Luo Dongsheng Brutally Tortured in Detention

Name: Luo Dongsheng
Gender: Male
Age: 41
Address: Meijiang District, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 20th, 2011
Most recent place of detention: Sanshui Brainwashing Centre
City: Foshan
Province: Guangdong
Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation by torture, damaging forced-feeding, solitary confinement, tiger bench, brainwashing, beatings

Mr. Luo Dongsheng began practising Falun Gong in 1997. Shortly after that he regained his health, his character and moral standards also improved. He firmly believes in Falun Gong.

After the persecution began in 1999, Mr. Luo used different ways to inform people that were deceived by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) about the truth of Falun Gong. Because of this, he was severely persecuted in 2011 at the Meijiang District Police Department Domestic Security Division, the Qinhuang Detention Centre, and the Sanshui Brainwashing Centre.

Arrested for displaying information about Falun Gong, tortured at the police station

In January 2011, Mr. Luo Dongsheng was posting information about Falun Gong in Hongdu Garden in Meizhou City. He was reported by a security guard and taken to the Jiangnanxinzhong Police Station. He was later transferred to the Meijiang District Police Department Domestic Security Division.

Xue Qingwen, the head of the Domestic Security Division of the Meijiang District, interrogated Mr. Luo. He handcuffed Mr. Luo's palm and used extreme force to close the cuff until it cut deeply into his palm, exposing the bone. Then he put Mr. Luo's hand on the floor and stomped on it until his hand turned black. He then tortured his other hand the same way. He tortured Mr. Luo like this for over an hour, severely injuring Mr. Luo's hands. Then the police stripped off his clothes and left him in his underwear in the frigid winter and threatened to shock him with an electric baton.

The police did not get any information out of him and later transferred him to the Qinhuang Detention Centre.

Brutal forced-feeding and tiger bench

Mr. Luo Dongsheng began a hunger strike to protest the brutal treatment in the detention centre and was force-fed. Four to five inmates pushed him down, while deputy director Ye grabbed Mr. Luo's hair and pulled his head back. One inmate pinched his nose closed, so that when Mr. Luo had to breathe, they could force food into his mouth. He almost choked to death.

The director of the detention centre then instructed other inmates to tie Mr. Luo to the tiger bench¹, with his feet shackled with a 15-kg weight. They also tied a hose around his waist so that he could not move.

Mr. Luo was tied to the tiger bench for over 10 days, until he promised that he would not go on a hunger strike. When he was finally let down, his legs were severely swollen and he almost collapsed.

After one month of such treatment in the Qinhuang Detention Centre, Xue Qingwen transferred Mr. Luo to the Guangdong Sanshui Brainwashing Centre on February 18, 2011.

Severely persecuted in Sanshui Brainwashing Centre

In Sanshui Brainwashing Centre, each Falun Gong practitioner was held in a solitary room, with a video camera and two inmates monitoring him.

According to reliable inside information, one of the inmates, surnamed Mo, was from the Sanshui area. He had been discharged from the military and used to practise martial arts. He was known to be very vicious. Mo forced Mr. Luo to sit on a small bench every day. If Mr. Luo tried to do the Falun Gong exercises, Mo would kick him hard with his heavy work boots. On one occasion he kicked Mr. Luo until Mr. Luo fell over, then he kicked him over a dozen more times. Mr. Luo's legs were severely injured and covered with bruises. Mr. Luo warned him that he would sue him. Mo stated that he did not care and even dragged him into full view of the camera and kicked him even harder.

Mr. Luo reported the kicking incident to the brainwashing centre staff and showed them the injuries, but the officials stated that they did not see anything wrong with his legs.

When Mr. Luo continued to do the Falun Gong exercises, Mo tortured him even worse. He instructed the other inmate to hold Mr. Luo still, then jumped on him and twisted his wrist and arm almost out of the socket. When Mr. Luo struggled free and shouted “Falun Gong is good!” Mo pushed him on the bed face down and covered him with a blanket, almost suffocating him.

Mr. Luo Dongsheng was held for five months in Sanshui Brainwashing Centre. He went on three hunger strikes totaling 70 days to protest the brutal torture. The guards brutally force-fed him every three to four days. They used the forced-feeding as a way of torturing him, roughly pulling the tube up and down through his nose, causing bleeding. The brutal forced-feeding made him vomit each time.

After seven months of persecution in the brainwashing centre, Mr. Luo health was devastated and he had lost a significant amount of weight. He was released on August 3rd, 2011.

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.