Wu Rongrong, one of the Chinese Feminist Five has talked about her suffering during the police interrogation and her detention.

Wu Rongrong

The author of this article prefers to remain anonymous.

Meeting Wu Rongrong

Recently, I was blessed to meet up with Wu Rongrong, one of the “Feminist Five” in Hangzhou, China. On April 13, Ms. Wu was sent back to Hangzhou by Beijing police under the condition of “on bail awaiting trial”. I organized her own narratives about what she has gone through into this article.

There will be sub-sectional titles with question marks below. That’s because the article is written based on Ms. Wu’s own narratives only. I do believe Ms. Wu was telling the truth, but since I did not interview the police, I use the question marks here to demonstrate certain objectivity for the article here as it is based on Ms. Wu’s unilateral story. Such a question mark could be also considered as a form of “procedural justice” in writing and reporting.

The Crashing down of A Wonderful Plan
Ms. Wu told me the details of their wonderful activity plan – the performance art with the theme on “Anti-Sexual Harassment” on March 7. They had prepared the stickers sent out to the pedestrians writing “Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Safety made by Everyone of Us,” “When you are sexually harassed, don’t be afraid and ask the police for help immediately.”

“But we were not able to make it eventually. At around 2:00pm on March 7, I was taken away by the police in Xiaoshan Airport. At 11:00am the next morning, I was taken to Beijing and had detained in the Haidian Detention Center ever since then.” Ms. Wu told me, “As a matter of fact, on the morning of March 06, I got the call from the Guobao in Hangzhou (the policemen from the Department of State Security). They asked me to stop the activity and I actually agreed to do that at that moment.”Ms. Wu believed that she was detained by the police due to their activity plan on March 07.

“Occupy Men’s Room” – the Old Activity Two Years ago Becoming the New Charge?
Ms. Wu said “in fact, our March 7 plan has never been carried out. There is no reason for my detention. This detention is unlawful. After the police held me in control, they changed their indictment against me about the performance art – “Occupy Men’s Room” two years ago.” Ms. Wu is furious about Beijing police’ actions – “detaining someone based on some reason first and then changing it to another reason after the detention.”

According to Ms. Wu, “Occupy Men’s Room” in the early spring of 2012 was the performance art conducted by feminist activists in Beijing and Guangzhou. Their activity did not really take over the men’s room, but took the form of performance art demonstrating their concerns for the disproportional ratio of women’s and men’s rooms. They aimed to solve the social issue that women have always had to wait for a long time in a long line for using the public bathrooms.

The activity was actually conducted in this way. They found a public bathroom, firstly explained to the men who were going to use the bathroom about their activity and only after they got the consent from those men did they symbolically “occupy” the men’s room for 10 minutes (and let the women who were waiting for a long line for the women’s room next to use the men’s room instead). They also held a sign writing “Protection of Women’s Rights” outside of the public bathrooms. And that’s it.

In fact, when searching online, it could be seen that there were a lot of positive media comments on this performance art. But now, Ms. Wu said with indignation, “the police mainly interrogated me because of this activity I participated into three years ago. This activity ridiculously became the charge against me for ‘picking quarrels and provoking a disturbance’!”

Humiliated, Threatened and Insulted during Interrogation in Detention Center?
“I was humiliated the moment I was thrown into the detention center. They would not let me sleep on a bed. I was made to sleep on the floor even though I saw empty bunks. They wouldn’t allow me to sleep on the bed because I have hepatitis B,” said Ms. Wu. “Also, many of the interrogations were made at night. I was only allowed to return when most of my cellmates were already long asleep. Interrogation under fatigue exacerbated my liver condition.”

Ms. Wu also told the author that “they [the police] would often threaten me right before they started the inquisition record (written and simultaneous video recordings). They would yell at me ‘we will tie you up and throw you into the men’s cells, and let them gang rape you.’ Or they would say things like ‘you have a 4-year-old son, right? Seems like he’s going to have some trouble in his future education and work.’ Threats like those would always proceed their recorded inquisition.”

Moreover, Ms. Wu also said. “while in the detention center, a man in police uniform would come to me out of nowhere and verbally insult me out of no reason. I have no idea who he is, but suspect that he was doing so under specific police order. This is implicit in his loud humiliating words, like, ‘you are a scum. The scums like you poison girls’ minds nowadays. Men used to enjoy polygamy with multiple wives and concubines but no longer can. Now we are all suffering tremendously because of you.'”

ID was “made lost” by the police?
Ms Wu said, “after the 37-day detention, the prosecutor denied the arrest and therefore the police had to release me under the condition of “on bail awaiting trial”. However, when I was getting ready to go back to Hangzhou, The police officer Zhu Jihua told me that they lost my ID, which they took from me (they confiscated my ID during my detention). So now, they can’t give me back my ID.”

Ms Wu is very sad. She said, “without ID, my life becomes very inconvenient. The procedure of applying for a new one is very troublesome. I need to go back to my hometown in Shanxi, and it will cost me several thousands of RMB. As a social worker with low incomes, this is simply too much for me.”

More about the feminist five:

WHRDIC urges Chinese authorities to release five young feminists

 

【女权五姐妹之一武嵘嵘被拘遭北京审讯时遭公安威胁:把你捆绑后扔到男号里让他们轮奸你!】
武嵘嵘遭遇自白
佚名
近日,有幸在杭州见到了“女权五姐妹”之一的武嵘嵘,武女士是4月13日被北京警方以“取保候审”的名义送回杭州的,按照武的叙述,我将其叙述的遭遇写成文字稿。
下文会有“小标题”,因为是武女士单方面的叙述,虽然我相信武女士说的是真话,但是由于没有采访警方,所以很多“小标题”后面会打个问号,表明此乃武女士单方面的诉说,以示客观公正,这也算是“写作的程序正义”吧!
美好计划的破灭
武女士告诉笔者她们的美好计划——原定今年三月七日的一场行为艺术,主题是“反对性骚扰”,他们已经制作了一些“小粘贴纸”发给路人,“小粘贴纸”上写了“预防性骚扰,安全你我他”、“当你遭遇性骚扰的时候,请不要害怕,请及时报警”之类的文字。
“但是没等我们开展这场活动,3月7日下午两点左右,我在萧山机场被警方带走,次日晚上11点被送往北京,关押在海淀区看守所”。武女士告诉笔者。武女士说“其实早在6号,我就接到杭州国保的电话,他们让我不要活动了,我当时其实也是答应取消活动的。”
武女士认为,警方控制她,肯定是因为她们三月七日的活动计划。
两年前的“占领男厕所”运动成为“罪状”?
武女士说:“其实三月七日的计划我们根本还没有开展,他们抓我是更是没有任何理由的,这样的抓捕是违法的,我被控制后,警方又改变了抓捕理由,他们重点审我两年前参与的‘占领男厕所’运动”。武女士对北京警方这种“先以种理由进行抓捕,抓捕后再改变抓捕的理由”的做法十分愤慨。
按照武女士的描述,所谓“占领男厕所”运动,是2012年初春,他们女权活动者们在广州、北京开展的一场行为艺术,不是真正去占领男厕所,而是对当前男女厕位不均衡问题的行为表达,希望通过这种活动消除女性在公共场所如厕排队现象。
活动细节是这样的,他们在当地找一家厕所,并和正要行“方便”的男同胞们协商一下,得到几位男士的理解后,活动者象征性“占领”厕所10分钟左右,然后举个写着维护女性权益类的宣传标语的牌子,活动就结束了。
其实通过网络搜索,可以看到当时很多媒体给了这场行为艺术正面的评价。但是,现在武女士很愤慨:“警方重点审讯我三年前参加的这场活动,它居然成为了我‘寻衅滋事’的罪状!”
看守所、审讯室遭遇羞辱、威胁和辱骂?
“一进去我就遭遇羞辱,他们不让我睡床上,让我睡地上,我看到还有几张空床位,但是他们不让我睡床位,理由是我有乙肝病。”武女士说。“还有,多次审讯是在晚上,那时同屋的人都睡觉睡很久了我才能回去,疲劳审讯加重了我的病情,因为我有肝炎。”
武女士还告诉笔者:“他们给我做笔录和同步录音录像开始之前,会给我很大的威胁,比如他们向我吼‘把你捆绑后扔到男号子里去,让他们轮奸你’,还有比如‘你儿子才四岁吧,以后上学和工作都会麻烦了!’诸如此类的威胁。总是要先经过一番威胁后,他们才开始给我做笔录。”
此外,武女士还说“在看守所,有一名穿着公安制服的男子会莫名奇妙跑过来骂我,我也不知道他是什么人, 我怀疑是受到警方特别授意的,比如他们会大声骂我‘你这个人渣,就是你这个人渣,毒害女孩,以前男人都可以三妻四妾的,现在我们被你们害苦了’”
在看守所期间肝炎没有得到及时救治?
武女士告诉笔者,她患有乙肝,处于发病状态。今年3月5日刚去医院治疗,被抓捕的时候,她随身带着病历、体检指标和几种药,都是按照医嘱定时服用的,尤其是一种叫“恩替卡韦分散片”是不能随便停药的,否则就很危险。但是到了看守所里,药就被收走了,武多次向看守所提出要求,要求及时治疗,武的辩护人王律师多次向看守所提议,但看守所一直不重视,直到3月19日,武才在公安医院接受治疗,此时武的病情已经十分严重。“我出来后,看到了很多网友的呼吁信,其中我看北京地坛医院的知名医生说像我这样停药,会有生命危险的。”
身份证被警方弄丢了?
武女士说:“整整关押37天后,检察院不给公安局批捕,警方对我采取所谓‘取保候审’,但是等我出来准备回杭州的时候,朱继华警察跟我说把我的身份证弄丢了(他们之前把我的身份证扣押了),所以不能把身份证还给我了。”
武女士十分难过,她说:“没有身份证,很多正常的生活都无法开展,而且补办特别麻烦,还需要回山西老家去,又要白白花掉几千元前,作为一名社工,收入本来就低。

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