Ms. Bao Wenju Recounts the Torture She Suffered

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Bao Wenju was arrested by police in October 2013, and taken a brainwashing centre. She has since been subjected to torture, including being force-fed with chilli water and mustard oil through her nose, and having cigarettes inserted into her nostrils. The police have even threatened to remove her corneas. The following is her own account.

Two vehicles, one black and one silver, both without licence plates, arrived in front of my house at 8:00 a.m. on October 18th, 2013. A few men got out of the cars, and claimed that they were from the Jilin City Police Department. Without showing any identification, they handcuffed me, put me in a car, covered my head with a black bag, and took me to the Zhihe Police Station, in the Chuanying District of Jilin City.

I was put on an iron chair torture device, and interrogated by two men claiming to be from the Domestic Security Division. They wanted me to reveal the names of other practitioners in my area. I was locked up in the Shahezi Brainwashing Centre in Jilin City at about 6:00 p.m., and several men took turns torturing me.

I was handcuffed, shackled and blinded before being put in a car and transferred to an unknown place at 7:00 p.m. on October 23rd, 2013. Two men came, one claiming to be from Domestic Security and the other from the Criminal Police. They told me that I was being interrogated. Two other men wearing white robes came in with syringes in their hands.

The criminal police asked me if I knew what the advanced punishments were. He then said, “It's to ruin your internal organs while causing no superficial damage on you. If you don't tell me what I want to know, I will run an electric current through your genitals. You will be ruined and the hospital won't know why.”

They lit seven or eight cigarettes and inserted them into my nostrils. I couldn't open my eyes and the tears came pouring down. They call this torture the “awakening.” I still didn't tell them anything, so they wrapped my head with a plastic sheet and secured it with a belt around my neck. They filled the syringes with chilli pepper water and mustard oil, and injected them into my nose. Two men held my head backward so I couldn't move.

They told me that they wanted it to be worse than death for me. One of them pried open my eye and said that he wanted to take a look at my cornea. I said, “So taking body parts from living Falun Gong practitioners is true?” He told me, “I am not joking. The cornea in your left eye looks fine.” The torture continued for another two hours.

I was transferred to the Jilin City Detention Centre on October 25th, 2013. There I had to work from 6:00 a.m. to after 6:00 p.m. I only got to rest during meal time. I had to perform heavy work with tin, which is a heavy metal that is toxic to humans. I sat on my bed, and my hands barely stopped working. It was extremely exhausting and I only got a bowl of porridge at noon time.

I was transferred to the Shahezi Brainwashing Centre on November 22nd, 2013. Each day I had to watch videos that defamed Falun Gong with two people sitting next to me, watching me. They tried to force me to write five guarantee statements to slander Falun Gong, or I would be sentenced to heavy criminal terms and could not go home.

Other Falun Gong practitioners tortured in the Shahezi Brainwashing Centre include Ms. Han Fenghua from Jilin City, Mr. Lin Songtao from Yushu, Mr. Fu Hongwei from Shulan, He Lichong from Huadian City, Jin Zhixin, Ms. Zhang Yan, Ms. Gao Defen, Ms. Qin Cuiping, Chu Fanwen, Ms. Wang Guilan, and several others.

Parties involved in the persecution:

Bai Yan (白岩), head of Jilin City 610 Office

Wang Honghai (王洪海), head of Huadian City 610 Office, 86-15124451588 (Mobile)