Part one
2 years ago 20 year old Kim and her 22 year old boyfriend Jan decided to go on holiday in the people`s republic of China. If she would have known that 2 years later she still was in a chinese prison she won`t have made this decission. The story begins on 10 th may 2005 when they checked in at the airport Schiphol in the Netherlands for a direct flight to Hong Kong.
After they arrived on the old Hong Kong airport they took the train to Shechen to cross the Chinese border. Whereafter they continued their trip by bus throughout the Chinese countryland to Guangzou where they decided to stay for the holiday. After their check in at their hotel everything seemed normal , but the local authorities however doesn`t seem to like their visit at all.. It looks like they really where not used to get tourists in this part of the country.
After a week in the city they where shopping in the streets where they suddenly get words with a marketchandler in the street. Of course the words where about prices , where Kim should pay 10 $ , she had to pay 100 $ to the chandler. Kim wouldn`t let him go with their money and strated to scream and make a lot of trouble. Jan tried to calm her down but it was helpless.
If there`s one thing you should`nt do in China , is making a lot of trouble in public , and what could be expected, two local policeofficers came onto the scene shortly. Kim directly tried to explain them what happened , but neither the cops could`nt speake english , or they didn`t want to hear it , but they cannot speak a word with them. After the policemen spoke some words with the chandler Kim decided to pay the chandler with the last money she has for the moment. After that she wanted to walk away with Jan , but the two policeofficers started to scream some chinese words , tackled her and forced her to the ground lying on her Stomach. Of course she was totally upset now and tried to stand up while she was trying to explain once again what happened , but she was fermly pushed back to the ground.
While Kim was getting affraid what would happen now she felt she was handcuffed with her arms on her back and she also felt she was put in legirons. She looked up to Jan wich was also handcuffed standing beside her and looking with a seriously face to the policeofficers. After a minute they hearth sirens and two policevans stopped. They both where firmly throwed in a separated policecar , and that was the last she saw from Jan. The policevan was a very oldfashioned car with a cage on it. She had to sit on the ground while they drove quick through the citycentre. Throughout the trip she was visible for all the passengers, while she was sitting in the bare open cage , handcuffed and legironed.
After 15 minutes the van drove onto a courtyard of a very old building wich seemed to be a policestation. The officers opened the cage and forced her out of the car. She was led into the building where it smelt musty. They went down the steps and came into the buildings cellar wich seems to be the prisoners area where a lot of noice was heard from people inside. After some meters the policeofficers stopped at one of the cells and forced her in. While Kim was pleading to let her go they slammed the steelbarred door closed and left Kim in the musty , humidity and dark prisoncell while she was still handcuffed and ironed !
Kim sat down onto the only bunk wich was in the cell and started to cry. Her hands felt painfull of the scratching handcuffs and she felt a strong pain in her muscles coming up as well. After about two hours , which seemed to be a triple times more !, she hearth the bardoord was opened , and some policeofficers went in and catched her by her arms. Rough she was forced out of the cell , and the officers took her upstairs to a room where a small cage was situated in front of a desk. She was roughly forced into the cage and the officers locked the door. A big uniformed man entered the room and took place behind the desk. He started to talk quickly in Chinese , and of course Kim doesn`t understand a word of it. Suddenly the man came towards her cage and handed her a few papers. The first papers contained only Chinese language but the aft paper was , fortunately, in English. It seemed to be a form in wich she had to fill in her name and where she could read what she was accused for. The , wich seemed to be the prosecutor , manned her to sign the English paper, wich said that she declared to fully understand that she was accused for public order disturbance and would be punnished for her disobience. After she signed the note , She had to because the prosecutor was standing right in front of her , she read that she wold have the right of a lawyer and showed it to the officer. What she didn`t expect was actually happening. He nodded and shouted a few words in Chinese.
After a couple of minutes the door opened and a well dressed Chinese man came towards her , and started to speak to her in English !! She finally could tell what happened and was feeling happy that this would end and she was led free. The reallity however was that , after she told the story to the prosecutor with the lawyer as translator , her lawyer told her that they won`t believe her... She would be led to the judge this afternoon where she would be sentenced for her delict .... Kim was feeling helpless while she was led down to the prison underneath the police building again. After she was arrested that morning she had been cuffed with her arms behind her back and her feet with leg irons together all the time , even in her cell ! She felt heavy pains in her wrists and her arms felt like they would fell off anytime ! She doenst have the slightest idea what happened to her boyfriend, and even not what would happen to herself. After another two hours in the musty policecell she was taken out again. Not more then three police officers came to led her into a prisonvan , wich was also equipped with a bare cage on the back. She was forced on the ground to lie on her stomoach while the policeofficers took place on some small bunks. Other men closed the cage whereafter the terrible drive through the city started. The street was full of holes , and with every hole Kim felt the pain on her front body while she lie on the floor. After a 15 minutes drive they entered another courtyard , and the van drove into a big garage. This must be the Courtroom Kim realised. She was led towards a big door. After passing some doors they entered a big courtroom. In front of the judgeseat a few small cages where placed and she was forced into one of the cages. She had to turn around and finally , after 7 hours she was released from her handcuffs !
A few men entered the room dressed in a military uniform , and Kim suddenly realised that she would be sentenced by a military judge. The judge spoke a few words , wich where translated by her lawyer , who was in the room as well. First the procesutor (A different one) spoke her delict , wich was a seriously public order disturbance , wich could not be accepted. After some words from one to another the judge spoke out his sentced. Translated by her lawyer she heard she was sentenced to spent three years in the federal maximum security prison. After she heard her sentence Kim started to cry , and felt totally empty. After that three officers came towards her cage and opened it. She was forced out and had to stand in front of her cage with spreaded legs and her hands above her head. She was carefully searched by a male officer wich really seemed to enjoy his work. Therefor he spent a lot of time to search her breast , and her female-area. Kim felt awfull. After she was searched her arms where roughly put behind her back , and she was getting on handcuffs again. She felt her ankles being cuffed again as well , but now a chain was connected to them and thereafter connected to her handcuffs.. she also got a chain around her waist. Thus chained like a dangerous criminal she was led out the courtroom streight towards the prisoncar. After she was forced to the ground again she noticed that this time she was chained to the vehicle chassis with some chains. Her waistchain and her legirons were connected to bolds in the vehicles side , so she could not move a vin.
The trip took very long this time , and all the time Kim was lying on the ground of the prisonvan. Feeling helse pain at every hole in the road. After an hour driving the car slowed down and Kim saw they entered a big prison with lots of watchtowers around it. They drove through some barbed wire fences after they entered the big wooden door wich entered the prison yard. After she was released from the car chains she was pulled up and she had to strungle towards a holding area. She had to stand in the middle of the room while one of her ankles was connected to a big chain on the ground. After that the other guards , about ten of them started to unchain her and release her from her handcuffs .... After that the chief signed to her that she had to undress herself. Kim scared to hell to undress herself in front of ten terrible male guards , and she did like she didn`t knew what to do. #$%^&*( SLAM#$%^& a heavy painfull whiplash touched down on her back and even she was still wearing her shirt she was screaming of pain..... Quickly she started to undress herself until her bra and her brief. After she stood in front of all the guards in her underwear she stopped and looked up towards the chief. He made a sign wich could be explained only as : Continue , don`t hesitate. While heavy trembling she took of her underwear and stood completely nude in front of the guards.
Shortly after she was led to a big wooden chair in the room and she had to take place on it. Immediately some of the guards spreaded her legs on a pair of wooden beams and she was bound with leather straps by her hands , feet and her neck. Then she felt a hand going inside her vagina. She was screaming like hell and suddenly she felt a big gag in her mouth to shut her down .. She could hardly breath because she only had her nose left now... She was completely searched in her female genetial area , and after they finished ,Kim felt like her crotch was set in fire.... The guards started to release her from the straps but directly after a guard attached other cuffs to her hands and feet with some big bolds through it. Kim looked scared to them and hoped that what she tought now wouldn`t come true. However she was led to another room which looks like a smithey. The guards shackled her with her arms and legs spreaded in the middle of the room. Needless to say that Kim was almost unconsious of fear and with a scary face she looked to the man with a torch coming towards her ... The smith started to melt the bolds of her cuffs. Kim realised that she would wear these cuffs and shackles her whole sentence in prison. To make things worse the man came towards her with a big glowing thing. She would be brandstigmated ! She felt a helse pain when the brand touched her nude bum. As she could she would have screamed until Tokyo , but as she was still gagged the only noise was some airmovement. The pain was hardly to stand. Shortly after the branding the guards took her away and pulled her to a large cell area. She was thrown inside a bare stone cell without a window , without a bed and even without a toilet. The guards slammed the heavy thick wooden door and left Kim alone while still cuffed , gagged ,nude and having intense pains from her brandings. Kim couldn`t stand the pain any longer and felt unconsious in her cell.
After hours she slowly woke up again . First she felt that always ongoing pain on her bum , and shortly after she noticed to be cuffed.. Slowly she remembers the nightmare af the hours before. Althought the pain was still heavy it seems she got used to it a little more. She realised to be one of the millions of Chinese prisonners now. While she lied on the ground her thoughts went to that morning , what happened and where Jan could be. They had been talking about the very strict regime in Chinese prisons before. How could she have been so stupid on that market ...
The next hours spent like the others. Kim didn`t knew she was thrown in a holding cell of the guangzou federal prison and had to stay there for two days before she was put in her cell where she had to spent the rest of her sentence. She felt awfull to be chained all the time , the pain was still intense and she was feeling dirty of her own extrements and the cold musty and dirty cell she was in. Her thoughts started to live her own live and in her thoughts she was flying home a thousant times.
After two days she hearth the opening of her celldoor and some guards entered the cell. She was pulled up again and carried outside. She was put under a shower where she really felt a lot better. After her refreshing shower the guards gave her some prison clothes she had to put on. The brief had pushbuttons around the legarea as it would not possible for her to put on a normal brief because of her feet chained to eachother. Thereafter she took on sort of a swimming suit witch only covered her body and kept her arms and legs free . She was led down to some very long halls with lotts of cells. Each cell was separated by a concrete wall and had an open steelbar door in it. In the cells there where all Chinese women. Some of them seemed to be very young. They where all dressed at the way as she does.
The guards stopped at a cell and pulled her inside. This would be her home for the next three years. Cuffed ironed and shackled and wearing sort of a quickrelease swimsuit. The cell was made of old bricks with nothing on the floor. Actually the floor felt a little humid. The steel bed was connected to the celwall and there was an old dirty matress on it with an even old and dirty blanket. In the corner there was a big hole in the ground , wich she had to use as toilet. That hole in the ground was quite normal in Asia , but she couldn`t familiarise with it. On the bed she found some Chinese letters wich apperently would be the regulations wich she could not read of course. She found some pieces of toiletpaper as well as two towels wich , she understood, where meant for womens period`s according to some old soils in them. After she inspected her cell, or should you call it a dungeon , she wanted to sit down on her bed but was painfull rememberred on her brand while she sat down. She lied down on her front but recognised that this wasn`t an ideal position as well due to her cuffed arms in front of her. She found a place on her side where she could lie without pain and felt how awful it was to be shackled all the time.
Two weeks later.
As soon as the first bell rung Kim opened up her eyes. She didn`t sleep well again , like most nights. A big part of the early morning she had been lying on her bunk with open eyes , sometimes crying , and thinking of all the things happening. She has been locked up now for two weeks , and besides the twice daily meals , if you can call it meals and the daily air break she has not been out of her cell. The lotts of Chinese females around her looked to her as if she was a goast. Of course she`s not able to speak to them , but however with some signs she had a few times a short conversation with some women. Most of them where not sentenced for very serious offences but for very long times. She did not hear stories about shorter sentences then hers, and even for a simple stealing of food some girls are sentenced of 5 to 10 years in prison. Another thing Kim wondered about was the low age of prisoners... Some of them seemed to be hardly ten years old...
Yesterday she met a pretty Chinese girl during her brake outside. This break is the only moment the girls are allowed to speak with eachother .. All other conversations during dinner , or at cell are prohibited . Kim was feeling supprised as the girl could speak some English. She introduced herself as Mao and telled her story about a fight with her schoolteacher where after she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She spent two years allready in this mess. In the next hour Kim was explained the judicial system in China. Due to overpopulation the Government tried to "clean" the society as good as possible from 'outlaws'. As a matter of fact the dead penalty was a very common used penalty. Everybody caught for a big or small delict has the chance to be sentenced to death even females and children. The prison sentences where such long that most of the inmates are released only after long sentences. In Kim`s opinion she noticed she should be happy she was only in prison and only sentenced for three years , but at the same time she get scared about what happened to Jan.. Would he ...........
Some moments later , Kim was back in her cell.. She was still thinking of the things Mao told her ... She was right that the cuffs and shackles would kept in place the whole time. Some woman in the prison have been locked inside up to 40 years. All the time they wore the same shackles and everyday the same rythem. Half an hour breakfast, half an hour for showering, and in the evening time half an hour dinner and 1 hour free time , the rest of the time locked inside their cells. Mao also told about prison punishments. If someone overrules the prison regulations she will be punished by a very various way of punishments. She explained in detail what happened to her few months ago. She had been fighting with some other women and was kept in isolation for two months. In the prison basement the isolation and torture area was situated. Mao was kept totally nude in a 2 square meters musty cell, with her hand, feet and body totally chained to some rings in the wall. She had to lie on the bare stones all the time , and also a toilet was not available. Every day she was tortured on a torture bed by whiplashes and burnings. Rapings also happened frequently. Sometimes women disapperad after they were sent to isolation. Nobody knows what happened to them.
Kim was getting tired of thinking.... She felt helpless in this terrible , musty and boring area. The walls she looked to made her mad and slowly she was loosing all sense of reality. Suddenly her cell was opened by two guards. She was led out through some long halls and went down some stairs to the prison cellar. She was scared what would happen again, but she noticed shortly after. A Raping !! She tried to run away but was firmly ctached by the guards. Of course the helpless woman could`nt do anything in her chains to some big men. The guards Scratched away her suit and her brief an there she was standing completely nude once again. She was forced on a table while her arms and feet where thigly connected to some rings on the bed whereafter the guards started to rape her. She was really feeling empty and helpless , she was furious ,she liked to die ... she was made to a human wreck.
After she was raped the guards throw her inside an isolationcell separated from the rest of cells located on the dead end of a passage and bounded her while she was still nude at several places on her chains. The guards left her inside and after they`ve left ,she heard at least 4 doors to be locked after them. It was totally clear that she was now in the middle of nowhere.. A 'forgotten' place of the basement.
As the days continued Kim was still laying totally bond on the ground in her little dungeon. She lost reallity and felt her brains were getting mad. Her muscles couldn`t move a bit all the time. Every day one of the rapers came to her with some water , but she didn`t eat anything. Finally she was got out and sent to her own cell again. She noticed it was the middle of the night as she entered her cell again after an isolation after her raping of 5 days.