(Clearwisdom.net) Since 1999, the local officials of Daiwangcheng Town had to report the actions of Falun Gong practitioners to the town government in their villages. They monitored the practitioners and didn't allow them to leave town. On "sensitive days" several years ago, they required practitioners to report to the government three times a day. Those who didn't would be fined. In order to finish their political assignment, the town officials often tricked and abducted practitioners and then sent them to the county-held brainwashing class, where they were cruelly tortured. They were fined thousands and even tens of thousands of yuan before being released from the class. For practitioners who persist in their belief of Truth, Compassion, Forbearance, the perpetrators watch and follow them, restrict their personal freedom, don't allow them to appeal or congregate, and deprive them of their right to receive an education. They break into practitioners' homes at all times of the day and night. They search and ransack their homes, detain, interrogate and savagely beat them, and also persecute the practitioners' families.
1. Perpetrators in Daiwangcheng Town follow Jiang's group in persecuting Falun Gong
On July 22, 1999, terror descended upon China. The TV broadcast Falun Dafa-slandering programs every two hours. On July 22, 1999, a group of thugs led by Duan Bin, the secretary of the town Party Committee, abducted six practitioners: Li Xi, Li Jinjun, Zhang Yuying, Liu Zhenlin from Daiwangcheng Town, Xiao Tang from Majiazhai Village, and Liang Yuancheng from Shuibei Village. They held the practitioners separately at the Daiwangcheng Town government and interrogated and threatened them. The practitioners calmly and kindly clarified the truth to the officials, who insisted, "This is an order from the top! You can't practice, no matter how good it is."
The next morning, the town government put aside all administrative work and dispatched all public officials to raid the homes of all Falun Gong practitioners in all 30 villages in Daiwangcheng Town. They took away all of the practitioners' Falun Gong books, cassettes and pictures. The six practitioners mentioned above were held in a small room in the backyard of the town government, and various officials were sent to monitor them around the clock. Seven days later, the practitioners were released after each person paid a 100-yuan fine. Duan Bin, the secretary of the town Party Committee; Zheng Rongxin, the former secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee; and Zhang Jianqiang, the deputy head of the police department, all took part in this persecution.
In September 1999, practitioners Li Jinjun, Xiao Tang and Xiao Yongfei ran into each other in the county capital. The county government dispatched people to follow them. In the evening, the three practitioners and Xiao Yongfei's brother were abducted and tortured at a police department. The police beat and kicked them and shocked them with electric batons for a long time. Shao Jie, the head of the police station; Zhang Jianqiang, Gao Hai; and Gong Jianbing, a driver from the police station, also took part in the persecution. Li Jinjun, Xiao Tang and Xiao Yongfei were illegally held at the Wei County Detention Center for eight days. Before Zheng Rongxin, the secretary of the county Political and Judiciary Committee, went to pick up the practitioners, he extorted 150 yuan from each of the practitioner's families. Instead of sending them home, he took the practitioners to Beizhong and held them there for another six days, where they were subjected to brainwashing on a daily basis. They were not released until the perpetrators extorted another 500 yuan from each of them.
At the same time, practitioners Liu Zhenlin, Wang Xilin, Liu Guiming, Li Zhenghua, Zhang Yuying, Zhang Guie, Cao Meiyun, Ruan Haoying, Liang Yuancheng, Wang Wanmei, Xiao Yongfei and Shao Yue were also illegally held in a conference room inside the government compound for 12 days. Fan Kai, the deputy head of the Military Division, and several female officers monitored them daily. Later, perpetrator Han Junshi extorted 500 yuan from each practitioner before releasing them.
2. More than 40 practitioners became targets of persecution
In February 2000, Li Runmei and 60-year-old Ma Guangrong from Majiazhai Village, Gao Yuping, Zhang Xiuzhi from Chengqiangnian Village, Liu Guiming, and Cai Jinzhi and his wife from Yi Village in Daiwangcheng Town went to Beijing to appeal. Beijing police abducted them at the Appeals Office. Zheng Rongxin, the secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee, and Zhang Jianqiang, the deputy head of the police station, went to Beijing to pick them up. They body-searched the practitioners and took all of their money and private belongings. After they took the practitioners back in the afternoon, the perpetrators beat Liu Guiming until his face became disfigured and extremely swollen. Li Fuchun, the head of the town government, said through clenched teeth, "I would really love to slice you into pieces."
After the six practitioners went to Beijing, officials abducted more than 40 practitioners whom they thought were "important" and held them in two dormitory rooms in Beizhong, Weizhou Town, where they tortured the practitioners fiendishly. Duan Bin gave orders while Li Fuchun, the head of town government, and Shao Jie, the head of police station, led a group of roughnecks to torture and beat the practitioners.
In the afternoon on the first day of detention, perpetrators Tian Jianquan and Li Junfeng dragged practitioner Xiao Tang to the parade ground. The perpetrators burned his face with cigarette butts and ordered Fan Kai to watch him while they made him stand for an entire afternoon. That same afternoon, Tian Jianquan and Li Junfeng also beat practitioner Bai Jinhua from Majiazhai Village. They slapped her face until their hands hurt, then whipped her with tree branches. Perpetrator Zhang Xiuqing also whipped practitioner Xiao Tang's son Xiao Yongfei. In the evening, Xiao Tang, Xiao Yongfei and the other practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal were forced to half-squat in front of the dormitory. If they refused, the perpetrators would beat and kick them.
The perpetrators thought that Li Xi was the organizer of the appeal, so in the evening, they took him to the yard behind the dorm. Li Fuchun shouted, "I won't quit until I fix him." Wu Chun, Li Junfeng and Tian Jianquan beat 60-year-old Li Xi to the ground. Fan Kai held him down while three others beat him. Later they shocked him for a long time with two electric batons. They took him to a room with many town government officials, including Shao Jie, Li Fuchun and Zhang Jianqiang. They turned off the light and jumped on top of Li Xi. They beat and kicked him until they were exhausted. Li Xi's face and body was covered in blood and mud. He was hardly recognizable. Shao Jie was afraid their crime would be exposed, so he made Li Xi wash his face and wipe off the mud on his clothes before sending him back to the dorm. His wife and other practitioners cried when they saw him. His molars were knocked out and his front teeth were loose.
After a short while, they took practitioner Li Jinjun. Fan Jinhai and Gao Hai struck him to the ground at the gate and kicked his body and head. Then they shocked him with two electric batons until he lost consciousness. They poured cold water down his neck. When he came to, they forced him to half-squat outside in the freezing cold. He was forced to squat for a very long time. They took him to a room in the back, and Shao Jie put an electric baton on his neck and left it there. The high-voltage electricity ran through Li Jinjun, and his whole body involuntarily convulsed. The electric baton was going off even as he collapsed to the ground.
At the same time, police officers Gao Hai, Fan Jinhai, Fan Kai beat and kicked practitioner Xiao Yongfei and whipped his buttocks. Fan Kai called out practitioner Xiao Tang. Tian Jianquan took Xiao Tang to a room in the back. Upon entering the room, Shao Jie asked, "Will you still practice?" Xiao Tang ignored him, and five or six thugs beat and kicked him and shocked him with two electric batons for a long time. Then they sent him to the yard and made him squat.
Practitioner Liu Guiming was the next to be the taken to the room. Police officers Zhang Jianqiang, Gao Hai and Fan Jinhai first beat him with wooden sticks and fire-tongs until the fire-tongs were bent. Then they removed Liu Guiming's belt and whipped him with his own belt until it broke in two. They then made him kneel on bricks lying on their sides. They brought in his wife, Cai Jinzhi, and deputy Party secretary Zhao Chunfu said, "Now I'll try another approach. Let his wife watch him being tortured and see if that'll get him to give up Falun Gong." Li Fuchun said, "Let Cai Jinzhi kneel on a wooden stick while watching her husband being beaten up." They proceeded to shock Liu Guiming with electric batons.
Police officers Zhang Jianqiang, Gao Hai, Fan Jinhai and others went to the dorm and saw practitioners Gao Yuping, Li Runmei and the elderly Zhang Xiuzhi, Ma Guangrong, and a few other practitioners. The perpetrators first rabidly attacked Gao Yuping and Li Runmei with fire-tongs, broomsticks and electric batons and made the two elderly practitioners watch. They asked, "Will you still practice?" They shocked the practitioners' whole bodies with electric batons until they lost consciousness; then they poured cold water on them. The two elderly practitioners trembled in fear.
Three days later, Fan Kai, who was in charge of monitoring the practitioners, forced each practitioner to write their "understanding" of Falun Gong. All eight practitioners wrote heartfelt words about how Falun Gong had helped them become a better person. Infuriated, the perpetrators again beat and shocked practitioners Li Jinjun and Xiao Tang with electric batons. Xiao Tang's neck was left with grapefruit-sized scars that bulged one centimeter above the skin. Looking at the charred, black scars on the practitioners' body, Fan Kai smiled and said, "This is the government educating and helping you in the 'sprinkling spring rain' style." (State-run TV programs often claim that in the labor camps and prisons Falun Gong practitioners receive warm and caring treatment, like "sprinkling spring rain.")
In addition to torture and verbal abuse, the perpetrators also overcharged the practitioners for food. They gave each practitioner 400 grams of cornmeal a day, with salted vegetables and cabbage without oil. At market prices, a daily supply of food would cost at most 50 cents each person, or 15 yuan a month, but they charged 300 yuan a month. More than 40 practitioners slept on one bed made of tables and chairs, with no bedcovers, no pillows and no blankets.
They didn't allow any family visits. After one month, the six practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal were each fined 5,000 yuan. Practitioners Li Xi, Li Jinjun, Xiao Tang and Xiao Yongfei were each fined 4,000 yuan, and the other 30-plus practitioners were each fined 2,000 yuan. Li Jinjun and his wife Cao Meiyun asked their family to borrow 6,000 yuan and turned it in, but the perpetrators then extorted another 4,000 yuan, saying, "Because they are from out of town." Duan Bin verbally abused the practitioners and then demanded 10,000 yuan. Xiao Tang and Liu Guiming didn't have the money, so their family pooled several thousand yuan and took their wives home. Xiao and Liu were held for another eight months. Li Fuchun, the head of the town said, "If you don't pay the fine, then we'll charge you 50 yuan a day for food." The practitioners were sent to different villages to measure land and water trees while Fan Kai watched them.
3. Set up private prisons to incarcerate more than 400 practitioners
Because Li Runmei and five other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal, the town party secretary Duan Bin gave orders to detain more than 400 Falun Gong practitioners from the entire town, consisting of over thirty villages. The practitioners were detained in the village government offices. During that one month-period, the practitioner couple Gong Binghai and Zhang Yuzhi asked permission to go home to hold the marriage ceremony for their daughter; but Secretary Duan did not agree. Later, some influential people intervened, and the two practitioners got permission to go home to hold the ceremony. Nevertheless, policeman Fan Kai was dispatched to follow and monitor them. Once the ceremony was finished, they still had to go back to the privately set-up prison. While those innocent individuals were detained there, their family members had to bring meals to them every day. At night, they had nowhere else to sleep but on the floor that was padded with straw-like material.
One month later, Secretary Duan Bin ordered every practitioner fined two to three hundred yuan before being allowed to go home. Just from this insidious maneuver alone, a total of over 200,000 yuan was illegally taken away from these Falun Gong practitioners. Soon after this, each of the town government officials was given a "beeper."
Since then, the personal identification cards of all the practitioners in the town were confiscated. Their photos were taken and put into the archives. The practitioners were deprived of their basic personal freedoms.
4. Persecuting practitioners who went out to clarify the truth about Falun Gong
In June 2000, upper-level government officials issued orders to make the practitioners write so-called "Guarantee Statements" or "Repentance Statements." Li Runmei and Zhang Guizhi went to the town government to kindly clarify the truth about Falun Gong. However, the government officials illegally detained Li and Zhang as well as Shao Yu-e, Xiao Yongfei, Yao Xiuhua, Zhao Fuzhen, Cai Jinzhi, Gao Yuping, Liu Guiming, Xiao Tang and other practitioners. They tortured all these practitioners. Gao Yuping was subjected to the worst torture. Shao Jie grabbed Gao's hair and struck her head against a wall. Shao, Liu He, and Yang Guori also verbally abused and humiliated her. In addition, the perpetrators forced her to stand under the scorching sun, which made her almost faint. These practitioners were detained there for 28 days. In the end, each of the practitioners was forced to pay one thousand to fifteen hundred yuan before he or she was allowed to go home.
In 2001, Gao Yuping wrote a letter of appeal, which the town officials intercepted and opened. Li Fuchun said, "You want to sue us?" They then detained and beat her up. After that, they sent her to the county detention center and incarcerated her there for half a month.
In July 2001, practitioners Wang Fengmei and Cao Xiu-e were abducted for putting up Falun Gong truth-clarification posters. They were beaten, detained and later fined over one thousand yuan.
In 2001, Zhang Yuzhen and Shi Chunlian from Dadezhuang Village went to Liuziding Village in Xiheying Town to clarify the truth. The village secretary Liu Zhiman reported them to the town officials, who then ordered the officials in Xiheying Town to arrest and beat them. Later, Wang Yongli, head of the Political and Security Section in the county police department, sent them to Baoding City's Gaoyang Labor Camp, where they were detained for two years. It should be noted here that in the fall of 2004 the village secretary Liu Zhiman received his karmic retribution. While he was using his horse to haul corn straw in a wagon, Liu was crushed to death when the wagon pinned him against the wall of his home.
In September 2001, practitioners Liang Jinping from Maxi Village and Zhuang Jinlian from Sijianian Village unfolded Falun Gong truth-clarification banners in the town where the county government is located to appeal against the injustice done to Falun Gong. Police found them and arrested them. They were tortured badly in a detention center. The practitioners staged a hunger strike to protest their illegal arrest, but they were brutally force-fed. The detention center director Wang Feng; political instructor Li Yongjun; guards Jian Cheng, Du Rongtao, and Su Jianjun; inmate Er Tian from the county seat; and the detention center doctors were responsible for this torture.
During the force-feeding, a red-colored liquid drug was mixed into the food used for the force-feeding, which made Zhuang mentally confused. During one force-feeding session, the tube was mistakenly inserted into her trachea, making her cough badly. After Zhuang was tortured for several months, she became so thin that her body became deformed. Only then was she allowed to seek medical treatment outside of the detention center on a medical parole.
In the 2002 of summer, persons from the county's 610 Office and the Political and Security Section in the county police department abducted her from her home and sent her to a detention center. Her respiratory illness recurred, and she coughed and was very weak. She could not walk well, either, and needed someone to hold her in order to walk. Her son borrowed 100 yuan to give to her, but the detention center did not even give her one cent! She was given 20 yuan only when she asked Wang Feng to give her some of the money to buy toilet paper and other necessities. The guards took all the remaining money.
The guards also gave her an intravenous infusion. She showed symptoms of having difficulties breathing when the infusion was halfway through. The police said, "She is pretending." So even while Zhuang Jinlian had difficulty walking by herself without being supported by the others, she was given a sentence of three years in prison and then sent to prison.
Officials from the county's 610 Office and Wang Yongli from the Political and Security Section interrogated Liang Jinping while she was being held in the detention center. They hung her up and put a board on her back. They then had two people to push on the board with great force, which caused her intolerable pain. Later she staged a hunger strike to protest the persecution. She was force-fed in a barbarous way every day. When she had become extremely weak, they permitted her to post bail to seek medical treatment.
In August 2002, the Political and Security police went to her home to try to arrest her but failed to find her. In October, officials from Yangyuan County's Police Department arrested Liang Jinping, who had left home to avoid the persecution. She suffered again from cruel tortures. The police beat and kicked her and shocked her with electric batons. These evildoing police officers even pulled her hair out in tufts.
Later, Liang fell and injured herself when she tried to escape. She was caught without being able to go too far. She was beaten up again. She was sent to a detention center and put in handcuffs and shackles. Liang staged a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment. She was force-fed in a brutal fashion. Because of these tortures, Liang wasn't even able to go to the toilet without the help of others. She was in severe pain and sweat profusely. Later still, Liang was given an illegal sentence and put into prison. Detention center supervisor Wang Feng; political instructor Li Yongjun; policemen Jian Cheng, Du Rongtao, and Su Jianjun; an inmate named Er Tian; and others are responsible for persecuting her.
In March 2002, Cai Fengzhi and Zhang Fenglin from Chengqiangnian Village were abducted for handing out truth-clarifying materials. Li Fuchun, the head of the town was responsible. They were sent to a detention center and incarcerated there for four months.
On February 7, 2003, Feng Helin went to Daiwangcheng to distribute truth-clarification flyers. Li Fuchun discovered her. So Li Fuchun and Li Yongliang led the others to abduct her and take her to the town government. Seven to eight people, including Gao He, Gao Hai, Kang Quan and others slapped her face, beat her with a fire-tong and stomped on her chest. The pain that resulted from these tortures did not disappear for a quite a long time. Her home was also ransacked, and her Dafa books and materials were taken away.
Later she was sent to a detention center. Feng experienced a relapse of her gallstones in the detention center. Fearing that they would be held responsible in case of her death, detention center officials ordered her family to pay 4,000 yuan for her release. Since Feng lived a very meager existence with her daughter, they could not get this much money together. They had no choice but to try to borrow the money from relatives and friends. They were only able to get 3,000 yuan. Seeing that Feng's family could not get more money, the detention center took the 3,000 yuan and released Feng.
(To be continued)