head and dripped down my face.
It was said that Lin's wife had left him for another man, and that he let his anger out by torturing the female inmates.
Because I refused to renounce my belief in Falun Gong, director Xu Zhenfu and Doctor Ma Shuanyu made me stand, facing a wall, for a month.
My hands were cuffed behind my back for 22 days. The handcuffs cut into my swollen wrists and irritated the open wounds. The pain was excruciating, and my arms became numb. My scars are still visible.
Other practitioners and I were often made to kneel in the snow during winter. Ma Shuanyu pulled my hair, slapped me, and kicked me with her high heels. When the heels broke off, she demanded that practitioners give her money. We went on a hunger strike to protest the ill treatment and were brutally force-fed.
2000 to 2001: Illegally Detained for Over A Year
After I was released in the spring of 2000, I went to the county government to appeal for myself and Ms. Li. I was taken to the county 610 Office by a government official.
Then, I was taken to the county detention center and detained for a year. Instead of being released in March 2001, I was transferred to a brainwashing center, where I was forced to watch propaganda videos slandering Falun Gong and its founder, sing propaganda songs praising the Communist Party, and run laps on the field in the middle of the night.
At the end of the brainwashing session, I was then taken to Laiyuan township and detained for 45 days. I was locked in a warehouse behind the main building, and the only window to the place was covered with wooden panels. The lights were on at all times.
It was still cold in March, and I shivered even under bed covers. My family was told to bring me food every few days. The officials put a portable urinal into the room, instead of letting me use the bathroom.
My husband was also detained during that time, and our two boys were without a home. I asked to be released, but the town's Party Secretary denied it, claiming that only higher-level officials could release me. I escaped on April 14, 2001.
May 7, 2001: Fooled by Police
I walked all night to a nearby town and took a bus to Baoding, where I took the job of caring for Mr. Liu's wife, who was paralyzed. Then, I decided to go to Beijing to appeal for my rights.
When I arrived in Beijing on May 7, 2001 it was already after dark. A passerby warned me that the police would clear Tiananmen Square at around 9 p.m. and all of the streets in the city at 11 p.m.. Then they would arrest people.
Officers from the Taoranting Police Station arrested me. I demanded to talk to an official from the Office of Letters and Appeals. A person showed up and claimed that he was from that office. I spoke to him about my ordeals and asked his help to get home.
He was very accommodating, said that the local police was lawless and that he was sorry to hear about all my troubles. He gave me his name and phone number, which I later found out to be false.
I was escorted back to Laiyuan by Zhang Wei, the county secretary from the 610 Office and the director of the county police department. They interrogated me, and the officers laughed, “Aren't you dumb? Don't you know you were fooled?”
2001 to 2002: Force-Fed in Labor Camp
I was taken to the Baoding Forced Labor Camp in May 2001, where I was tortured. I went on a hunger strike in April 2002 to protest my detention. While five guards held me down, Du, a doctor, cuffed my hands and feet to a chair.
He grabbed my hair and hit my face with a pair of pliers. He pried my mouth open and stabbed my throat repeatedly with a knife, shouting, “You don't want to eat? Don't want to eat? I'll make sure you don't eat.”
The doctor and the guards tortured me until I lost consciousness. They performed CPR until I regained consciousness and force-fed me until I passed out again. The pain was unimaginable. The process was repeated at least seven times. Du threatened to continue the force-feeding the next day. Since then, I have had shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, and chest pain.
2002 to 2003: Memory Loss
When I told the division head Yan Qingfen in the fall of 2002 that the forced labor camp was making counterfeit products, I was beaten by a few inmates and had my hair pulled out.
The next day, I was numb and had a severe headache. My vision worsened rapidly, and my blood pressure was high. Doctors at the No. 2512 Hospital in Baoding said that the vein going to my brain was blocked by a cervical bone. If I was not treated, my cerebellum would shrink in less than six months, and I would become mentally disabled. Guard Chen Yajuan threatened me not to report them.
I became very sick over the next eight months. By the time I was released in May 2003, I was unable to walk sideways and suffered memory loss.
July 2007: Officers Confiscate Business Equipment
I was arrested in July 2007 and taken to the Laiyuan County Police Department by officers Zhang Fan and others, where I was detained for 11 hours.
The appliance repair shop that I operated for 27 years was ransacked. The police confiscated two vans full of equipment, machines, small appliances, electronic component, and tools valued at 40,000 yuan.
During interrogation, Officer Wei Jinkui claimed that I had downloaded Falun Gong materials from the internet. I told him that I was computer illiterate. He slapped me and hit my head with a bottle of frozen water. A few police officers also threatened me. I escaped at 6 a.m.
September 2007: Non-Practitioner Arrested
I was at a friend's home in Zhuozhou when a group of plainclothes officers broke in at around 10 p.m. on September 5, 2007. They ransacked the place and confiscated many personal belongings, including my laptop computer, cell phone, MP3 player, and 2,000 yuan. Two other practitioners and I were taken to the local police station and later Zhuozhou Prison.
My niece's friend was arrested, even though the police knew she did not practice Falun Gong. The police pulled her hair and hit her. She was given one year at the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp.
Procurator Controlled by Party
Officer Wei Jinkui, Zhang Fang, and others escorted me back to my hometown on September 8, 2007. I was barefoot and shackled with heavy chains. When the passersby asked who I was, Zhang claimed that I was a murderer.
At the police station, the officers charged their electric batons and added one more shackle on my feet. Wei said, “Answer the questions so you won't get beaten. Why did you run away?” I said, “I was afraid that you were going to beat me to death. I don't want to die.”
Zhang asked, “Where are the handcuffs?” I told her I threw them in the trash. The guards demanded that I pay 5,000 yuan for them. The police falsified the interrogation report.
The procurator said, “You've been detained three times and gone through forced labor once. We only put down detention twice, so maybe you'll get a lighter sentence.” I asked, “Are you a procurator of the people or of the Party?”
He paused and said, “Of the people, but under the leadership of the Party.”
Due to insufficient evidence, my case was returned to the local police department three months later. None of my belongings that were confiscated were returned. My family and I are frequently harassed by Officer Wei.
