Victims:

1.      Zhang Cuihua, female, a resident of Shandong province

2.      Ma Yanxin, 52, female, a resident of Jinjia Village, Anxiu County, Weifang city, Shandong province

Location of the Detention and Torture:

1.      The Xicheng Hotel, Jinan city, Shandong province

2.      The third section of the Third People's Hospital of Weifang city, Shandong province

Perpetrators:

Doctors and nurses in the third section of the Third People's Hospital of Weifang city, Shandong province

A Brief Report of the Incident:

On April 22, 2000, Ms. Zhang Cuihua was arrested on her way to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. She was then detained in the Xicheng Hotel in Jinan city. The next evening, four policemen came and interrogated her about the details of an experience-sharing conference she had organized, and about a campaign to collect signatures on a letter to the International Human Rights Conference to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. In order to get Ms. Zhang to talk, the policemen slapped her on the face, pulled her hair, twisted her handcuffed hand, burned her hip with the tip of a cigarette, and kicked her head.

On April 25, 2000, Ms. Zhang returned home. The government gave her family a choice. They had to choose between sending her to at least one year in a labor camp, and sending her to a mental hospital. Only after strong pressure from the government, her husband and Ms. Zhang's work unit sent her to the third section of the Third People's Hospital of Weifang city.

Three days later, Ms. Ma Yanxin, another Falun Gong practitioner was sent to the mental hospital because of going to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. After strong pressure from the government, Ms. Ma's family sent her to the hospital just three days after she was released from the detention center. Though the examination showed she was normal, the hospital kept her in order to make money from her stay.

Ms. Zhang and Ms. Ma protested their detention with a hunger strike. As a result, they were tied to a bed and force-fed by forcing a tube through the nose to the stomach. Ms. Ma was force-fed four times and Ms. Zhang received force-feedings three times. When the first force-feeding was over, the hospital still kept them tied up. Even when they wanted to go to the bathroom, the nurses refused to release them. They asked another patient to help them urinate with a spittoon, but because their arms and feet were tied to the bed, the urine went all over the bed. The nurses still did not release them, so they had to lie on the wet bed.

Ms. Ma was very healthy before she was sent to the hospital. She changed dramatically after she was forced to take at least twenty pills a day during her 18-day hospitalization. Ms. Ma could not coordinate her arms and feet and had a dry and hard tongue. It was hard for her to open her eyes, and she could not remember things.

The same thing happened to Ms. Zhang. Her hands and feet were shaking, her heart was beating fast, her tongue was dry and hard, and she could not coordinate her arms and feet. She felt dizzy and could not remember things. Because of the drugs' effect on Ms. Zhang's body, it was hard for her to sit or stand. She woke up many times during the night, had severe headaches and could not sleep. When she told the doctor about these symptoms, he just gave her more drugs. Ms. Zhang was detained at the mental hospital for thirty-six days.

type = Case, Psychiatric; type=Case, Women; location= Shandong, Weifang; location=Shandong, Jinan