In the latter part of 1999, the prison received some Falun Gong practitioners who had previously suffered tremendous mistreatment in another prison in Jianyang City, Sichuan Province. The prison authorities followed the instructions from the communist regime and set about trying to brainwash these practitioners. The prison authorities closely monitored everyone. If a prisoner expressed any sympathy for Falun Gong, she would be regarded as having "dangerous thoughts." The punishment for that was physical and mental abuse, reduction of merit points, and solitary confinement. The prison authorities used incentives to encourage the other inmates to participate in the persecution. The incentives included merit points and sentence reductions.

On April 15th, a gang of policemen from Tianhe Police Department arrested practitioners Mr. Chen Yongtao, and Ms. Zou Danyu, husband and wife. The policemen also searched their residence and took many of their personal belongings. The next day, policemen from Tianhe Police Department, along with a local policeman from the Research Institute of Non-ferrous Metals and individuals from the neighbourhood committee that didn't know any better arrested Ms. Zou's parents and searched their residence. These thugs took their computer, and other personal belongings. Mr. Chen and Ms. Zou's whereabouts are unknown.

Mr. Gong Zhaotao, 52 years old, had been actively informing people about the persecution of Falun Gong and dispelling the state propaganda attacking the practice since July 20th, 1999. In October 2007, while distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution he was forcibly taken away by police and detained in a forced labour camp for one year. After being persecuted for over four months in Wangcun Forced Labour Camp, he passed away on February 22nd, 2008. Upon examining his body after his death, his family discovered a great deal of blood had come out of his ears and mouth. The labour camp authorities claimed that he died from coronary heart disease. His family originally intended to pursue justice, but communist authorities cremated his body to cover up the evidence.

I arrived at Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Mianyang County that afternoon at 4 p.m. Only then did I realize that I was taken there for a year and half of forced labour. I was tortured in all kinds of ways. Under police orders, the personal "cangues" [monitors who supervise the behaviour of practitioners] made me stand from 6 a.m. till midnight, and they frequently punched me in the chest, often to the point where I couldn't speak or get up from the bed. I would have acute pain once I spoke and sharp chest pains if I moved. The police tied me up eight times during one ten-day period, increased the use of electronic batons from one to four, and beat me with spiked clubs. When I resisted the attempts to smear my face on the toilet floor, the "Personal cangues" and guards pushed my head into the urinals.

On February 24th, 2008, Ms. Jing took a taxi to Shenyang City to visit her relatives and friends who were imprisoned at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. Police arrested Ms. Jing, the practitioners who were with her, and the taxi driver and jailed Ms. Jing at the Chaoyang City No. 1 Detention Centre. The taxi driver was tortured to death. The first time Ms. Jing Fei was imprisoned was July 1999. She was arrested in Beijing while appealing for the right to practise Falun Gong and was taken to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in November 1999. Ms. Jing lost her beloved job in the government-owned nursery school because of her beliefs.

In 1998, I started doing the Falun Gong exercises. At that time, my wife Ma Gui'e was undergoing treatment for breast cancer at the Shenyang Tumour Hospital. During that period of time, a Falun Gong practitioner introduced her to the practice, and she began to practise Falun Gong too. Within two weeks of starting the practice, she suddenly noticed that the bowl-sized tumour was now as small as her fingertip. On July 20th, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began, our village's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary turned us in. The police told us that it was higher ranking officers forbidding us from practising Falun Gong. The village CCP secretary started to continually harass us, subjecting us to tremendous mental torture. He forcibly occupied a quarter acre of land that we had cultivated ourselves. Under such persecution, my wife's disease reoccurred. She died on July 18th, 2002, at only 44 years of age.

Ms. Ren Guixia, 46, was introduced to Falun Gong in 1997. After six months, her heart disease, leg pain and rheumatism were all cured. After the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Ren went to Beijing to appeal. She was arrested and detained. In February 2000, police went to her home because they were afraid she would go to Beijing again to appeal. They asked her, "Are you still going to practise Falun Gong?" She replied, "Yes," and was arrested and taken to the local police station where she was hung up by her handcuffed wrists and beaten by several policemen for several hours. She was subjected to inhuman torture on a daily basis for more than 30 days in the detention centre. Recently, Ms. Ren was tortured until she suffered another onset of her heart disease and was sent to the hospital.

Mr. Jin Junjie, a practitioner from Jilin Province, was sentenced twice to a forced labour camp, for four years in total. He has been inhumanly tortured both physically and mentally. After being tortured the first time, he was carried home on his mother's back. Following the second time, he was released while still handcuffed. For a long period of time, he has had to rely on his family's support or manual labour job to survive. He has no home of his own, and so far, he has not yet recovered from the physical injuries inflicted upon him in the labour camp. In summer 2007, Mr. Jin had symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath, weight loss and vomiting blood, etc. and his condition did not improve after a period of time. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Mr. Jin Junjie is only 35 years old.

I am the wife of Cao Dong, a Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing. On May 21st, 2006, Cao Dong met with Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and told him about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Two hours after the meeting, Cao Dong was arrested by State Security agents. Before the Chinese New Year's Eve, Cao Dong was sentenced to five years in prison. His defence lawyer said that the only "evidence" used to sentence him was a false oral confession.

Ms. Wang Yulan, about 50, was arrested for distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Deputy Police Chief Yin Chaobo beat her viciously while attempting to force her to write a guarantee statement that she would stop practising Falun Gong. He beat her face until it was black and blue, grabbing her by the hair and slamming her into the wall. He then put a metal bucket over her head and pounded it repeatedly with a hammer. Ms. Wang felt dizzy and faint and was unable to hear. The following morning, Yin continued to torture Ms. Wang, who was already severely bruised. He used the cord from a hand-crank telephone to give her electric shocks until she lost consciousness.

At around 9 a.m. on April 9th, 2008, four Falun Gong practitioners from Caojia Village in Jilin Province, were arrested. They are Li Yanwei and his wife Ding Qin, You Zuozai and his wife Kan Xuxiang. Police searched their homes and first inspected how the residents received TV signals. Then the police found and removed several CDs exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, Falun Gong books and a TV signal receiver. On the next day, the police searched You Zuozai's home twice. You's mother said to her neighbours, "They came four or five times in the two days, which really frightened me." The police police tortured Li Yanwei to try and extort a confession. The police beat him and force-fed him with horseradish concentrate.

When the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal and was thrown into a detention centre by police. The guards failed to force me to give up Falun Gong. Thus, they turned to their last weapon - saying that I had a mental disease. They sent me to a mental hospital. In the hospital, several persons held me down and forcefully injected me with some kind of drug. Shortly after that, I lost consciousness. After I woke up, I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed that I had motionless eyes, messed up hair, and blood at the corner of my mouth due to the forceful injection! I burst into tears. They had mistreated me into such a miserable state! I repeatedly requested that I be allowed to leave the hospital, and I told them that I was not sick. The reason they treated me violently was because I did not give up practising Falun Gong.

As Songyuan City is one of the Olympic Torch relay cities, in order to guarantee having no protests during the torch relay and the Olympic Games, the Songyuan City Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee and its government administration held a general assembly that included representatives from the police department and other law enforcement agencies of the city. The head of the city Chinese Communist Party Committee, Lan Jun, member of the Municipal Party Committee, the Deputy Mayor, Secretary of the City Politics and Law Committee, Wu Xinghong, and others, issued an order demanding that the police units give full play to their so-called "function." For a period of 100 days, they carried out an intense round of arrests of Falun Gong practitioners. Prior to that, Communist officials had also issued a secret order to "strike hard" on Falun Gong.

One night in December 2005 National Security officers suddenly surrounded my home and broke in and arrested me. I was eventually sent to Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp. This place is notorious, known as a living hell. I was sentenced to one year of forced labour. No matter how much those criminals verbally abused me, I would face them with a smile. Because of my persistence in my faith and non-cooperation with the persecutors' schemes, the criminal inmates gave me a hard time. I would be beaten even if I simply set my cup down, washed a dish or walked a little bit slow. Later on they tortured me by forcing me to squat in an awkward position. I could not hold the position and fell to the floor. They hit and kicked me. They put their knees on my head, mid-section and on my back. I had bruises and injuries everywhere. I was severely tortured, until I was more dead than alive.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime launched a campaign to "eradicate" Falun Gong in July 1999, Mr. Zeng Shugang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and related his own experiences to the government authorities, asserting that Falun Gong was being defamed by the media's false propaganda. On February 26th, 2008, Zeng Shugang was sentenced to five years of imprisonment. Mr. Zeng has been widely praised for his upstanding character and kind-heartedness. His steadfast belief and his relentless crusade to tell people the truth about Falun Gong was met with brutal persecution by the CCP regime.

On April 22nd, 2005, more than 10 plain-clothes personnel stormed into Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Tan Lingfang's home, forcefully handcuffed her, dragged her from fourth floor down to first floor, pushed her into a vehicle that was waiting and took her to the Kunming Second Detention Centre. Ms. Tan Lingfang was secretly sentenced to three years of imprisonment and was imprisoned at the Yunnan Second Women's Prison. Although Ms. Tan Lingfang has been released, the community and local police station frequently make phone calls, or visit her home to harass her.

Mr. Yin Fuquan, 45, was incarcerated in Tailai Prison. Mr. Yin suffered from all kinds of persecution and torture. Since he refused to accept being brainwashed, the prison guards had prisoners put 35-pound ankle shackles on him and forced him to stand under the burning sun. He was beaten, kicked, and forced to squat for a long period of time. They also tortured him with the "big hang up" and punched his face, causing his nose and mouth to bleed. He became paralysed and bedridden. Not until Mr. Yi was in critical condition did the prison authorities agree to let him be picked up by his family on August 8, 2007. He suffered and was in pain for six more months, and died on February 13, 2008.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Rong, a retired teacher over 70 years old, was arrested by police and taken to a detention centre on February 25th, 2008. In order to pressure her to compromise and betray fellow practitioners, the police tortured and beat her. Since July 20th, 1999, Ms. Li has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party. She was sent to forced labour camps twice and imprisoned in Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp for over four years. Guards used large fire tongs to burn her mouth. Ms. Li was hung up by her handcuffs, shocked with electric batons, and beaten severely. Her left foot was kicked so brutally by the guards that it became twisted and deformed. Still, she was forced to sit on a small "tiger bench", forbidden to move all day, and shocked with an electric baton.

Ms. Cai Junxia and her mother-in-law were forcibly taken away by police on July 18th, 2007. On January 7th, 2008, the Communist Party-controlled Qianxi County Court sentenced Ms. Cai Junxia, who had been already been detained for almost six months, to up to four years of imprisonment. That sentence was confirmed on March 10th. This is the second member of this family subjected to a heavy sentence. Over a year ago, Ms. Chuai Cuijun was sentenced to five years.

In November 2000, Ms. Gao Shulan, 36, went to Beijing to appeal for justice on behalf of all Falun Gong practitioners. She was arrested and detained at the Qinglong County Detention Centre. It was very cold. She and others were confined in a cold room without heat. A long plank was all they had for a bed, without bedding. It was very dirty, and some spots were pretty wet. The space was not big enough for all of them to sit on, and it was much too small for them to lie down. They were handcuffed and placed in leg irons that weighed more than 30 pounds. They could not stand or lie down. During the winter, the guards poured water onto the cement floor and ice as thick as four inches formed. Wang Jin and his guards then forced practitioners to lie flat on the ice. Ms. Gao and her fellow practitioners were forced to lie on the ice on many occasions. Ms. Gao's health deteriorated and she died on February 2nd, 2002.

Practitioner Ms. Xu Xiaomin is now detained at the Women's Forced Labour Camp of Hohhot City in Inner Mongolia. Ms. Xu refused to write the three statements to renounce Falun Gong and has already been detained in the warehouse for a month. Recently the guards began to persecute her by forcing her to stand for a long time, limiting her sleep, forbidding her to use the toilet, as well as using other methods. During the night of March 1st, two prisoners beat her. The next morning the deputy head of the squad also beat her. Methods used to torture Ms. Du Yuqing included piercing her with needles, forcing her to stand for a long time, forbidding her to use the toilet, pouring cold water down her shirt in winter, and beating her.

On September 29th, 2007, during the "October 1st" National Day, Ms. Gao Guofeng, 53, seized a microphone and cried out, "Falun Gong is good." Everyone was shocked. Ms. Gao was locked in a small cell, which is a metal cage, where she suffered inhuman torture. Later Ms. Gao was brutally beaten repeatedly. Director Huo Shuping bound Ms. Gao in handcuffs and deprived her of sleep for 24 hours. On March 7th, Ms. Gao was monitored by criminal inmates. That night she went to bed and was in so much pain that she moaned continuously. On March 8th, she was brutally beaten by Warden Wang Xiaowei and guard, Zhou Yingfan. Her face was beaten until it was black and blue and her mouth was injured. She was not allowed to rest until that night.

On July 14th, 2006, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Chen Kaiqu was arrested for distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution and sent to a detention centre and then sentenced to a two-year forced labour term. He was sent to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp on May 21st, 2007. On March 25th, 2008, Mr. Chen refused to do hard labour at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. For refusing to cooperate, guard Li Meng shocked Mr. Chen's face and neck with electric batons for an extended period of time. His face was covered with blisters and burns. He was disfigured to the extent that even those who knew him could not recognize him.

On March 12th, 2008, Mr. Li Zhenning, a 22-year-old practitioner, walked out of Minghua Computer Store on Lianchi South Street in Baoding City. Just when he was about to unlock his bicycle, he was surrounded by a group of people and forcibly taken to Yuhualu Police Station. At Yuhualu Police Station, the head of the station interrogated Mr. Li using various methods to threaten and deceive him into a "confession." When Mr. Li protested their actions, the head of the police station forced him into a room and brutally beat him. As a result, Mr. Li had a black eye and some blood around his right eye. The next day the perpetrators claimed that they had all the paper work ready to send Mr. Li to the Mancheng County Detention Centre. Upon hearing this, Mr. Li's uncle who does not practise Falun Gong, gave the police 2,000 yuan to have Mr. Li finally released.

Mr. Wang Guiling, 49, was incarcerated in the Jinzhou Forced Labour Camp for practising Falun Gong. He recounts his experience: "Guards handcuffed me from behind. They forced my legs into a double lotus position, and pulled my feet to the extreme position. Then they tied my legs tightly and threw me to the ground. After half an hour they realized that I was not ready to compromise. Frustrated, they stripped off my shirt and socks, and shocked me with several batons. These batons were brand new and could generate over 10,000 volts of electricity. They chose the most sensitive areas to shock, such as my chest, my back and the bottoms of my feet. The excruciating pain was hard to endure. I struggled with all my strength, even broke a rope twice. The torture was just too painful to describe."

On March 1st, 2008, 610 Office agents and police arrested Falun Gong practitioner Wang Hulin. They confiscated the family's satellite receiver. He was sent to a brainwashing centre. They also ransacked the homes of two female Falun Gong practitioners in neighbouring villages and arrested Falun Gong practitioner Wang Yingxia. On March 3rd, 2008, the same group of police officers went to Nanzhai Village again and arrested Falun Gong practitioners Hou Honglin and his wife. Hou Honglin was working in the field at the time. The captors removed him from the field by force and ransacked his home.

Ms. Zhao Yingjie, 34, is a Falun Gong practitioner, who was arrested on February 12th, 2007, and imprisoned. In the middle of March 2008, her family went to the jail twice when they learned that she was severely ill, but the authorities refused to let them see her. On April 9th, 2008, Ms. Zhao's family went to the prison for the third time. Ms. Zhao Yingjie was escorted out with a respirator by a guard and a prisoner. Ms. Zhao said that her pleurisy had progressed so that fluid had accumulated in her chest and abdomen, complicated by tuberculosis. The family visit lasted only 10 minutes. The guard asked, "Are you Falun Gong practitioners, too? If so, you are not allowed to be here." Ms. Zhao Yingjie responded, "Falun Gong practitioners are good people." The authorities refused to release Ms. Zhao on medical grounds.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Guo Baoru lives in Zhongbache Village, Tianjin City. In January 2001, Ms. Guo was sentenced to one-and-a-half years of forced labour because she didn't give up her belief in Falun Gong. She was forced to gather beans in the labour camp and had to stay awake for long periods of time. In order to force her to give up her belief, the guards assigned her a heavier workload than the whole 20-person team. In 2004, Ms. Guo Baoru was sentenced to another year-and-a-half of forced labour. In order to torture her mentally, the guards pressed her onto a bed-board with a picture of Falun Gong's founder, while cursing her with the most foul words. They forbade her from moving, and would beat her and curse her if she moved. Her term was extended by ten months before she was released.

How do the veteran inmates know for sure if these practitioners are killed for their organs instead of being released? Firstly, these people will not promise to stop practising Falun Gong, so there is no way they will be released. Second, practitioners are taken to an isolated room. Many doctors dressed in white will go to the room and collect them, and they are never seen again. One day a new prisoner was put in our cell. He told us that a practitioner's family was arguing with the guards outside. They questioned why their relative had died so suddenly and why the body was cremated before it was shown to the family. The inmates were puzzled. After all, that practitioner was alive when he was removed from the cell two days ago. How could he die so suddenly? He must have been murdered. Why did they deny his family the right to see the body before cremation? It is because his organs had been removed. Think about it. They harvest organs from executed prisoners, why wouldn't they go one step further?

On May 9th, 2007, the police in Changchun City arrested many practitioners during a conference. After that, officers from the Changchun City Police Department and 610 Office searched and arrested practitioners according to the list they obtained at the conference. In order to avoid persecution, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Jin Chengquan and his wife Ms. Li Jin were forced to leave their home. On January 14th, 2008, Mr. Jin Chengquan had a heart attack and passed away at the age of 56.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Li was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities. She has been currently been detained for six years at the Harbin Women's Prison. Ms. Zhang's husband was also sentenced and imprisoned because he practised Falun Gong, and he was later tortured to death, leaving their 9-year-old son without parents. Ms. Zhang Li has been on a hunger strike since March 7th, 2008, and she is currently at the brink of death. After meeting with her, Ms. Zhang's mother-in-law said that Zhang Li's life was in danger. Ms. Zhang's family then strongly requested that prison authorities release her immediately, but the authorities at the prison said they could not release her.

One torture method was called "Three Straight One Stare": the practitioner's head, chest and lower leg must be dead straight while sitting on a small plastic bench with holes. "One stare" means both of the practitioner's eyes must stare in front of them (or watch a propaganda programme on TV that defames Falun Gong or listen to a prison guard teaching a lesson). At the same time, both of the practitioner's hands must be placed on her knees. They would also place an object between her legs. If she dropped that object, she would be beaten. They have to sit like that from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., not being allowed to move for 15 hours. Especially in summer, one would suffer more by sitting on the small plastic bench with holes for a long time. One would sit there until one's bottom was sore and the skin was broken, and that kind of suffering is unbearable.

Ms. Chai Heping, around 58, went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in October 1999 and was arrested by the Beijing police, picked up by her employer, and detained in the Handan City Second Detention Centre. She was released after the police extorted money from her. She lost her job, and her husband had been retired early many years ago, so she was under significant financial pressure. She went to Beijing to appeal again in 2001, and she was arrested and detained in the Handan City Second Detention Centre again. She was sentenced to one year of forced labour at Shijiazhuang City Women's Labour Camp. When she was picked up by her family after one year, she had lost her eyesight and had an unclear consciousness. She used to be so intelligent, but she became mentally impaired from the torture. She died from falling out of a building in March 2008.

One torture method in the Strict Management Ward is called the "ground handcuff". The victim's hand are cuffed behind his back. Then the cuffs are connected to the ground with a 4 inch iron hoop. The victim is subjected to the "ground handcuff"even when he sleeps. In addition to the "ground handcuff", they put an unbreakable helmet on the victim, tie the victim's feet with a "death knot", and submerge the victim in urine. Another torture method is a practitioner is forced to sit on an uneven plastic bench in the middle of a cell that is less than 32 square feet. His hands must remain on his back. He must stay motionless for more than 15 hours a day; otherwise he is beaten.

Mr. Li Hongfu was repeatedly jailed and tortured for telling people about the persecution of Falun Gong. The torture included the "tiger bench", electric shocks, nailing bamboo shoots under his fingernails and merciless daily beatings by convicted drug addicts. The brutality caused Mr. Li's spleen to rupture and his ribs fractured. He vomited and had difficulty breathing. He weighed less than 40 kg (88 lbs), could no longer walk unaided, and was in constant excruciating pain. Mr. Li never recovered and died on December 8th, 2006, at the age of 31.

Ms. Chen An'ai, 58 years old, was sentenced to three years of forced labour in 2004, leaving her 13-year-old daughter, Chen Shumei, at home alone. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Chen has been continuously mistreated. In 2000, police officers tortured Ms. Chen. She was hung up in the air by handcuffs locked behind her back, and she was punched and kicked and not allowed to sleep nor eat. She has suffered all kinds of torture. The aim was to force her to give up her faith.

On September 28th, 2006, up to six policemen from Xiangyang Police Station broke into my home with the excuse of checking for registered permanent residents. Then they began to search. They took two Falun Gong books, said that I practised Falun Gong, and dragged me into a police car. The police took me to a detention centre. After two days I was taken to a forced labour camp. At the forced labour camp I was given corn buns to eat. All the food there was of poor quality and everyone who ate the buns got diarrhoea. I had to do hard labour everyday. If I did not read the regulations, the guards would beat me. Practitioners could not say they practised Falun Gong. If you said you practised Falun Gong, you would be beaten.

On July 16th, 2007, three groups of police officers and personnel from the Xushui County 610 Office forcibly entered the home of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Feng Jixiu, searched the home and arrested her. Ms. Feng was taken to the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labour Camp. In 2000 Ms. Feng was arrested on her way to Beijing to appeal against the persecution. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials forced her to take off her warm coat and forced her down on her knees. Guo Haishan, Party Secretary of Ansu Town, grabbed Feng Jixiu's hair with one hand and slapped her face many times with the other. Afterwards, Town Governor Niu Jun also slapped her face many times the same way. Both of them heavily hit her buttocks with sticks and batons, which made her black and blue for more than two weeks. They tortured her so that she would "confess."

The "Legal Training Centre" (a euphemism for "brainwashing centre") in Guiyang is located at a remote, hard to find location. The front door without even a single sign is tightly closed, and the building is surrounded by tall walls. Entering the front door, there is a two-story building. This is where the officers detain Falun Gong practitioners. The longest term for this kind of detention here is one and a half years. The other inmates are basically unemployed workers. Although they know that to monitor the detained practitioners is against the law, they have been deceived by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ploys and refuse to follow their consciences. Someone with a conscience made these comments in private: "It is really a big joke to call this place a 'Legal Training Centre,' since what it does is all against the law."

"On August 7th, 2006, a fellow practitioner and I went to distribute Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Someone reported us to the police and we were arrested. I was sentenced to forced labour. In the forced labour camp, I met a "transformed" practitioner, but I did not know that she had been "transformed" when we first met. I told her that we should expose the wrongdoings of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), so she turned me in. The guard ordered two drug user inmates to search me, and to strip off my clothing and shoes. They stole my cash and watch and forced me to stand for two days and nights without sleep. I could not take it any more and, against my will, wrote a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong."

Practitioner Mr. Zhao Shouzhu, 38, was forcibly taken into custody in 2000. Because the guards found him doing the Falun Gong exercises they beat him fracturing three of his ribs. Prisoners also beat him down to the floor, forced him to stand up, then beat him down again. They held his head down to the floor and took turns kicking him with their leather boots all over his body, even his head. Upon being released, Mr. Zhao had to leave home to avoid being arrested. On March 31st, 2008, Mr. Zhao was arrested while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution. He began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The police had people from the City Hospital brutally force-feed him with unknown drugs. He died around April 20th, 2008.

On September 28th, 2007, Mr. Wang Zhihai, a Falun Gong practitioner was sentenced to a forced labour camp for two years. He was taken to Xishanping Forced Labour Camp. On March 18th, 2008, several inmates beat Mr. Wang so violently that he suffered a head injury, his teeth were loosened, and his eyes became bloodshot. He also had a concussion and vomited, and his blood pressure shot up. His family is now demanding his release, but officials from the forced labour camp continue to hold Mr. Zhihai. In 2003, his wife, Ms. Duan Shiqun, was tortured to death at the detention centre. Now Mr. Zhihai's son, Wang Jing, who is only nine years old, is left without anyone to take care of him.

Mr. Xia Maoshu and Ms. Li Zhonghua, husband and wife, live in a village in Jilin Province. On March 6th, 2008, village head Chen Jibin of Weizuizi Village and officers from the Xiajiadian Police Station ransacked the couple's home and confiscated many of their personal belongings, including all of their Falun Gong books and a satellite receiver. Both husband and wife are currently detained at the Dehui Detention Centre. According to an inside source, Mr. Xia Maoshu was physically assaulted while in custody.

Practitioner Mr. Wang Hongfa was taken into custody on July 16th, 2007. On August 20th, 2007, he was sentenced to a one-and-a-half year forced labour term at the Huadu Forced Labour Camp in Guangzhou City. Mr. Wang's wife, Ms. Deng Yi, has tried to visit him four times, but was refused by the forced labour camp officials each time. Mr. Wang's father is 70 years old and was diagnosed with liver cancer. Since he is critically ill, Ms. Deng asked the labour camp officials to allow Mr. Wang to see his father for one last time. The labour camp officials, however, refused her request and also threatened her.

Mr. Fan Zhende, 33, was a Falun Gong practitioner had been been detained and violently beaten multiple times. In 2001 he went to Beijing to appeal and was detained in the Huludao Forced Labour Camp for three years. In order to force him give up his faith, several guards shocked him simultaneously with electric batons, and beat him cruelly, causing his whole body to be injured and swollen, and his face to be deformed. On February 25th, 2008, Suizhong County Domestic Security Division Leader Li Changhua arrested eleven practitioners, including Mr. Fan and his wife Yang Xiaoxue. Mr. Fan died at around 7 a.m. on April 20th, 2008 in the Suizhong County Detention Centre.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Tu Xiaomin, 45 years old, was arrested and sent to the Beijing Labour Camp Dispatch Centre on November 8th, 2007. Policemen wanted to extract urine from Tu Xiaomin for testing. This procedure was not necessary at all, they just wanted to humiliate her. Tu refused. Despite her cries and struggles, policemen cuffed her and pulled off Tu's underwear. They also raised Ms. Tu's legs up, exposing her private parts to let the policewomen do the exam. The policewoman inserted metal equipment into Tu's private parts up to her uterus. Tu also bore the pain of an exam of her private parts. Her private parts bled until the next day.

On January 28th, 2003, Mr. Peng Fangjian was arrested by 610 Office agents and detained at Renli Town Police Station. According to inside sources, He was brutally beaten by the officers. Three days later, Mr. Peng was imprisoned at Lingquansi Detention Centre. Mr. Peng began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was tortured to death on February 10th, 2003. Someone who had been imprisoned with Mr. Peng at the detention centre said that Mr. Peng had been subjected to brutal torture by prisoners, and that his mouth and nose were always filled with blood. Mr. Peng refused to renounced Falun Gong and his mind was always firm. He was on a continuous hunger strike, and the police brutally force-fed and tortured him. This prisoner also said that he had seen Mr. Peng's body being taken to a car.

Practitioner Ms. Baosiqin Gaowa was imprisoned there two times and was put in the brainwashing centre three times. The first time she was brainwashed for more than 40 days. A man named Guan beat her so severely that she became injured. A one-inch long scar below her mouth is still visible today. The second time she was put in the brainwashing centre again for more than 40 days. The third time she was in for over three days. She was forbidden to sleep for two whole days and was forced to stand. Her feet swelled. Criminal prisoners at Tumuji Forced Labour Camp make up only one per cent of the inmates. The majority of those incarcerated are people that believe in a religion or people who went to appeal to the higher authorities.

Mr. Xu Linshan, a fifty-seven-year-old practitioner, never stopped believing in the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and strove to be a good person. Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, he was arrested seven times, detained, sentenced to forced labour, sentenced to prison, and tortured many times. On April 25th, 2002, the Qiqihar police arrested him, ransacked his home and he was sentenced to five years in prison. Mr. Xu Lishan was subjected to various brutal torture methods there, such as being stabbed with a needle and force-fed with highly concentrated salt water. He then developed the following symptoms: oedema, liver cirrhosis, liver ascites, renal failure, and meningitis. Mr. Xu's family took him home in December 2005. He was bedridden until his death on February 11th, 2008.

A few days ago, I learned that Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhou Huimin passed away at Qingyang People's Hospital in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, on March 15th, 2008. My heart broke, and tears ran down my face. She was a good person and was very kind and considerate to others. She died after 198 days of brutal torture. She hoped for the persecution to end soon and for everyone to have a bright future. She lost her precious life because she guarded her beliefs and strove to be a good person.

Xian Rumei is a Falun Gong practitioner from the Xiliu Farm in Danzhou City, Hainan Province. On March 10th, 2008, her younger brother (also a practitioner) was arrested by police. On March 11th, Xian Rumei, her husband, practitioner Xue Zhaoshun, and her mother, all went to the local police station and requested to see her brother. The police officer in charge agreed and had them sent to the Xilian Police Department in a police vehicle. Yet instead of being allowed to see her brother, Ms. Xian and her husband were held at the Xilian Police Department and only her mother was able to go home.

After going to Beijing in April 2000 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong at Tiananmen Square, 46-year-old Ms. Wang Guixiang was arrested and detained in Banqiao Forced Labour Camp for one and a half years. Ms. Wang was severely tortured at the labour camp. She was shocked with three or four high-voltage electric batons simultaneously all over her body, brutally force-fed, and put in solitary confinement. One of her teeth was knocked out during a beating. Later she was forced to stay away from home for nearly three years to avoid further persecution. Her husband could not bear the persecution any more, and divorced Ms. Wang in 2001. In March 2008, police took Wang Guixiang into custody off the street. She has been sentenced to forced labour for two years and is detained in Shijiazhuang Women's Labour Camp.

In April 2003 the practitioners who were detained in Ward Eight refused to do hard labour. Ms. Ren Shuxian, a practitioner, said, "We are not guilty. We are being persecuted so we won't do any labour." Zhang Xiuli, the captain of the ward, ordered prisoners to hang those practitioners who refused to work in front of the upper berth of a bunk bed. They were left hanging 24 hours a day for more than two weeks. Their feet became horribly swollen.

There was a room in the Luyuan Police Department where police tied practitioners to the tiger bench with ropes and handcuffs. The tiger bench was a long chair made of steel bars that had a back. The police would tie heavy objects to practitioners' ankles when they were on the bench. This form of torture was already very painful, yet the police also tortured practitioners using various other methods while they were confined to the bench. The police would pull their hair while punching their heads or throats; practitioners would be suffocated by having plastic bags placed over their heads; water was poured into their mouths to choke them; their fingers or toes were burned; nails were driven into their fingernails or toe nails; and they were often shocked with electric batons.

On April 7th, 2008, two schoolteachers, Ms. Zhao Fei and Ms. Liu Lihua, both Falun Gong practitioners, were arrested by police. The headmaster of Shigezhuang School reported Ms. Zhao and Ms. Liu to the police for distributing leaflets exposing the persecution to students and telling them the facts about Falun Gong. In 2000, Ms. Zhao Fei and Ms. Liu Lihua went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. They were arrested. At the police station, they were beaten and left with cuts and bruises all over. Their faces were disfigured and their hands and feet burnt by the shocks of electric batons. The communist party officials even handcuffed them to utility poles and put them on display in public to defame them.

The police arrested 68-year-old Ms. Xu Yufeng on October 15th, 2007. She was detained in the Jizhong Police Station for six months. During that time, she was physically and mentally abused by members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This abuse left her spitting up blood many times. She was hospitalized four times due to the abuse, and diagnosed with lung cancer. Again in police custody and secretly tried, her family was not informed. Although she was very weak, the police kept her in handcuffs. Fifteen-thousand yuan was demanded from her family by the CCP members for her release, but the family refused to pay.

Gong Yu, a seven-year-old girl from Heilongjiang Province, often cries in front her parents' pictures. She also writes letters to her daddy and mummy and sends her drawings along with them. In one letter she wrote, "Daddy, when you return home, I will give you a cupful of my tears. Daddy and mummy, please come home soon. I am a very good girl now. It's so unfair! I don't have my daddy and mummy at home because they believe in Falun Gong. Now daddy will not even recognize me. I can't see mummy, either."

Mr. Wen Kuan is a Falun Gong practitioner from Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. In April 2005, he was taken into custody by Qiaodong district police and tortured until he suffered from an inguinal hernia on the right side and became partially deaf. Medical treatment was not provided to Mr. Wen. Instead, he was sentenced to four years in prison. For the past three years, Mr. Wen has been imprisoned at Yudong Prison, where he is relentlessly persecuted. Mr. Wen's inguinal hernia has worsened. In December 2007, he had difficulty urinating and having a bowel movement. The hernia has also doubled in size and is very painful. This has seriously affected Mr. Wen's daily activities.

During the past eight years, the National Security Division of Hongta Police Department in the Yuxi Area of Yunnan Province has been arresting, interrogating, and imprisoning Falun Gong practitioners. They once claimed that whoever practises Falun Gong in the Yuxi area would be arrested. They also claimed that even if those who secretly did the spying and tracking found no evidence, they could still find an excuse to arrest you and then search your home to find evidence. It doesn't matter if the sentence is wrong or too heavy because no one would dare to defend Falun Gong. Those without any income can be sentenced to forced labour. Those with jobs and income are also sentenced to forced labour and they lose their jobs when they return.