The Cruel Persecution I Suffered in the Shijiazhuang Second Detention Centre

On April 3rd 2005 at around 7:30 p.m., in Shijiazhuang City, I was arrested and taken to the Huaidi Criminal Police Team. Five other practitioners were arrested at the same time and sent to other places for detention. At the police team, they locked me on an iron chair and cuffed my hands to its back with one hand over my shoulder so that I could not move at all. In addition, they didn't give me anything to eat. On the fourth day, when they uncuffed me in order to send me to a detention centre, both my hands and feet were swollen and as a result I had great difficulty walking.

On the afternoon of April 6th they sent me to the hospital to have my blood pressure checked and to get a chest X-ray. After that, they sent me to the Shijiazhuang Second Detention Centre. The detention centre authorities refused to accept me because I had pneumonia, according to the X-ray. The police turned me over to the Police Department and when they sent me to the detention centre, I was refused again. The Yuhua Branch authorities talked to the gang who had a close relationship with the detention centre and asked them to bribe the detention centre authorities by giving them gifts and treating them to dinner. On the afternoon of April 7th the detention centre accepted me. I was held in Cell 314 and was under surveillance.

To protest this unjust arrest, I started a hunger strike. During roll call on the second night in the detention centre, I suddenly passed out. They carried me to the detention centre hospital and diagnosed me with having serious heart disease including myocardial defect, coronary heart disease, arrhythmia, etc. They hastily treated me by injecting me with some cardio-tonic. Even under such circumstances, the police department authorities did not allow me to be released. Moreover, they sent over 300 yuan (1) to the hospital in order to cover my expenses, intending to have me detained there long term. They wanted to find out my name and address, and used the hospital stay as an excuse to get it, because I never had told them anything from the beginning. On the third day, they started force-feeding me. Every other day, they would insert a tube into my stomach through my nose and force-feed me with two bags of soy powder mixed with 300ml water and salt. They called this force-feeding, but in fact it is a brutal torture method. I was in great pain during the whole process. Four people would hold me down by pressing on my legs, twisting my arms and locking my head in a certain position, and then the doctor would insert a tube as thick as a small finger into my nose and down into my stomach, causing me to choke and vomit. Instigated by the authorities, the doctor (her name was Li) would insert the tube and take it out of my stomach repeatedly to cause even more pain. While doing this, she would threaten me by saying, "Refuse to eat? We have lots of time. We will ensure that you will be fed so well that you'll gain a lot of weight." She wouldn't stop doing it until she was satisfied. Then she would pour the 300ml of liquid into the tube. To make me thirsty for water, they would put a large amount of salt into the tube as well. Once, an inmate named Jiang Guang even poured half of a bag of salt into the tube and caused me to have violent pain and nausea. In order to prevent me from having a heart attack, each time they started the force-feeding they would stuff a few pills into my mouth. After the force-feeding, I was not able to feel my body until more than half an hour later.

Once, they injected me with an unknown drug before they did the force-feeding. Then, instead of inserting the tube into my stomach, they inserted it into my lungs. The pain was indescribable. At that moment, as soon as doctor Li's hand moved, my whole body convulsed violently and I shook with a constant dry cough while gasping for air. She would jostle the tube while threatening me by saying, "Will you eat or not?" and wouldn't stop until I was at the brink of death. Even the inmates grew indignant and blamed her for being "truly inhumane." Later, in order to prevent the inmates from seeing it, three times they dragged me to the relief yard and tortured me. In the beginning they force-fed me with soy powder, but later on they switched to corn powder. In just ten days I had lost weight and was only skin and bones. The skin all over my body began to peel, my legs became numb, pain developed in my liver area, all of my muscles were sore and I could not sleep. The force-feeding was intensified from every other day to every day, and the pain became worse and worse. Up until ten days before my release, I would throw up upon force-feeding. When I suffered from a heart attack, the doctor yelled and cursed at me. Later she ignored me and just ordered the staff to give me some pills. I had to consume three bottles of pills.

Since I was sent to the Cell 314, I did not have a single peaceful day. The inmates, Jia Guang and Cai Huiting, would constantly change their methods of torturing me. Fearing that they would be held responsible if I died, they then eased up on the beatings. They would spit and pour water in my face, spit phlegm into my shoes, throw objects or shoes at me, and kick, step on, or hit me. Even when I was asleep, they would drag me onto the floor. Once, Cai Huiting, who was on night duty, poured water on my face while I was sleeping. When I woke up and asked him why he did it, he slapped me in the face. Jia Guang said, "We can get term reductions for punishing Falun Gong practitioners." My health deteriorated faster and faster until one day, I was not able to walk anymore.

In early June, I was released unconditionally. They carried me to a van, drove me to the bus station and even paid the fare for me. But they didn't set me free completely. I found out that I was monitored closely. When I saw that several familiar faces were following me, I realised that I could not go directly home. I circled around for a day and a night, but failed to get rid of them, so I took a bus to Dachenzhuang at Xi'an County. However, as soon as I got off the bus, I noticed that plainclothes police officers as well as a lot of vehicles were already waiting for me, and someone even followed me to the toilet. I had to take another bus to Cangzhou. Upon arriving at Cangzhou, I noticed that the surveillance was even closer. Plainclothes police were riding around in sedans, vans, taxis, motorcycles and bicycles in order to watch me. I had only 4 yuan left, which wasn't enough for me to go home, so I had to beg for money for food and sleep on the street.

Two days later, in the middle of the night, I finally lost those who had been following me. I went to a fellow villager's home and got in contact with my workplace. They came the next night and took me home. When I got home, my family members could hardly recognise me, and they all cried. After sixty-three days of persecution, I went from weighing 165 Jin (about 180 lbs) to 110 Jin (about 120 lbs). People all asked why. I said, "It is just because I believe in 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance' and try to be a good person."

Note:

(1) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/8/11/108135.html