| "...The
Chinese do not use the international classification
of diseases, as has been developed by the World Health
Organization, they have a Chinese classification of
mental diseases, like the Soviets had theirs. They
have special terminology for people who have reformist
ideas or deviant religious thoughts, and are therefore
perceived to be mentally ill." - Robert van Voren,
GIP |
SUMMARY: Since Falun Gong was banned
on July 20th, 1999, an estimated 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners
have been forcefully detained in mental hospitals. The
Chinese mental hospitals use various inhuman “treatments”
on Falun Gong practitioners, including physical torture,
relentless psychological abuse, and the illegal administration
of sedatives and anti-psychotic drugs.
The police usually place the practitioners into hospitals
by force, although sometimes deception is used; in addition,
they normally do not notify the family members of the
incarcerations. In many cases, otherwise healthy people
have been rendered severely disabled as a result of the
"treatments" forced upon them in these facilities.
Read
our Psychiatric Abuse Report to find out more.
Recent Developments
Third-Party Voices
- Human
Rights Watch recent publication on political psychiatry
in China
"...The authorities in the former Soviet Union
employed political psychiatry against a wide range of
different types of people.... Since the latter part
of 1999, however, it has become abundantly clear that
religious sectarians now also form a major target of
politically repressive psychiatry in China..."
- from the HRW report "Dangerous Minds: Political
Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao
Era"
Transcript
of radio interview with Robert Munro, one of the reports's
authors
- Read
Phillip Pan's August 25th Washington Post Report
"...At first, he said, doctors at the Kangning
Psychiatric Hospital in the northern city of Anshan
forced him to take medication. Later, they let him take
the pills to his room and discard them, Fang said. The
doctors told him they knew he was sane but were under
orders from his superiors in the police department to
"treat" him anyway, he said...." - from
Phillip Pan's August 25th WP Story
- Read
the 2002 CNN report
"YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) -- China is under pressure
to open its mental asylums to foreign scrutiny as the
world's psychiatry body responds to allegations that
they contain thousands of political dissidents locked
up as mental patients..."
- Radio
interview with Robert van Voren, of the Geneva Initiative
on Psychiatry (GIP)
Voices in the Medical Community
|
| Cases |
Ma
Yanfang Died While Undergoing Unnecessary
Psychological Treatment
Case:
Ma Yanfang, female, age 34, from Xingshigou
Village of Darenhe Region of Zhucheng Town,
Weifang City, Shandong Province. Employee
of the Zhucheng Ceramics Factory.
Details:
In October 1999, Ms. Ma Yanfang was detained
on her way to Beijing because she was discovered
to be a practitioner of Falun Gong. Ms.
Ma was detained in the Zhucheng Town detention
center for 30 days and she was fined 3,000
Yuan (The average yearly salary for a city
worker in China is 500 Yuan). Afterwards,
she was sent back to her factory to work
under supervision.
In May 2000, Ms.
Ma was once again detained. She was sent
back to her factory and detained. She staged
a hunger strike to protest her detention,
and was subsequently transferred to the
Zhucheng Psychiatric Hospital.
Though Ms. Ma was
mentally healthy, the staff in the hospital
injected her with drugs and forced her to
take drugs orally. In September 2000, after
two months of continuous treatment, Ms.
Ma died in the hospital. Her parents were
threatened by the factory not to inquire
further into the circumstances surrounding
her death. |
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