(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Luo Xiumei. I am a 28-year-old woman. I formerly worked at the Hydraulic Pressure Subsidiary Company, Machine Manufacturing Company of the Panzhihua Steel and Iron Corporation (also known as Pan Steel). Because of my practicing Falun Dafa, I was brutally persecuted by police officers, including Hu Xiaochuan, Zeng Xiaomin, and Shi Hongbo from the Pan Steel Police Substation and the Panzhihua City Detention Center.
Why I practice Falun Gong
When I was in high school in early 1992, I suddenly felt that my arms were weak. Gradually both my legs became heavy. And then slowly, my eyelids drooped and I had no strength to open them. Later on, I was not capable of even lifting my head. I had difficulty chewing, squatting, or speaking. My whole body became so incapacitated that I often fell down, and as a result, there were wounds all over my body. My illness was diagnosed at a hospital as myasthenia gravis in 1994. In the same year, I had surgery at the West China Medical Institution. By taking medicine, the symptoms were controlled a little bit. In 1998 my illness became extremely severe and even huge doses of medicine were of no more use.
When I was in despair, I was fortunate enough to learn Falun Dafa, taught by Master Li. After one week of practicing, it seemed that I had become a different person. My spirits had obviously greatly improved. The doses of medicine I used to take were gradually reduced until I finally didn't need to take any medicine. Practicing Falun Gong brought me a wonderful and healthy body and mind, and I felt happy and joyful. Myasthenia gravis is considered an incurable disease, but in just 7 days, Falun Gong released me from so many years of suffering. This truly demonstrates the wonder and profoundness of Falun Gong.
However, since July 20, 1999 when Jiang's group started to insanely persecute Falun Gong, I have suffered relentless and inhuman torture and persecution.
Because I remained steadfast in practicing Falun Gong, I was illegally detained
Because I firmly practiced Falun Gong, my family and I have suffered various kinds of persecution and torture on several occasions. After the persecution of Falun Gong officially began on July 20, 1999, Liu Anren from the Neighborhood Administrative Offices and Neighborhood Committees illegally took away two copies of Zhuan Falun (1) from me. On December 13, 1999, Yuan Bin, along with other police officers from the Pan Steel Police Substation, asked me, while I was at work, to go to the Security Section at my work unit. They asked me if I would still practice Falun Gong, and I replied, "I will." I was then illegally detained for 10 days.
My basic right as a citizen to appeal to the higher authorities was denied
In order to return innocence to Dafa and Teacher, who brought such huge benefits to my body and mind, and in order to report the unfair treatment I received from the police officers at the Pan Steel Police Substation, I went to Beijing to appeal. However, upon arriving in Beijing, I was deceived by the police officers stationed there. They claimed that since it was a Sunday, they would escort me back to appeal on the coming Monday. In the Panzhihua's Liaison Office in Beijing, I personally heard a policewoman named Liu place a call, arranging to send me back to Panzhihua City. I was also illegally body searched by the policewoman. In the evening I escaped and prepared to appeal. To my shock, at the gate of the appeal office, I was held down by two men from Panzhihua City and was forcefully body searched by the policewoman.
I was then pushed into a taxi. At the Panzhihua City Liaison Office in Beijing, they robbed me of about 100 yuan (2) in cash and a credit receipt valued at 450 yuan, saying that it was to cover my travel costs. Then they handcuffed me near a desk.
The persecution I suffered at the Wanyaogshu Detention Center in Panzhihua City
On January 9, 2000 I was sent to the Wanyaogshu Detention Center in Panzhihua City. As I continued to do the Falun Gong exercises, the head of the detention center ordered prisoners to put shackles weighing 38 jin [about 34 lbs] on my feet. I continued to do the exercises the next day and was then restrained by a methods known as "backward handcuffing" (my two arms were crossed behind my calves and handcuffed and bound to my legs; people who are handcuffed this way cannot stand straight or lie down properly). The handcuffs were right on my wrist bones, very painful and tight. My hands swelled severely and were so painful that I couldn't fall asleep and I had to sit up for the whole night. After that the police shackled me with a larger set of handcuffs.
Some other practitioners who were persecuted at the same time in the Wanyaoshu Detention Center were Li Huiqiong and Liu Qinghua from Miyi County, and Zhao Fengying from the Power Supply Department in Panzhihua City. They were all forced to put on those heavy shackles. Shortly after, I was transferred to Room No. 9, where I was attacked every day by the criminal inmates. Although I was still "backward handcuffed" and had difficulty moving, the cell leader, an individual named Zhang, prohibited anybody from helping me. While making my bed, I had to expend my whole effort to do it little by little. When it was time to eat, the food bowl was put on the floor to the right side of my body. I had to go around my right knee with my left hand and take the spoon to feed myself little by little, with my head lowered to the level of my knees. The most difficult thing was using the toilet. My left hand had to go around the crotch of my pants to pull the right pant-leg up little by little, and then the same was done to the left pant-leg. Simply pulling off the pants would take me well over 10 minutes. When walking, I had to crawl on the floor like a disabled person who couldn't use their legs.
After the Spring Festival, I began to practice the Falun Gong exercises again. Hu Xiaochuan forced me to do the torture called "Against the Wall" (the feet being about 2 feet from the wall, body bent at 90 degrees, and the head against the wall). The guards lied to me, saying that if I would do this for two hours, I could do the exercises later on. One time Hu Xiaochuan forced me to do "Against the Wall" at a gate. Since I was still wearing shackles, I soon became very tired and had to squat on the floor. I was then "backward handcuffed" for one month, was forced to do the "Against the Wall" for one month, and was forced to wear shackles for 59 days. Until March 16 when I was finally released, I was illegally detained and brutally tortured for a total of 69 days.
Persecuted again in the detention center
After my release from the detention center, I was monitored by Chen Xia and Yang Qian from my work unit and by my family members. In order to call for the return of our legal environment to practice Falun Gong, I once again went to Beijing to appeal on May 16, 2000, but was again sent to the detention center in Panzhihua City for further persecution. I steadfastly maintained my belief and was again forced to wear those shackles weighing 34 pounds. Because the police took away my copies of Master's new articles, I went on a hunger strike to protest. The authorities from the detention center then subjected me to brutal force-feeding. Policeman Shi Hongbo ordered about 5 or 6 people to hold me down on the floor. My hair, clothes, and underwear were all soaked with the white paste they tried to feed me; my mouth was injured when they pried it open. Soon, I began to suffer from diarrhea. Because it was not convenient for me to relieve myself with the shackles on, I soiled my pants. They were soiled again as soon as I changed into clean pants; this was repeated about 6 times until at last I had no clean pants left. They then took the shackles off me. This persecution severely injured my body and mind. After being released from the detention center, I could not go downstairs, since I could not control and move my legs.
The persecution I suffered after I appealed a third time
In late July 2000, because the police harassed my family again, I once again went to Beijing to appeal for justice. A fellow practitioner and I were arrested at the gate of the appeals office and were sent to a police station near Tiananmen Square. The police officers thrashed us with a strap and used electric batons to shock us on our neck. On August 25, I was once again sent back to the detention center in Panzhihua City. On September 8, I was once more forced to wear shackles and was forced on a bed to be tortured. Later, they sent me to Room No. 10, where I suffered even more brutal torture. Almost every day when I did the exercises, Guard Zeng Xiaomin would order prisoners to beat me. One time Zeng Xiaomin forced me to squat, but I refused, so she kicked me. She then ordered a male prisoner to beat me, but I sternly stopped him. Another time, Zeng Xiaomin repeatedly slapped my mouth with a slipper. When she became tired of slapping me, she then tried to stick the slipper into my mouth. This torture lasted until suppertime, when she ordered two prisoners to drag me to the cell and proclaimed in front of everyone, "Did you see me beat Luo Xiumei?" Her inhumanity caused many prisoners to be angry and disgusted. I was also forced twice to lie on the "Dead Person's Bed" (where the four limbs of the practitioner are stretched out and tied to the four corners of an icy-cold metal bed). Each time I was subjected to this torture, my hands and legs were shackled to the bed and there was also a restraint around my waist, which was extremely painful.
On August 13, 2001, I was illegally sentenced to a four-year term and was sent to the Provincial Women's Prison in Jianyan City.
Notes
(1) The book, Zhuan Falun, comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa.
(2) Yuan is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
