(Clearwisdom.net) Beginning July 20, 1999, corrupt government officials and police in Yishui county, Shandong province conducted a brutal persecution of Dafa practitioners who believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." In order to coerce practitioners to give up their faith in Dafa:

--They illegally jailed and detained the practitioners and sent them to brainwashing class; also, they sentenced practitioners to forced labor and jail terms.

--They inflicted physical punishment such as not allowing the practitioners to sleep, and forced them to run and do push-ups. They beat and kicked them, used sticks and leather belts, and even batons, etc. to apply direct bodily torture to the practitioners. Some practitioners were tortured to death.

--They fined practitioners huge amounts, ransacked their homes and confiscated belongings, deprived them of their salaries, etc. to put the practitioners and their families into an extremely difficult situation.

--They used coercion to force practitioners' family members to give up their jobs and do the so-called company-study (in which non-practitioner family members, friends and even colleagues attend the class together with the practitioners), illegally deprived practitioners of their rights to appeal and work, and deprived some of their family members' of their basic human rights.

In September 2000, in order to prevent practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal during October 1^st, some officials of the Yishui county government organized another round of persecution. They held four forced brainwashing classes in Fengjia village of Yishui town, Gaozhuang town, Huangshanpu town and Zhuge town. As the sponsors, officers of the Politics and Law Committee and the police department and the police stations recruited some veteran soldiers, armed police and even hired thugs to work beating people (the qualification was being able to beat people brutally and atrociously. The youngest member recruited was only 15 years old.) They tricked or kidnapped determined practitioners to get them to the brainwashing class, where they tortured them physically and mentally. They also compelled the practitioners' families or colleagues to attend the class with the practitioners. The county government's instruction to the brainwashing classes was: in order to make the practitioners give up cultivation, any brutal beating or torture will be allowed. They also forcibly charged practitioners a so-called living fee of 200 Yuan/month [about one month's wage in rural China] and a class fee of 1000 Yuan/month. Aside from the required "guarantee letters," they were also charging a guarantee fee (farmers 3,000 Yuan per person, non-agricultural people 5,000 Yuan per person). Practitioners could get out of the brainwashing class only after their family members and workplace presented a joint guarantee; otherwise they would suffer long-term incarceration or forced labor. Practitioners who got out of brainwashing class also had to report to the village office or their workplace on a regular basis to talk about their thoughts. They had to apply for a permit when leaving town and those who had jobs only receive a small amount of money for a living fee.

Directed by Gao Zhongping, the head of Yishui County Politics and Law Committee, with deputy director Zhang, the chief of Gaozhuang Town Police Station, the brainwashing class detained 14 practitioners in the beginning. Except for one hour per day for meals, the rest of the time was used as a forced "boot camp" style physical punishment of practitioners. Those who disobeyed their commands were severely beaten with wooden sticks. During the whole course of the class, countless wood sticks were broken from the beatings. Those whose movements didn't conform to their requirement were burned with cigarettes. At night, practitioners were forced to run for half an hour at 1 am. For each meal, only two small steamed buns and a piece of salted vegetable were given. The long-term physical punishment and cruel beatings devastated practitioners' physical and mental health. Among them was Gao Yulan who is over 50 years old. She was tortured until two of her lumbar vertebrae were displaced. Her legs hurt and she couldn't run so the thugs forced her to walk around carrying two or three bricks. When she collapsed and passed out on the ground from exhaustion, the cruel officials woke her up and forced her to hold the bricks while standing against the wall. Later, they dragged her into a room where they beat her with a belt, all in an attempt to force her to give up cultivation.

Li Guangliang, a practitioner who previously worked at an educational institution in Chaishan town of Yishui county was first tricked into coming to the county education board by her school officials, in the name of a meeting. After three days of illegal detention, she was also sent to Gaozhuang town brainwashing class. Because she was determined in Dafa cultivation, she was brutally beaten by the thugs until she lost consciousness and was on the verge of death. Later, she regained consciousness after receiving oxygen therapy in a hospital. One day when it was raining, the thugs Gao Zhongping and Zhang malignantly wrote the name of Falun Gong's founder -- Teacher Li Hongzhi--on the ground and ordered the practitioners to stomp on it. Those who disobeyed were forced to run in the rain. Because of the long-term physical abuse and lack of food, practitioners didn't have the strength to run. So the thugs beat practitioners Wang Chunmei and Liu Jingmei until they fell to the muddy ground and were soaking wet.

At the forced brainwashing class in Gaozhuang town, all practitioners who refused to submit were hit on their heads with glass bottles, severely beaten all over with wooden sticks, etc. and tortured inhumanly.

October 1, 2001