(Clearwisdom.net) A prisoner of conscience jailed by the Chinese Government talked to Sunderland students in a bid to raise awareness of human rights abuses.

Annie Yang, appeared at the City of Sunderland College 10th annual Rock 4 Rights concert, which also included performances by the college's dance and drama groups.

Speaking to more than 100 pupils she gave an emotional account of the physical and mental abuse at the hands of her torturers after she says she was arrested by the National Security Department.

Ms. Yang spent two years in a forced labor camp where she was made to suffer in an attempt to make her renounce her beliefs in the spiritual group Falun Gong.

She said: "Every day you were forced to sit for over 18 hours, in a strict sitting posture with both legs and knees pressed tightly against each other. Both hands rested over the knees, the back kept straight, and eyes must be open.

"I was only allowed to sleep two to three hours a day and not allowed to put warm clothes on when it became very cold at around midnight.

"One torture method was starvation. Every day breakfast, lunch and dinner consisted of only half a piece (approximately thirty grams) of steamed bread, not even with any pickled vegetable."

She explained to the students how long-term malnutrition caused her body to swell and how she had difficulty walking on her release from the labour camp because she was made to sit on a high stool for long periods of time.

Ms. Yang was released after thousands signed a petition to rescue her. Her speech helped to inspire the event's performers as dance students carried out ghost dances to the sound of South American panpipes at the Shiney Row campus.

Kate Brown, 18, a BTEC dance student said: "We put on the ghost dances piece because it's all about the courage of innocent people coping with oppression.

"We were thinking about all those groups in China who are suffering persecution just because they stand up for what they believe in."
Drama students also put on a moving performance showing how Falun Gong practitioners have been treated in custody and how they try to hang on to their beliefs in captivity.

Neil Molloy, lecturer and one of the event organisers said: "It's been an honour and a privilege to hear Annie speak tonight. Her personal witness story has really brought home the issue of human rights abuse in China. You can't fail to be moved by it."

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news?articleid=3911699