(Clearwisdom.net)

The following is a personal account of the cruel persecution that I suffered and witnessed in the Hegang No.2 Detention Center and in the Heilongjiang Women's Prison.

On the afternoon of April 21, 2002, four police officers arrested me at my mother's home and locked me up in the Hedong Branch of the Police Department. The next day, they transferred me to the No. 2 Detention Center. In just three days, all the prison cells were packed with Falun Dafa practitioners, with each cell having fifty to sixty people. The authorities at the Hegang Branch aggressively arrested practitioners at will.

One day in May, an inmate named Yang Ying asked us if we would continue to practice Falun Gong. The answer was a unanimous, "Yes." Yang quickly reported to the police officers of the prison that we did not want to give up our practice. The officers started to prepare all the instruments of torture. Because there were simply too many practitioners who were imprisoned there, the authorities did not have enough instruments of torture, so they borrowed some from other places and created some of their own. The instruments included eight meter long steel pipes with many steel loops on them. The officers instructed the inmates to lock each of our feet into one steel loop and then to handcuff our hands to it, making us unable to straighten our backs or stand up. We were locked up like this even when eating.

The cruelest form of torture was to prevent us from closing our eyes and sleeping. As soon as any of us closed our eyes, they poured cold water on us, slapped us with their shoes, or kicked us. Some practitioners' buttocks began to fester. The more they sat, the worse their buttocks festered. Eventually some of had three large holes open on their buttocks, with blood and pus oozing from them. When a practitioner in this state needed to use the toilet, three people had to help her up. The torture of preventing us from sleeping and constantly beating us lasted as long as seventeen days.

Later the authorities sentenced me to three years in prison and sent me to the Heilongjiang Women's Prison. On September 5, 2003, a few of us were sitting on the floor, sending forth righteous thoughts, when Zhang Chunhua and a few other policewomen, together with another male officer, came into our cell. Outraged, the male officer walked towards us and fiercely beat us with his fists. Then he kept kicking us with his leather shoes until he was exhausted. After the beatings, he grinned to the female officers, "Strip them and take away all of their clothes. Let's see how they can practice." Soon a few inmates came in with many ropes. They wrapped us up with the ropes and tied us on the beds.

The next day Officer Zhang Chunhua again came in, accompanied by a few inmates. The untied us and tried to take us out. We refused. They beat and kicked us, forcing us to go inside the gate of the male prison. All of us were stunned when we saw what was there! This was a well-prepared torture scene. Some Falun Gong practitioners were already there, running and being beaten. Circle by circle, male and female officers, together with the selected inmates, were all holding the instruments of torture including electric batons, water bottles and wooden planks. They were continuously beating the practitioners. They forced the practitioners to run inside their human circles so that they could torture them altogether. Running or not, the practitioners would suffer the same amount of torture. As a result, some practitioners refused to cooperate. They then handcuffed the practitioners around the windows so that the practitioners were forced to be on tiptoes. Then Wang Liang, a policeman, held the electric baton and started to shock the practitioners' faces. As some practitioners were exhausted and could not run any more, the officers forced them to squat down with their heads facing the wall. Some of us were in so much pain from the torture that we had to roll back and forth on the ground. There were a few officers standing near the torture scene, watching the torture and talking about it.

It was time for the prison officers to go home. They let us go back to our cells and asked the inmates to use ropes to tie us up. Then they left us on the cold, damp, hard floor. When it was mealtime, an inmate held a flour bun, walking by each of us, and letting us each have a couple of bites of the bun, as we were all tied up and unable to move. Then he fed us a little bit soup with salted vegetables. That was our lunch!

When it was bedtime, a few inmates watched us at the same time. They did not let us close our eyes. As soon as any of us closed our eyes, they beat us up with their shoes, wooden planks or their fists.

It was late autumn. The "room" we were staying in was actually a hallway that the prison authorities wanted to turn into a prison cell. Since no windows had been installed, cold air blew in onto the flesh of the practitioners who were sitting on the cold, damp, hard floor, wearing only light clothes. On top of all this the inmates were beating and cursing us. When other inmates passed by at night, these men quickly closed the door so that other inmates would not be able to see the horrendous scene. For the whole night, the inmates beat us. They kept us from sleeping until the next morning, when the prison officers came back to work. Holding the instruments of torture, they continued to beat us at will.

One early morning, a few inmates, holding the instruments of torture, started beating a few Falun Dafa practitioners. In particular, they beat practitioner Ms. Wang Aihua so badly that her face was deformed. While beating the practitioners, the inmates asked them if they would sign a pledge of conversion. Ms. Zhou Chunzhi was the second practitioner who got beaten. After the beatings, Ms. Zhou's back could not move at all. As if this was not enough, they stripped off the pants of a few practitioners, including those of Ms. Xu Youxin. After that, they beat them with wooden planks and with their shoes and then tortured them further by putting them in salt water. One by one, they tortured us in order to "convert" us. Despite the torture, they were doomed to fail.

After eleven days of continuous torture, the practitioners were still as determined as before, and they failed to convert any of us. The prison authorities had to change their tactics by having some inmates curse and beat us. In particular, Officer Zhang Chunhua picked the two inmates Li Guihong and Zhu Yuhong (who have since been released from prison) to further persecute us.

In March of 2004 when the practitioners at the No. 8 prison district refused to cooperate, the authorities at the district cuffed the practitioners behind their backs against an iron bed.

No matter how cruel these people have been, they have failed to shake the righteous faith of Falun Dafa practitioners. In fact, we have all successfully remained on our path.