(Minghui.org) After going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in June 2000, Ms. Zhang Yuxiang, a practitioner from Harbin City, was illegally detained and tortured, including having her nipple pierced with a needle.
She was arrested again in April 2002 by officers from Xiangfang Police Station and sentenced to two years in Wanjia Forced Labor Camp, where she was tied to the iron chair for extended periods.
The following is her personal account.
In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong. Terrible rumors were fabricated to slander Master and Dafa. As a Dafa disciple, I needed to step forward and tell the truth.
Repercussions for a Peaceful Appeal
In July 2000, I went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to practice the Falun Gong exercises and clarify the truth. I was arrested and taken to a local police station. That afternoon, I was sent to Tongzhou Prison.
A convicted drug dealer and several other prisoners ripped off my clothes and held me down. One by one they took turns beating me with a plastic soled shoe. I was beaten bloody, and my buttocks turned black and blue.
In the evening they did not let me sleep and I was forced to stand all night long. The next day, a male guard handcuffed me and took me to a hospital. They forced me to take an unknown drug.
The next morning, those same prisoners tortured me in the yard. They employed a technique called “sitting in an airplane” to torture me and then pierced my nipple with a needle. They tortured me in other ways, too.
Upon release, my work unit management office at Xianghe Market arranged for me to be arrested again. Several days later, police officer Yi Bing and security person Li Rongle from my work unit took me to the detention center once again. Dozens of people stayed in one room, and when we slept, it was so crowded that nobody could move.
In July, it was very hot. The bed covers were dirty and smelled. A prisoner head ordered me to wash the bed covers and clothes for the rest of the convicts.
Guard Zhou Shijie told me to sign a guarantee statement renouncing my practice of Falun Gong. I refused to sign, but they managed to coerce my child into signing the statement and subsequently released me after 21 days.
Home Ransacked and Family Life Shattered
On the evening of April 25, 2002, plainclothes officers from Xiangfang Police Station broke into my home and arrested me. They did not even allow me to put on my shoes before pushing me into a police vehicle. They also arrested one of my customers and took the key to the house.
I was taken to the Harbin Police Station and tied to an iron chair. In the evening, officer Changjun from the Tongxiang Police Station took me to the station for questioning. By then I knew there was an officer staying in my house and several of my fellow practitioners were being followed by plainclothes officers. I was transferred to a detention center and immediately started a hunger strike in protest.
Officer Yang Shouyi sent one of his underlings to stay in my house for 17 to 18 days. They confiscated my Dafa books, truth-clarification materials, and Master’s photos.
The officer smoked, and he burned black holes into the wood floor. There was urine throughout my house, and he defecated in a pail that was left outside my door. When my pregnant younger sister visited, they arrested both her and my 70-year-old mother and took them to the police station for a day, where they forced them to sign guarantee statements on my behalf.
While I was on the hunger strike, several prisoners carried me to get force-fed. They hit me in the face, pulled my hair, and pinched the sensitive parts of my body. When I was being force-fed food through my nose, they used a plastic tube and pushed a small bowl of corn porridge into it. Several prisoners held me, and I was completely immobilized. My hunger strike lasted 30 days.
Guard Yang Shouyi once asked me what I would do after I was released. I said that I would be a good person and follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. He said, “You definitely will be sentenced.” He informed me that officer Zhou Shijie said city 610 Office head Wu Jianyao would come to have me write a guarantee statement. If I did that, I would be fine. When he did come, I refused to write the guarantee and was then sentenced to two years of forced labor.
In July 2002, I was sent to Wanjia Forced Labor Camp and assigned to the special training team. Guards Zhao Yuqing and Yao Fuchang locked me in the iron chair and handcuffed my hands behind me. They sealed my mouth with tape and ordered one of the prisoners to watch me.
One of the guards tried to "transform" me and force me to write the three statements. I refused and was forced to sit on the iron chair for five days and nights. Afterward, my legs were so swollen that I had to hold onto something or lean against the wall. I could hardly walk for several days.
Guard Zhao Yuqing placed me in the 12th team, where I had to sit on a small stool until very late every day, and was forced to watch videos and read articles that slandered Dafa.
Several prisoners who worked for the guards tortured me every day. Under this extreme pressure, I was confused and could not think clearly, so I wrote the so-called guarantee statement.
I was later forced to do slave labor shifts making toothpicks, ice cream sticks, paper bags, diapers, and car mats. Every day, I was required to work from morning until after 8 p.m., sometimes to 10 p.m. or even until midnight.
Health Benefits from Cultivating in Dafa
I used to have all kinds of illnesses, including heart disease, neck and spinal problems, and stomach pain. I struggled just to live, and every day seemed like a year. At the end of March 1999, I started to cultivate Falun Dafa. All my diseases went away, and my body was light. I began to act according to Dafa's principles. I used to be afraid of being taken advantage of. Now whenever I do something, I consider others first and do not harm anyone. My life is full of happiness and contentment.
