Issued by Clearwisdom Net
Content
David Matas, a member of a Canadian independent investigation team, held a press conference and a forum in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on October 10, 2006, to introduce an investigative report about the harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party. It attracted the attention of people from all walks of life. As an eyewitness, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Chen Jing talked about how she was persecuted and her involuntary blood test. One of the practitioners jailed with her "was sent to a remote place and may never return." Below is her testimony:
The testimony of Chen Jing at the open forum sponsored by the Malaysian Bar Association |
Chen Jing (far left) describes her experience of being persecuted in China |
My name is Chen Jing. I am from Guangdong Province in China. I now have asylum under the United Nations. I was illegally sentenced to three and a half years in prison by Chinese authorities because of my belief in and spreading the facts about Falun Gong.
I have experienced many things in the seven years since the Chinese Communist Party began its persecution of Falun Gong. Some of these experiences serve as supporting evidence of the CCP’s extracting organs from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners. I began to practice Falun Gong in November 1995. Very effective in improving one’s health, Falun Gong teaches people to be good and quickly elevates people’s moral standards, and thus attracted many Chinese people who wanted to become better people, I being one of them. There were many people practicing Falun Gong at that time. People generally believed that the reason for the persecution was because the number of Falun Gong practitioners exceeded that of the CCP’s membership list. CCP membership was 60 million at the time.
After July 20, 1999, many people who had benefited from Falun Gong went to Beijing to appeal to the government on its behalf. From 1999 through 2002, everyday a large number of people went to Tiananmen Square and the Appellate Office in Beijing to appeal. These practitioners, carrying nothing but a peaceful hope, were arrested and taken to the local police station. As a practitioner, I went to Tiananmen as well at the end of 1999. At the time, plainclothes and uniformed police were everywhere. I was forced into a 10-person police van that was filled with practitioners, and we were taken to a local police station. A few dozen practitioners were locked in a big cage, while more practitioners were being pushed in. The police interrogated them in small batches, mainly asking them their names and where they came from. Most practitioners would not reveal their names because they thought they would be sentenced to prison or forced labor if they did. I do not know where those who refused to identify themselves were sent. I saw over a hundred practitioners that day who would not disclose their identities. Later I saw on the web that thousands of practitioners were missing in China. Where had they been taken? The Chinese authorities would not give us a satisfactory answer.
On April 17, 2001, I was arrested by the national security bureau and the local police because I was spreading the facts about Falun Gong. They deprived me of sleep at the police station for seven days and nights straight. When I said firmly that I would take legal action against the police for their torturing me to force a confession, they said wryly: "You may not be able to get out alive. Who are you going to sue then?" I thought at the time that they were only trying to scare me. When I recalled their words after I had read on the web that living Falun Gong practitioners' organs were being extracted, I realized that it might not have been just a threat.
In jail I met a practitioner who would not disclose her name. She probably never came out alive.
In September 2001, I was held in Hall #37 in Zhuhai City Jail. There were three female halls connected to each other. It had been peaceful until that day. I could hear cursing and shouting from the guards in Hall #35, followed by the sound of inmates being beaten. It was quite noisy. Listening closer, I knew that a practitioner who would not disclose her identity (later the police and other inmates all called her "No-name") had arrived. I also knew that she was on a hunger strike in protest. There were two other practitioners in the hall that I was in, one named Zhang Qingyun, the other Wang Zhijun. After a quick discussion among ourselves, we yelled: "Stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners!" Things calmed down the next day. Two to three months later, an inmate named Ahong came to our hall. After we got more familiar with each other, she told me things about "No-name." She said: "Since your yelling, the police moved her to Hall #14, lest she affect Li Chunyan (who was a student from Tsinghua University, also in Hall #35). She kept on with her hunger strike. The police tortured her with a method called "ride the airplane." I and a few others were asked to monitor her. After her hunger strike, the police opened another hall (Hall #34) and put her there to facilitate her administration." This is what Ahong told me at that time.
During the Chinese New Year 2002, the guards sent me to post some pictures at each female hall, since I had been an art teacher. I went to Hall #34. At first I did not know which one was "No-name." A good-looking lady of about 30 brought me a chair. It was a very ordinary thing to do, but immediately a few inmates pushed her away, and the head of the inmates warned me not to talk to her. I sensed right away that she was "No-name," so I watched her more closely and got an impression of her. Around June 2002, I heard from other inmates that "No-name" had been sent out. I thought that she had been released.
In November 2002, I was sent to Shaoguan Prison in Guangdong Province. Because I refused to declare that I was a criminal, I was put in solitary confinement for a month. Afterwards I was put in Team #14, where Ahong happened to be also. The shower facility in the prison was an open room big enough for over 100 people. It was a market-like atmosphere during shower time. Because of our past relationship, Ahong always found opportunities to chat with me, and I asked her about "No-name's" situation. I knew that Ahong’s family was rather well-off financially and often bribed the guards, including one female guard named Ms. Wu. Ahong called Ms. Wu "Aunt Wu" and was often called out by her for a chat. The guards often half-knowingly let Ahong in on some news. I asked Ahong if "No-name" had been released. Ahong said that because she did not disclose her name, they could not sentence her to forced labor or a prison term, and she was indeed sent out and not in jail anymore. But Aunt Wu was certain that "No-name" was not sent home, but rather she was sent to a "special place". Ahong said with a sympathetic tone: "You are quite lucky. You will be released when your term is up. Aunt Wu told me that "No-name" probably would never get out of the place where she was sent." I thought that the place she was referring to was the local brainwashing center and therefore did not pay much attention.
I was released in October 2004. I was not allowed to go home because I had not been "transformed". The 610 Office in Zhuhai City sent me directly to the local brainwashing center. I did not see "No-name" there. On December 25, Christmas Day, I was temporarily released to my family because I was awfully weak. At home "No-name's" mother was introduced to us. She brought with her a photo, which I recognized right away. Her mother told me: "My daughter’s name is Yuan Zheng. She came here to see me right after she was released from Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. She went to Tiananmen Square in September 2001 and has not returned since." I told her that her daughter was brought to the jail in September 2001, and also shared with her the things that Ahong told me. I told her to go to the 610 Office to ask for Yuan Zheng's release. Later I met her a few times. She wanted me to go and visit the 610 Office with her, but I was preparing to escape from China at the time and did not want to get into trouble, so I did not go. I kept looking for information about Yuan Zheng after I came abroad, especially after the news about the CCP’s organ harvesting broke out. I kept contacting Falun Gong practitioners in China, but uncovered no news on Yuan Zheng. I am concerned about her safety. Perhaps she was killed for her organs.
I want to describe some of my other experiences. I have said that on November 30, 2002, I was brought to Shaoguan Prison from Jail #2 in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. I remember that there were a dozen or so people in the car, of which nine were Falun Gong practitioners. Among the nine, five were from Jail #1. Li Yanfang, Jiang Yuxia, Ma Yan, and Li Chunyan were from Tsinghua University, Liu Mei was a graduate student from the Chinese Science Institute. The remaining four were Zhang Qingyun, Zhou Jing, myself, and another person whose name I cannot remember. When we were sent to the prison hospital, they forced us to go through a physical examination, which included a chest x-ray and blood test. When we asked the police why there was a need for a physical examination, the police said that it was routine. I remember that only Falun Gong practitioners went through the physical examination, while other inmates apparently remained in the car. In April 2003, I was sent to Guangdong Provincial Women's Prison, where they also gave me a physical examination that included a chest x-ray and blood test, but not when I first arrived.
My sister's circumstances are unknown. Her name is Chen Li.
She was a senior in the Art Institute of Shantou University in Guandong
Province. She twice went to Beijing to appeal after the persecution
began in 1999. The second time she went, she was sentenced to 18 months
in prison and was taken to Zhaoguan Prison in Guangdong Province at the
beginning of 2000. She was sent to Sanshui Women's Forced Labor Camp in
Guangdong Province after her release from the prison. During her three
periods of imprisonment, she endured all kinds of torture and gained a
painfully deep insight into the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong.
Because of my escape from China, CCP officials were worried that my
sister would do the same. In the process of looking for me, they
arrested her after she had fled our home in fear of her safety.
According to my family, she was sent to Sanshui Law and Order Study
Class in Guangdong Province, which is basically a brainwashing center
designed to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. So far the CCP
authorities have denied all visitation requests. It has been over half
a year and no one knows if my sister, Chen Li, is still alive or not.
She was very healthy, and I am truly concerned about her safety. Is it
possible that she, too, is a victim of the CCP's organ harvesting?
Between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. on October 9, 2006, police officers Jiang Qiang (Station chief), and Liu Zhanmin, along with others from Leshan Town Station in Chaoyang District, Changchun City, Jilin Province stormed into the homes of Falun Gong practitioners and arrested two couples: Mr. Yang Zhijie and his wife, and Mr. Yao Yongchun and his wife.
Most of the village residents were already sleeping when this incident took place. The police drove their vehicles with the headlights turned off and parked on the side of the road near the practitioners' houses. They proceeded to break into and ransack the homes of the practitioners, who were brutally beaten.
Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Yao Yongchun and his wife were in bed when police broke into their home. Jiang Qiang robbed them of a bank card worth six thousand yuan and some cash. The police also confiscated two stereos, one MP3 player, a handbag, and other belongings along with their house key.
While the home was being ransacked, the police brutally beat the couple. Mr. Yao Yongchun exclaimed, "How dare you beat a woman in her 50s!" Officer Jiang Qiang rushed over to Mr. Yao, who is 54 years old. While swearing at him, Jiang Qiang beat him until he passed out on the floor and then continued beating him. Mr. Yao's face was covered with blood.
The police took Yao Yongchun and his wife to the police station by force. The couple was not allowed to get dressed. They were also not allowed to ask their neighbors to watch over their home, because the police were fearful of their crimes being exposed. Mr. Yao was wearing only underwear and some slippers.
At Leshan Police Station, the police did not allow Mr. Yao and his wife to sleep. They purposely left the windows open in order to freeze the couple. Mr. Yao Yongchun's wife was shivering from the cold and was beaten until she vomited. Policemen shouted at her, "If you vomit on the floor, I will force you to lick the floor clean!"
The morning of October 10 was a chilly, rainy day. Mr. Yao's eighty-year-old mother and other members of the family went to the police station to request the release of Mr. Yao and his wife, but they were stopped outside the gate. A policeman saw that Mr. Yao's mother was shivering from the cold. He said with cruelty, "Let her freeze to death," and then swore at her. Later the old woman was carried home because she was too cold to stand. While people were watching Mr. Yao's mother leave, the police drove Mr. Yao out of the station yard through the back gate.
The whereabouts of Mr. and Mrs. Yao Yongchun, and Mr. and Mrs. Yang
Zhijie are unknown.
The Zhejiang Province Women's Prison is located in Hangzhou. Numerous Falun Gong cultivators have been imprisoned there, and they have experienced brutal persecution and suffering at the hands of police officers and criminal inmates, by being forced to "reform," practice other forms of qigong, and listen to the anti-Falun Gong propaganda.
When I was first detained in the prison, I was injected with an unknown drug, which made me involuntarily jump up from the sitting position. At one point, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xue Hairong refused to cooperate and police officer Lian ordered two of the most vicious criminal inmates to forcibly drag her from the cell on a very high floor to a room on the sixth floor. Xue Hairong was crying in pain for a long time and we were very anxious and sad.
A secret, so-called "advanced class" for guards started on May 25, 2004, which resulted in further escalation of the police brutality against steadfast Falun Gong practitioners at the Zhejiang Women's Prison. The Falun Gong practitioners were brutally and individually tortured in isolated cells on the third floor of the newly built women's prison. In addition, the library of the prison building was turned into a sealed "classroom" designated for Falun Gong practitioners. Since October 2005, it has served as a holding place for Falun Gong practitioners. Whenever new criminal prisoners are admitted, they are assigned to a prison team, while Falun Gong practitioners are immediately delivered to the isolated "classroom." They are forced to use a chamberpot in lieu of the restroom, and are locked inside at all times, where they suffer greatly.
I myself have lived through the brutal terror inside the special "classroom." There was a varying number of "guards" and another thug who held the title "supervisor." All were selected from the most hard core criminals. During daytime there were three "guards" (criminal inmates) and at night there were two. I suffered through several savage beatings at their hands. Sometimes all five beat me at the same time and I started to bleed from the head. Sometimes my head and face were so swollen that they called me "Panda" because I had become so rotund. Since I would not betray or criticize Falun Gong, several of them grabbed my hands and pounded them against the table, causing my hands to bleed and swell up. They also cursed us and verbally abused us. They sometimes did not allow me to drink water for two days at a time, or they gave me only a very small amount of water. I suffered terribly, being so thirsty. At other times, I was not given water to rinse my mouth with for ten or twenty days in a row, let alone water to wash myself or my clothes. My body became very dirty, and my hands looked like I had been playing with coal.
Since I was not allowed to sleep or take a bath, I did not notice that parts of my body were covered with pus from the wounds of the beatings, until these areas emitted very bad smells. Sometimes I was not allowed to sleep for ten or twenty days in a row. I was beaten whenever I tried to close my eyes. Eventually, I was beaten even when I just lowered my head. Almost my whole body was bruised and swollen. Sometimes, the night shift thugs became bored with beatings, so they stepped on my back and kicked me. At times, I was kicked up to fifty or sixty times. They also kicked me in the head and whipped me several hundred times, and would still not stop. When I raised my arms to protect my head, my hands became swollen from the lashes. I tried to reason with them, but they simply stuffed my mouth with a cleaning rag that was used to mop the floor.
Sometimes several thugs dragged me to the ground, or squeezed me in between a metal bookshelf and a metal table, beating me in the eyes until I was dizzy and had become quite deaf. I became disoriented, and the window and door seemed to randomly trade positions, the ground was unsteady and the walls seemed to oscillate. My daily food rations were cut, and I was not allowed to sleep. I became emaciated and looked frightening to other people. I was not allowed to sleep for a very long time, and they poured a kind of very strong herb oil into my eyes, mouth, and on my head and neck, which had a burning feeling. Several people took turns pinching my neck muscles. Whenever they ruthlessly beat me, they turned up the volume on the television because they were afraid that other people would hear the sounds of the beatings or the verbal abuse. I also frequently heard miserable cries from the floors above and below me.
During that time, many of my blood vessels became swollen. I fell against the table as if I had a short-term stroke. I fell even when I was already sitting on the ground, and I frequently had spells of losing awareness. Once, a rumor reached the isolated "classroom" that someone from Beijing was coming for an inspection. I was quickly transferred to another prison area - even my chamberpot was moved out. They then cleaned the room, but locked me back inside it after the inspection was over. While I was confined there, my chamberpot often had worms crawling around in it. Sometimes, the worms crawled onto the ground and only then would I be allowed to empty the chamberpot. Every day I was allowed to use the restroom four times but when the restroom was too smelly, often I was not allowed to use it. After this type of brutal treatment lasting a full four months, everyone was shocked at my appearance. I had been forced to sit in a fixed posture for several months and not permitted to move. My buttocks had developed large lumps, which sometimes would develop scabs and bleed. I reported this many times to the official guard, but the more I reported them, the more ruthlessly the criminals would beat me.
After I left the confinement room, the official guard told me that they would punish the persons who beat me and make them apologize. However, I saw that in fact, this group of thugs were promoted and received awards for being "model workers" and "outstanding supervisors."
I have now served my prison term and I have come home. I took pictures of all the wounds that remain on my body. I would like to take this chance to appeal to all kindhearted Chinese people, to please wake up, and to not participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Rather, you must choose a bright future for yourself. I also appeal to all the kind people in the world to stop the persecution against Falun Gong that originated with the Chinese Communist Party, as well as Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, and their henchmen.
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhao Fuguang, from Tonghe county, Heilongjiang province was arrested on September 12. She has been on a hunger strike up ever since. On September 14, Ms. Zhao was sent to Wanjia Labor Camp, where she was forced to write the three statements to renounce and denounce Falun Gong. She refused, for which she was cruelly beaten and kicked by prison guards Wu Hongxun, Guan Jie and Zhou Muqi. Then she was tortured with "sitting on an iron chair". In the meantime, she was injected with drugs and was not allowed to go to toilet for long time, from which she suffered from incontinence. She was not unfastened from the iron chair until she became unable to urinate on September 17. From that day, the prison guards tortured her with force feeding by sticking a pipe through her throat into her stomach, three times a day. They changed the routine to two times a day from September 25.
The main perpetrators: Wu Hongxun, home telephone 86-451-82145670, Guan Jie, Zhou Muqi and Jia Zuiyan.
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Cuijuan, from Tonghe County, was arrested on September 12 and then sent to Wanjia Labor Camp. She refused to write the "three statements" and went on a hunger strike for 24 hours to protest the persecution, for which she suffered from the torture "sitting on a iron chair" and was forced to do labor for long time. The Labor Camp does not allow her family members to see her.
Ms. Diao Yuqing has been persecuted ever since she was arrested to Wanjia Labor Camp on May 11, 2006. On July 19, the prison guards Wu Hongxun, Wu Baoyun and Yao Fuchang tortured her inhumanely with long-term hanging. She suffered so much from the torture that her hair became white, her face became dull and she became unable to speak clearly or move her right arm. Recent days, the prison guard Wu Hongxun and others beat her every day, so cruelly that her whole body were covered with injuries.
To cover its crime of persecuting Ms Diao, the 13th Group
of Wanjia Labor Camp refused the request of her family
members to see her on September 12 and October 10 because they were
afraid that information of the persecution might be leaked outside. The
family members of Ms. Diao Yuqing and Ms. Liu Shuzhen then launched a
lawsuit against Wanjia Labor Camp. The prison guards were very
frightened and had to reduce their violence and stopped the hanging
torture of Falun Gong practitioners because authorities went to the
labor
camp to investigate the case constantly. Although authorities took no
actions to stop their crimes, the prison guards were still afraid and
changed their way of treating Ms Liu and Ms. Diao.