The Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong  -- November 11, 2008

Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Content


  • Over Seventy Falun Gong Practitioners Detained in Brainwashing Center at the Zhangjiakou City Forced Labor Camp
  • During the Beijing Olympic Games, CCP authorities in Zhangjiakou City set up brainwashing centers in a Forced Labor Camp. They arrested more than seventy Falun Gong practitioners throughout the city.



    Over Seventy Falun Gong Practitioners Detained in Brainwashing Center at the Zhangjiakou City Forced Labor Camp

    On July 15, 2008, officials from the National Security Ministry and the Hebei Provincial 610 Office came to Zhangjiakou City in person to check the so-called security of the Olympics. They ordered to set up brainwashing centers inside of the Zhangjiakou City Forced Labor Camp (Drug Rehabilitation Center) located in Yubaodun Village, Yaojiazhuang Town, Gaoxin District, Zhangjiakou City. The local CCP authorities arrested more than seventy Falun Gong practitioners throughout the city and then jailed them in the brainwashing centers until October 7.

    The brainwashing center was set up in the forced labor camp. Falun Gong practitioners were bodily searched, and all their belongings were checked-in when they first entered the center. The prison gate was locked during the two hours for lunch break and from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. every day. A few guards and officials from the Zhangjiakou Municipal Judicial Bureau and the Zhangjiako Forced Labor Camp, along with officials from the brainwashing center, were on duty every day. They berated practitioners and repeated slanderous propaganda.

    On July 23, the brainwashing center personnel forced the practitioners to undergo brainwashing. Ten practitioners refused and held a protest. Yang Jianfeng, head of the brainwashing center, beat the practitioners. Most of the practitioners were slapped. Ms. Liu Ying, a practitioner from Zhangjiakou, and Ms. Cao Cuimei, a practitioner from Zhuolu, were struck in the face. Liu Ying was also dragged from her bed along the corridor and swore at. They also swore at Falun Gong and Teacher. On the same morning they locked every room because they were afraid that Falun Gong practitioners would gather in protest of the abuse. The next day they transfered some of the practitioners on the second floor to the third floor so as to keep practitioners isolated from one another, create a terrifying atmosphere, and intensify the persecution. The next day Yang Jianfeng swore at Liu Ying and beat her on the head twice because Liu Ying practiced the Falun Gong exercises. He also threatened her, saying, "I will beat you to death." Yang Jianfeng often swore at practitioners. Ms. Ma Runlian, a Falun Gong practitioner from Yangyuan was sent to the brainwashing center by police who climbed over the wall of her house at 3:00 a.m. and dragged her from her bed, then took her to the brainwashing class. Upon seeing the practitioners being beaten, she was so traumatized that her stomach disease relapsed. She couldn't eat due to the pain in her stomach, but the doctor in the forced labor camp said that she was only pretending to have the stomachache. One or two days later her symptoms intensified, but they still didn't release her. They instead gave her two tablets and tried to force her to swallow them. They swore at her when she didn't take them and also tried to force-feed her.

    Liu Bao, a practitioner from Yangyuan, went to visit another practitioner in his room. Policeman Wang Zhaohui ordered him to go back to his own room. He said to the officer that he would do so in a short while. Wang then threw the melon he was eating at Liu Bao's face, but he missed and the melon hit the wall instead. Other officer then forcibly dragged him out. Wang Zhaohui also threatened to handcuff Liu Bao.

    Falun Gong practitioner Shi Jujun from Zhangbei was taken away from the brainwashing center in mid August and sentenced to two and a half years in the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp.

    Li Tongsheng, a female staff member at the brainwashing center, forcibly broke into practitioners' rooms and took photos while they were practicing the exercises. She threatened that she would find ways to use the photos to make practitioners look bad and post them on her blog. The next morning a practitioner went to see her and told her that she violated a copyright when she took photos of practitioners without their consent, and demanded that she erase the pictures from her camera. She said some nasty words and refused to admit that she took photos the previous night. At that time many practitioners were standing in the corridor. Policeman Liang Fuli came and pushed that practitioner, saying to him, "Even if I hit you and took photos of you, how could you possible do anything to me?"

    In mid-July officers from the police station in Yaojiafang Town arrested Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Jinlian, from Ertaizi Village in Yaojiafang Town of Gaoxin District in Zhang City. At the time Zhao Jinlian refused to open the door for the police. The officers then climbed over the wall and broke through the door. Zhao's son and daughter tried to reason with the police but the police handcuffed her son and beat him until his vest was covered with blood. Her daughter was also persecuted until she passed out. Luckily the neighbor discovered her and revived her. Her son was detained for ten days. She herself was first detained for fifteen days and then sent to the Zhangjiakou Brainwashing Center where she continued to suffer abuse. Her family members went to the detention center fifteen days later in hopes of taking her home but they didn't see her and thought she had been tortured to death. They cried for four or five days, but later on learned that she had been sent to the Zhangjiakou Brainwashing Center.

    On July 24, police from the Zhangbei County Domestic Security Division and officials from the 610 Office hired a locksmith to damage the security lock on the door of practitioner Wang Dengfang's house and broke in. Six or eight police officers carried her from the fourth floor to the police car parked downstairs and took her to the brainwashing center. Ms. Wang had a teenage daughter and a seven-year-old son left at home with no one to look after them. On July 26, a hospital examination revealed that she had a uterine tumor, but brainwashing center officers Wu Jinmei and Yang Jianfeng didn't let her go home until August 3, when her uterus was bleeding and she was in a critical condition.

    Practitioner Mr. Li Fuxian was from Xicheng in Yangyuan County. On July 31, police from Yangyuan County drove to his daughter's home and forced him to leave there under false pretenses. Li Fuxian was taking care of his daughter in Shijiazhuang, who had just given birth. The police told him that they would drive him to the police station and have a short talk. Instead, the police drove him to Yangyuan and then took him to the brainwashing center, where he was detained for two months.

    Practitioner Ms. Zhang Fengzhi, who is 64 years old, from Yangyuan, was not released, even though she was suffering from high blood pressure. Finally, on August 4 she fainted when she was in the dining hall. Her blood pressure had reached 220, so they had to send her home.

    On August 13, policemen Yu Enxiang, Zhang Xiaolei, Zhang Xinbin and Han Xiuzhen found out that practitioners were doing the exercises. Policeman Zhang Xiaolei shocked practitioner Fan Jianying from Gaoxin District in Zhangjiakou with an electric baton.

    In 2004, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Ma Xiuqing from Yangyuan left home and stayed in Baotou to avoid further persecution. Police from the Yaojiazhuang Police Station in Yangyuan County stayed in a Baotou hotel for two weeks and arrested Ma Xiuqing. At 3:00 a.m. on August 14, she was taken to Yaojiazhuang Police Station in Yangyuan County. In the afternoon Ma Xiuqing was taken to the Zhangjiakou Brainwashing Center.

    At 4:00 p.m. on August 19, people from outside came to visit the brainwashing center. The brainwashing center officials made practitioners hide in the audiovisual room in the basement of the one-story building. According to the police, they were afraid that the people visiting would ask why so many elderly Falun Gong practitioners were in the forced labor camp.

    On September 8, policeman Zhang Xiaolei slapped practitioner Han Xiurong from Wei County on her face when she was walking up and down the corridor to relax her body. The police then locked her alone in a room. Zhang Xiaolei, a guard at the forced labor camp, beat and shocked Falun Gong practitioners Han Xiurong and Fan Jianying with electric batons.

    The police arrested practitioner Wang Yuemei from Zhangbei when she took her son to see the doctor in Kangbao, and took her directly to the brainwashing center. On September 13, she was suffering from symptoms of heart disease and was not able to get out of bed. She was not allowed to leave the brainwashing center until September 21, the day she was sentenced to one and a half years in the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp. She was still very weak when she was sent to Shijiazhuang City Forced Labor Camp.

    Four Falun Gong practitioners, two male and two female, from a private clinic in Wei County, were taken to the brainwashing center. It was learned that the local people signed petitions and went to the county government, demanding their release. On September 4, one male and three female officials from the provincial 610 Office came to the brainwashing center and threatened these four practitioners seven to twelve year jail sentences if they didn't write the "four statements" (similar to the three statements). After one week of high pressure, three of them wrote the "four statements" but were not released until September 17. The fourth practitioner was still very determined in her belief and refused to renounce Falun Gong. She was released ten days later than the other three practitioners.

    Wei, director of the Zhangjiakou Municipal Bureau of Justice, made a speech in the brainwashing center and came to the center several times to check up on the center's progress. Every practitioner detained there had to submit ten thousand yuan, while those who were assigned to monitor and persecute practitioners had their local town government or work unit submit three thousand yuan for them. (It was said that the six hundred thousand yuan collected was for building a new building for the brainwashing center to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.) One practitioner from Yangyuan County was monitored and persecuted by three assigned personnel, one of which was a deputy township head. Those who were assigned to monitor and persecute Falun Gong practitioners had to stay in the brainwashing center and eat the same food that was served to practitioners. They complained and groaned a lot.

    CCP officials from top levels claimed that one hundred thousand Falun Gong practitioners would gather in Beijing on August 1, 2008, therefore, wherever there were practitioners who went to Beijing, officials from those areas would be fired. Behind the Olympic Games, numerous Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced, detained, sent to forced labor camps and brainwashing centers. More practitioners were monitored by CCP agents under house arrest. It was said that one district spent ten million yuan to ensure the "safety" of the Olympic Games.

    Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/10/28/188651.html