Mr. Jia Jingwen's Black Hair Turned Grey within Three Months of Persecution at Jinzhou Forced Labour Camp

One day at end of July 2004, the police arrested me and sent me to Jinzhou Forced Labour Camp. Because I refused to follow their orders to get my hair cut and wear the prison uniform, they brutally beat me and put me into the "small cell for new arrivals." As soon as I arrived there, I saw a man with his hands cuffed behind his back, and wearing a helmet. He was very thin and had a grey beard, which almost covered his face. At first, I did not realise that he was my fellow practitioner Mr. Jia Jingwen. Although we had been close friends for over a year, I did not recognise him until I took a close look.

Within only three months, this practitioner who used to have black hair, a glowing complexion and who looked much younger than his peers had been tortured to such an extent. The guards immediately put me in the iron chair¹ and my four limbs were locked onto it. Then a criminal named Chen Changbin and a detainee whose nickname was Shan Dianxia beat me. When Mr. Jia saw them beating me, he nobly tried to stop them, but they then started to beat him. Because I had been on a hunger strike at the detention centre for six days, and they brutally beat me as soon as I arrived at the labour camp, I passed out in the iron chair.

At midnight, the sound of brutal torture woke me up. Because Mr. Jia firmly sent forth righteous thoughts, four or five criminals took turns brutally beating him. He shouted loudly, "Falun Dafa is good!" They then put excrement on a cloth-covered rope, and gagged his mouth with it. Starting around 4 a.m., they forced me to sit in the iron chair for 24 hours, and my legs and feet started to swell. The criminals then put Mr. Jia into the iron chair. Later I found out that they often locked him in the iron chair for a week. The longest period had been 15 days. One can only imagine the suffering he experienced.

I spent 15 days with Mr. Jia in the small cell. They handcuffed us every day, and they beat him several times a day. From April to September, they always tortured him in the small cell. The persecutors often burned his skin with fire and cigarette butts. In August, I was taken upstairs, so I was separated from him. However, during those 15 days when I was with him, I witnessed the persecution he suffered.

Jia Jingwen's wife tells about the persecution of their family

My husband Jia Jingwen was sent to the forced labour camp in 2000. They tortured him to the brink of death in this hell on earth known as Jinzhou Forced Labour Camp. He almost lost his life, and a formerly happy family was devastated. We have a home, but cannot go there, and we as a couple cannot be united.

We started to practise Falun Gong in 1995. My husband gave up his bad habits of smoking, drinking and gambling, and I recovered from illness. In 1999, the persecution started and our lives were turned upside down. Because we appealed several times, they sent us many times to the custodial centre, detention centre and extorted money from us. Our belongings, including VCD and cassette player were also taken away. We both lost our jobs. In 1999 when we went to Beijing to appeal, we were incarcerated in a custodial centre and the police extorted 1000 yuan² from us.

During the period when we were appealing in Beijing, eight police officers in the Jinhua Police Station, led by the chief, beat my husband. They took off his clothes and kept beating him for four hours, and gagged his mouth with very smelly sneakers. A police officer named Luo Yingtao even tightly bound his penis with a shoelace. My husband said, "You should be more humane." Luo replied, "Humane? I tell you what, we policemen are half hooligans."

As they kept persecuting us, we were forced to abandon our home and lead a homeless life since 2000. In 2002, the Baigu Police Station sent us to a detention centre, where the Linghe District Police Department extorted 2000 yuan from my family before they released me. In 2004, my husband was persecuted at the Jinzhou Forced Labour Camp, and later transferred to the Benxi Forced Labour Camp.

Note

1. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/4/3/124334.html