I am a female Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing. Since July 1999, local authorities forced my work unit to fire me, and they confiscated my house. I, along with my two young children and my babysitter, were evicted and had to live somewhere else.  On September 20, 1999, police arrested my babysitter and me when we were walking on the street. They pushed me into a car and covered my head with a coat. I was  jailed for 100 days.

After I was released in June 2000, because I did the Falun Gong exercises in a park, local police arrested me again and detained me for another 110 days.

Two months after I was released, since I refused to be brainwashed, the police arrested me again , tied me with ropes, and carried me away by force. In January 2001 several guards and inmates stripped me naked, poured cold water over my body, put a torture helmet on my head,  and shackled my hands and feet together. I went on a hunger strike to protest the torture.  Then they forced me to sit on the ice-cold ground and put a wet wiping cloth in my mouth.  Since it was winter the cloth froze inside my mouth.

One month later, I was sent to the Beijing City Labor Reeducation Dispatch Division in Daxing County. Once I arrived there, I was forced to keep my head lowered and hold it between my hands so that I could not look around. Then I was taken to a room where the guards demanded that I write a statement renouncing Falun Gong. Because I refused, Chief Fu and several guards grabbed me by my hair and threw me to the ground. Then they beat me with two batons simultaneously for half an hour, which caused a gigantic bump on my head. I felt like I was about to die.

In the dispatch division, practitioners are not allowed to go to the bathroom or wash their clothes. We had limited time to use the toilet; some practitioners had to excrete in their pants. We were forced to get down on our knees and report our names to get each meal. Guards often forced us to stand or squat, they also twisted our arms, and shocked us with electric batons. In addition to the torture and brainwashing, practitioners were forced to work from 4 a.m. until 11 p.m. If we didn’t finish our quota, we were often forced to work until 1 a.m. the next morning. I witnessed some elder female practitioners having symptoms of high blood pressure and other diseases because of the torture and hard labor. To “treat” these ill practitioners, the labor camp authorities ordered inmates to step on their heads, pry their mouths open with metal spoons, and force-feed them with unknown drugs. After the force-feeding, all of their faces and bodies were full of bruises and covered with blood.

One month later, I was transferred to Division Four of the Xinan Labor Camp, currently called Beijing Women’s Labor Camp, where I was deprived of sleep and subjected to forced brainwashing sessions for several days. I was beaten, and forced to stand and squat for a long period of time. There, I witnessed Ms. Liu Guifu being forced to stand for 18 days without sleep and her vision became blurred. The authorities ordered inmates to beat and torture her until she would pass out. She had to crawl to the restroom because they injured her waist.

I witnessed Ms. Liu Xiangfen's head being beaten until a hole appeared. Practitioner Ms. Cao Guirong, in her 50’s, was beaten until her body was covered with black and blue bruises. The guards forced her to squat-walk, and her shoes fell apart from continuously walking. They also made her crawl on the ground and throw a hand grenade, which is a form of corporal punishment.

I also saw group head Zhang Shuxian depriving practitioner Ms. Liu Xiuping of sleep for a very long time until she had a nervous breakdown and could no longer sleep at all.

University professor, Ms. Zhang Huirong suffered a nervous breakdown due to the torture and brainwashing. She was forced to squat behind the door every day, and her body was kicked until it turned black and blue.

Ms. Zhang Siwen, around 60 years old, was forced to hold her head and squat for a very long time until she could no longer lift her head. After she was sent to a labor camp, she was forced to stand for more than two months. The guards ordered inmates to beat her until she passed out.

Ms. Du Rongfen was cuffed on a wooden plank bed with her limbs spread out for more than 40 days. The guards refused to put a basin below her body to catch her urine and defecation; as a result she had to excrete on the bed and lie in her own excrement for these 40 days. Her body was covered with black and blue bruises all the time from the beating. Later she was sent to a special group of practitioners who had experienced more violent treatment since they continued to refuse to give up Falun Gong after being  subjected to brainwashing. In that group she was beaten to near death several times, and her term was extended.

Because Ms. Chen Lina refused to give up Falun Gong, group head Li Ziping slapped her face several times, forced her to squat and stand, and twisted her arms while making her stay in a storage room in the freezing winter for more than two months.

A guard forced Ms. Li Xin to jump out of a building causing her bones to break. Her waist was held in place by a metal board, but she was still forced to stand for days and nights on end.

After being tortured Ms. Wang Chunei was paralyzed and could not speak clearly and Ms. Yang Guiping had intestinal convulsions. These two practitioners often fell to the ground writhing in pain. Su Guiying, nearly 70 years old, could not move one of her legs  after being tortured at the Fourth Division of the labor camp. None of these elder practitioners were given medical treatment or parole. Ms. Luo Rong's blood pressure increased drastically and she could no longer see; yet she was still forced to work.

Ms. Zhao Xiaohua was beaten until she would scream.  At night several inmates were ordered to press her down to keep her in a kneeling position. She could not stand the pain and her screaming kept waking us up. Several practitioners, including Ms. Li Jirong and other elderly practitioners, could not stand the psychological torture. They cried, vomited or passed out and their bodies convulsed whenever they saw something that reminded them of the torture.