(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Qiongfang is a Falun Dafa practitioner from Xinjin County, Sichuan Province. She was illegally sentenced to three years in prison for appealing on behalf of Falun Dafa in Beijing in 2000. In September of 2003, Ms. Zhang was released from Chuanxi Women's Prison. In October 2003, however, she was arrested again by police in Xinjin County, who sentenced her to three years in prison.
On September 20, 2000, Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested by the local police. While in custody, she was severely beaten and her body was covered with bruises. She was unconscious for two days in the cell. Later, Ms. Zhang was sentenced to three years in prison because she held firmly to her belief in Falun Dafa.
1. Yangmahe Women's Prison, Jianyang County, Sichuan Province
In 2001, Zhang Qiongfang was transferred to Yangmahe Women's Prison in Jianyang County, Sichuan Province, where several hundred Falun Dafa practitioners were also detained. Ms. Zhang was detained in the third section. In the prison, practitioners were forced to do heavy labor under very poor and difficult conditions. They had to make the top part of army shoes from 5 a.m. until midnight. In some sections, the inmates were forced to work for several consecutive days and nights without sleep.
In the past, the guards in Section Three tortured practitioners by tying them up with rope, or handcuffing and shackling them and then hanging them up on the gate. Although practitioners were tortured this way, they did not give in and "reform," but firmly resisted the persecution. The guards then changed their tactics of trying to "reform" practitioners by using a combination of false kindness and punishment. They first would have conversations with the practitioners and ask them to follow the guards' orders to "report to them like the rest of the criminal inmates" when meeting a prison guard. They would tell practitioners that it was only a formality, and it did not necessarily mean that the practitioner has "transformed" and given in. It was only to "give the guards due respect." Behind this, however, lay deception and cruelty. If a practitioner did as the guards had asked, to acknowledge and report to them like other criminal inmates, it was acknowledging the persecution and insulting Falun Dafa and the practitioners. It is actually the first step in their transformation.
Zhang Qiongfang did not do as the guards requested. As punishment, they forced her to walk a long distance to the workshop while carrying two big buckets of hot water (each half the height of an average person) every day.
In the winter of 2001, the guards forced the common criminal inmates from Ms. Zhang's cell to sit outside in the cold courtyard to "study" with her, after they finished doing hard labor at midnight. The police used this tactic to provoke the inmates' hatred towards Falun Dafa and practitioners. They also beat up Ms. Zhang, trying to force her to renounce Falun Dafa. Several days later, they forced her to stand in the cold, strong wind in the courtyard, facing the wall, from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. or 12 midnight when the inmates finished work. From standing in the cold for so long, Ms. Zhang's legs became severely swollen and she could barely move them. Under such abuse at the prison, she became emaciated.
Jiang, Head of Section Three, condemned Falun Gong on many occasions during the inmates' meetings. He also encouraged the inmates to openly criticize Falun Gong on the stage, and to write articles on the blackboard with the same content. Every week, practitioners were forced to attend the gathering and listen to the slander and defamation about Falun Gong in the prison office. Every time, the guards would subject the practitioners to a body search. The prison would also order former practitioners, who had been transformed and renounced Falun Gong, to try to persuade the steadfast practitioners. These collaborators imposed their twisted understandings of Falun Dafa in order to spiritually torment steadfast practitioners.
2. The Persecution in Chuanxi Women's Prison, Sichuan Province
In the beginning of 2002, Zhang Qiongfang and 14 other practitioners who remained firm in their belief were transferred to Chuanxi Women's Prison for further persecution. At the prison, posters criticizing Falun Gong were posted everywhere. The practitioners clarified the truth about Falun Gong to the prison officers and supervisors, and asked them to take the posters down, as they poisoned peoples' minds. The guards, however, turned a deaf ear to their request.
When practitioner Zhang Hongqiong tore down a poster, guard Wang Xinya (female) and the section supervisor gathered all the prison guards and inmates in the section to hold a meeting to condemn Falun Gong. At the meeting, they cursed Falun Gong and the practitioners. They also asked several inmates to go on stage and criticize Falun Gong. Wang Xinya then led other inmates to call out slogans against Falun Gong. Six practitioners, including Jiang Nianli, Chen Xiping, Zhang Zhiqiong, and Yao Yuanzhen, went to the front of the crowd to defend Falun Gong, while the other practitioners called out, "Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is the righteous Law." The six practitioners were immediately confined in a small cell and severely tortured. Zhang Zhiqiong was later transferred to Jianyang Women's Prison and tortured until she suffered a mental collapse.
Several days later, Ms. Zhang, Su Nan, and Wang Jianhui were put in solitary confinement for refusing to do the forced labor, wear nametags like the other inmates, or attend training classes for the inmates. They were then tortured with "tying the ropes." (1)
Ms. Zhang and the other practitioners' hands were also handcuffed behind their backs to the iron bars of the window. They had to stand on their toes while bending forward. Each day, they only got three ten-minute breaks to use the restroom and eat their meal. The rest of the time, they were handcuffed to the iron bars, standing on their toes. Besides being tortured this way, the guards and inmates continuously mentally abused the practitioners by cursing them and trying to force them to renounce Falun Gong. After a week of torture, Ms. Zhang's legs became swollen and the other practitioners were at the brink of death. Instead of handcuffing them with their hands behind their back, the guards decided to handcuff them from the front. The practitioners still couldn't sit down and had to continue standing. It was not until a month later that they were allowed to sleep on the floor at night. Practitioner Su Nan, who had been on a hunger strike in protest and was at the verge of death, was sent to the hospital.
From April to October, Ms. Zhang was confined in the small cell. Practitioner Liu Ying was also put into solitary confinement. When her term was due in June, the prison illegally extended her sentence for another three years, and transferred her to Jianyang Women's Prison under the accusation of distributing articles written by the founder of Falun Gong. In reality, they were afraid that Liu Ying would expose the persecution of Dafa practitioners inside the prison.
During that period, the guards in that section held many meetings to condemn Falun Gong and they forced practitioners to attend. Commissar Zhang (now retired) was personally in charge of the persecution. He said that those practitioners who did not give in under the "education" would be tortured, claiming that it was legal to do so.
In October, the prison forced practitioners to attend brainwashing sessions, undergo military training and attend lectures that criticized Falun Gong. The practitioners, however, refused to follow their instructions. As a result, they were forced to run around the exercise yard, each practitioner dragged by three inmates. When the inmates got tired, three new inmates would replace them, to continually force the practitioners to run without rest for the whole morning. Practitioner Gao Hongxiang lost consciousness, and was later subjected to the "tying the ropes" torture. Many practitioners were also injured. Zhang Yaoqiong fell to the ground and hurt her leg. Su Nan, who was on a hunger strike, was brutally force-fed. Zhang Hongqiong, Jiang Zhiqing, and Jin Shaofang were subjected to the rope torture. Most of them were forced to have half of their heads shaved, as a way to humiliate and insult them. Jiang Nianli and Feng Jing were put into solitary confinement. Feng Jing, who was on a hunger strike, was forced-fed, and her life was placed in danger. The authorities sent her to the hospital, and the hospital signed two notices that she was in critical condition.
That year, practitioner Guo Qirong was secretly tortured to death. The prison concealed that information. Ms. Zhang Qiongfang was taken to the prison office, where Section Supervisor Zhang Xinya, Vice Supervisor Gao Mei, and Head of the police He Qiongfang pressured her to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Zhang refused. They tied her up with ropes and slapped her in the face, while continuously cursing her and Falun Gong. Gao Mei shaved Ms. Zhang's hair half bald, saying, "You don't admit that you are a criminal, but I'll give you a criminal's haircut." They untied her after several hours. Wang Xinya threatened her, "Don't you dare tell other people about being tied by the ropes. Otherwise, we will be in trouble, and you will too." Several months later, Ms. Zhang reported to the education office in the prison about the abuse she suffered. Head of the office, He, had a conversation with Zhang Qiongfang, insisting that she was telling a lie and that no one persecuted her.
More than a hundred practitioners have been persecuted by the Chuanxi Women's Prison using various methods. In order to receive monetary rewards for transforming practitioners (several thousand yuan or even ten thousand for each "transformed" practitioner), the prison guards stated that if practitioners signed the three statements, they would start to practice Falun Gong with them. This was a way to try to deceive practitioners who hadn't studied the Fa well into going astray.
The guards were reluctant to release Ms. Zhang Qiongfang when her term was over, because she had steadfastly refused to cooperate with them. They asked the local Xinjin police to go to the prison, and threatened that they wouldn't release her if she refused to give up Falun Gong. They said that even if they released her, they would put her under house arrest. On September 20, 2003, Chuanxi Women's Prison had to release Ms. Zhang, who still refused to give in. During her imprisonment, Ms. Zhang was fired from her job without notice and therefore couldn't make a living. In October 2003, Zhang Qiongfang was arrested again by the Xinjin police and sentenced to three years of imprisonment.
Partial list of the policemen involved in the persecution of practitioners:
Yangmahe Women's Prison, Jianyang, Sichuan Province -
Zhang, head of the prison (male)
Zheng, head of the prison (female)
Jiang, former supervisor of the Third Section (female)
Wang, former vice supervisor of the Third Section (female)
Chuanxi Women's Prison, Dabao Village, Wen'an Town, Longquanyi, Chengdu City, Xichun Province -
Zhang, former commissar of the prison (male), now retired
Zhang, head of prison supervisor (female)
He, head of the education office (male)
Yuan, head of the education office (male)
Wang Xinya (female), supervisor of the Twelfth Section.
Gao Mei (female), deputy-supervisor of the Twelfth Section.
He Qiongfang (female), head officer of the Twelfth Section.
Chen Jianmei and Chen Wei, others who persecuted practitioners in Chuanxi Women's Prison
When Chuanxi Women's Prison was located in Miaoxi, Ya'an, they took the inmates' boarding fee from a state grant, but never purchased the food to feed the inmates. The prison only fed the inmates with the vegetables they grew and the pigs they raised. When cooking a meal, they did not use any oil. There was often a layer of maggots in the soup. They only let the inmates have two meals with meat every week, but the "meat" was only several pieces of gristle. On the blackboard outside the dining hall, the prison authorities stated that every month they spent more money than the standard requirement on food, which was untrue.
Note
(1) Tying the Ropes: the ropes are soaked in water before they are wound tightly around the victim's arms from the wrist to the shoulder. Then both arms are pulled behind the neck. When the arms are in this position, blood cannot flow into the arms, and the person will lose consciousness in half an hour. Being tied up for a long time will cause death. Generally, after this torture, the victim suffers long-term pain in the bones, or becomes disabled. People have died as a result of this torture.