Prosecutor: We now call Wang Yuzhi to the witness stand.
Would you state your name for the record.
Wang: Wang Yuzhi.
Prosecutor: Thank you. You know why you are here of course. Like so many other practitioners sentenced to labor camps, and detained in police stations, you endured a form of torture unfamiliar to most other civilized nations of the world. But I understand it is one of the most common means of torture used in China to persecute Falun Gong. Ms. Wang, could you describe how this particular form of torture was administered and how it affected your person, both physically and mentally?
Wang: Well, when people usually talk about force-feeding, it usually means someone went on a hunger strike to protest something, and to prevent them from starving or dehydrating to death, they're force-fed food or water. But under the persecution against Falun Gong, the force-feeding is a painful form of torture. The prison guards have no medical training. They just jam the rubber or plastic feeding tubes down people's throats either through their noses or their mouths. Sometimes they do this several times a day. It's very difficult to endure. Blood gushes from the torn tissues and is mixed with saliva, as we begin to gag and choke. And the things they put down our throats -- hot pepper sauce, coarse salt mixed with a little water, drugs, human urine and feces.
When they stick the tubes into our throats, frequently they puncture the trachea or the lungs, or even the stomach. Many police were reluctant to carry out the force-feeding as it was resulting in many gruesome deaths. However, Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan assured the police that they would not be held responsible should a Falun Gong practitioner die from the procedure. Encouraged and supported by those in command, many police officers began to use force-feeding relentlessly. The point wasn't to feed us but put us through enough pain and agony that we would renounce our belief in Falun Gong. Jiang Zemin didn't want us to think for ourselves or hold a dissenting opinion.
Defense Attorney: Objection. Hearsay.
Judge: Sustained.
Prosecutor: Could you tell us what you yourself endured?
Wang: Yes of course. I began to practice Falun Dafa in 1998. Since the onset of the persecution, I was jailed a total of three times. On July 15, 2000, I was printing Falun Gong literature but was reported by someone and put in jail. They interrogated me and punched and kicked me. My face became swollen; I couldn't move my arms and hands. I was bruised all over and I had black eyes. I went on a hunger strike in protest. In order to force feed me, the doctors at the Harbin City Detention Center used a metal clamp to pry open my teeth and then pushed a thick rubber tube down to my stomach. My mouth was filled with blood and my body was covered in bruises after every force-feeding. Several people were there to beat and subdue me. Then they would pour two big bowls of cold water mixed with corn flour into me. When I screamed, the police were afraid of others hearing me, so they ordered inmates to gag me and beat me even more.
One day I heard the desperate cry of a man in the woman's ward. It was the husband of a Falun Gong practitioner named Ding Yanhong. He had begged to be able to visit her, and when he finally was allowed to come in, they force-fed her right in front of him. This man cried terribly while his wife struggled in pain. I will never forget that day.
I always knew that if I would simply write a letter denouncing Falun Gong, denouncing its teachings and promise to never practice again, I would be released immediately. But if it is wrong to believe in 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance,' what hope does humanity have? This persecution was forcing people to choose between their lives and their conscience. I knew that I was being forced to make that choice, and I chose my conscience because I knew that when good men and women renounce sacred beliefs under pressure from a dictatorship, something much greater than us dies.
Prosecutor: Is there anything else you'd like to tell the Court?
Ms. Wang: Yes. I'd just like to say that 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance exists deep in my heart, far beyond the reach of any electric baton, far beyond the reach of a prison guard's fist. Lies and slanderous propaganda cannot stand up to the truth. Brutality and torture is no match for compassion. Violence and hatred cannot overcome forbearance. For nine months, they tried to make me believe these principles are not true. They failed.... You failed [pointing at Jiang].
Prosecutor: Thank you, Ms. Wang.
Defense Attorney: I have no questions for this witness.
Judge: Prosecution may now call your next witness.
Ms. Liu enters the stage.
Prosecutor: Ms. Liu, please tell the Court about the time you spent with Chen Zixiu in Weifang China. Could you please describe what you saw Ms. Chen go through before her death?
Liu: Yes. I was with Chen Zixiu in the same detention center in Weifang. She was 58 years old -- just about the same age as I was. They beat her all the time and jolted her with an electric baton. One day when I saw her, her legs were badly bruised and her head was covered with pus and blood. They beat her for two whole hours and told her to change her thinking and renounce Falun Gong, but she wouldn't. The next morning they ordered her to go outdoors to run in the cold. The rest of us watched from the window as she crawled on her hands and knees in the snow. There was nothing we could do, so we wept for her. As she crawled outside, she vomited and collapsed. We never saw her alive again.
Prosecutor: Ms. Liu, I turn your attention to another situation involving an elderly couple, Mr. Tan Shiling and his wife Hou Jinyuan from Hunan province. You visited them not long ago. Could you tell the Court about their situation?
Liu: I'd be glad to. The husband is 62 years old. He was kept in a damp, dark cell in a detention center for so long that he lost his eyesight. His wife is 59 years old. She protested being detained by going on hunger strike. They moved her to the psychiatric ward of a hospital and injected her against her will with unknown drugs every day. She told me first her head and tongue went numb. Then she lost all feeling in her legs. By February of 2002, she was completely blind. More than a year of brainwashing, incarceration, and suffering. They were finally released, but now they are facing the rest of their lives in darkness. How will they take care of themselves? What has Jiang and his 610 Office really gained from all this?
Prosecutor: I have heard that more than a quarter of those practitioners who have been killed in this persecution are people are over the age of 50. Is that correct?
Liu: Yes, that sounds right. I really don't know what kind of political threat senior citizens pose to Jiang Zemin. About half of the more than 750 deaths that have been confirmed are women. Of course, the real death toll is likely much, much higher.
[EXPERT WITNESS FROM WORLD ORGANIZATION AGAINST TORTURE]
The characters that play the parts of Wang Yuzhi and Ms. Liu now leave the stage.
(The rest of script will be published in instalments on Clearharmony over the coming days)
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