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Falun Dafa Practitioner Jiang Meilan of Hunan Province Holds Hunger Strike to Protest Persecution in Baimalong Forced Labor Camp

Aug. 4, 2005 |   By a practitioner in Hunan province

(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioner Jiang Meilan from Xintian County in Yongzhou District of Hunan Province was illegally arrested on March 24, 2005, and sentenced to one year in Baimalong Forced Labor Camp, were she has been tortured. She has been on a hunger strike to protest, but was force-fed and given intravenous solutions. She is now very weak and her life is in danger. The staff of the 610 Office said that they would not release her unless she died in the labor camp.

Ms. Jiang Meilan, nearly 60 years old, has been persecuted several times. From 2001 to 2003, when Ms. Jiang was detained in Baimalong Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou City, she didn't want to give up her belief and was beaten, insulted and tortured by guards Yin Bin, Fang Fang and detainee Tang Liqi.

After Ms. Jiang Meilan was released, one day when Ms. Jiang was staying at another practitioner's home in Yongzhou City, the 610 Office and state security department staff tried to arrest her. However, she was able to escape using her righteous thoughts, and subsequently started going from place to place to avoid further persecution.

In February 2004, Ms. Jiang stayed at her daughter's home in Zhuhai City. Ms. Jiang Meilan put Dafa truth-clarifying materials on a bike that was left along the street in order to help people understand the truth. A policeman saw her, arrested her, and detained her in the No. 2 Detention Center in Zhuhai City. Ms. Jiang stopped eating and drinking to protest. Various underhanded tactics were used to force-feed her, for example using a vaginal speculum to pry open her mouth. She was also subjected to tiger bench, sleep on a "dead person's bed," and "fly an airplane" tortures. One month later, her whole body became deformed and her feet were very swollen. Ms. Jiang Meilan was nearly persecuted to death before she was taken back to her hometown in Xintian and put into the county detention center there.

On the sixth day of her detention, when the detention center doctors examined her, they found that Ms. Jiang's blood pressure was too high, and suggested she be released. The head of the 610 Office, Yan Xikun, asked several detainees to forcibly carry Ms. Jiang to the county hospital and carry her back to the detention center on the second day. In the afternoon of March 9, Ms. Jiang Meilan felt unbearable pain all over her body. The doctors found her blood pressure to be extremely abnormal, and her heartbeat was very erratic. Somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m., several detainees carried her back home, and the 610 Office of Xintian City stationed several police cars outside her home to monitor her.

In order not to be persecuted again, Ms. Jiang Meilan used strong righteous thoughts to leave Xintian overnight. With fellow practitioners' care, Ms. Jiang's health gradually recovered and she again rejoined Fa-rectification.

Late in the evening of March 21, 2005, Ms. Jiang Meilan, along with a Dafa practitioner from Chenzhou City named Lan Liubi (around 60), her husband Mr. Liang (over 70) and Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhou Xiaohong, 39, went to Dongjiang Lake and Dongjiang Town in Zixing New District of Chenzhou City. Their intent was to hang some banners saying "Falun Dafa is Good" and to distribute Dafa truth-clarification materials. Because several banners dropped down after they were hung up, policemen from the Dongjiang Town Police Station discovered the banners during the night. They began an intensive search, and these four practitioners were unfortunately found, arrested, and detained in the Zixing New District Detention Center.

After they were arrested, the four practitioners held a hunger strike to protest. After over 20 days, Mr. Liang, who was over 70 years old, was in grave danger of losing his life, and he was released on bail. The three female practitioners were secretly sentenced to forced labor and sent to Baimalong Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou City. At present, Ms. Jiang Meilan has been on a hunger strike for over three months and can no longer walk. She needs two other detainees to hold her up to walk. After Ms. Jiang's son heard the news and went to visit her, he was heartbroken upon seeing how much his mother was suffering. He said that he wanted to save her life no matter how much money it would cost him. The 610 Office staff of Yongzhou City and Xintian County, along with the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp, told Mr. Jiang's son, "It is useless no matter how much money you spend. Your mother only has two choices. One is to eat food and give up practicing Falun Gong. The second is to leave here as a corpse."

Written on June 20, 2005