Exposing the Crimes of the Third Detention Centre in Changchun City

I was detained in the third detention centre of Changchun City in 2002. This detention centre is located in a remote area of Sheling Town in Shuangyang District, so few people know about it. Its telephone numbers cannot be found in the city telephone directory. I met some Dafa practitioners there and heard about their arrests and torture. They are still detained there and have no chance to file a lawsuit for themselves. Please allow me to present the information about them to highlight the crimes of the Jiang Zemin regime on their behalf.

The third detention centre is managed by the fifth division of the Changchun City Police Bureau. The primary director is Gao Yi. The detention room is about 30 square metres (about 300 square feet). There is only one window to let the light in. The toilets and beds are in the same room. Detainees are only allowed two meals a day, consisting of corn bread and thin soup with a few vegetable leaves. Detainees have to sit on a plank during the day and sleep sideways, packed tightly next to each other with one bed sleeping four people. One detention room can hold up to 30 to 40 people. Only if the family of a detainee makes a payment of 500 Yuan a month (equal to one month's salary), can the detainee sleep in a more spacious area. The detainees can only drink cold water, take cold baths, and go barefoot. When the detainees move into the detention centre, their shoes are collected and handed in to the controller's office. If a detainee is sentenced, the shoes will be returned. If the detainee is released, the shoes will not be returned. There is a balcony under the window of each detention room. This balcony is for the detainee to go outside, but detainees are not allowed even one chance to go outside in a month. Since March 5, 2002, many Falun Gong practitioners have been detained here for persisting in their belief. Sometimes, over 20 practitioners were detained in each room. The following are the practitioners I met and the tortures they suffered in the female detention room.

Ms. Zhao Guifeng was a medical doctor in the First Automobile Manufacturing Plant of Changchun City. She has been detained since 2001. Because she organised experience-sharing conferences for practitioners from various sites, Jiang Zemin personally inquired about her case. After Dafa website's published the tortures the police bureau imposed on her in Jingyueshan, the police bureau brought her back to Jingyueshan and tortured her repeatedly, trying to force her to confess how the news was leaked. During April 2002, her arm, which was broken during one of the tortures, was still unable to move. Her arm was broken during a session of torture involving the "tiger bench", electric shock, and "carrying a sword on the back" [for an explanation of the torture methods "tiger bench" and "carrying the sword on the back", please see the footnotes].

Ms. Zhao Guifeng is forbidden to see her family members in the detention centre. Her husband has divorced her, and she doesn't know the whereabouts of her one year-old son. The authorities persistently attempt to sentence her. She always requests that the evildoers who tortured her be punished, but her request is ignored. She is often confined to a small room.

Ms. Liu Zhe was arrested for being the head of the Falun Dafa Assistance Centre in Changchun. Before she was arrested she was a manager in the Changchun Zhuozhan Exhibition Store. On March 6, 2002 she was tried publicly. When she defended herself according to the law, police dragged her out of court and shocked her with electric batons. She exposed the illegal act of the police when she returned to the court, but the court paid no attention to her. She is now detained in the female prison of Jilin Province (Heizuizi Female Prison).

Ms. Zhang Yufeng was arrested for making truth-clarifying materials. When a police officer from the first division of the police bureau of Changchun City was torturing her with "tiger bench", the policeman sexually harassed her by fondling her breasts. She wrote a letter to the city police bureau to report this act when she was sent to the detention centre. Instead of punishing the policeman, someone was sent to repeatedly interrogate and threaten her, trying to get her to retract her statement. She is now sentenced and jailed in the female prison of Jilin Province.

Ms. Zhang Shuqin was arrested for making truth-clarifying materials. When she was detained in Tiebei Detention Centre, Changchun City, she had to sleep with other inmates sideways, alternating feet and head orientation, in a very damp room. She developed a running sore. Whenever she turned over, the scar tissue of the sore would peel off and stick to her clothes. Fresh blood and pus mixed with sweat. Salt from the sweat running into the wound caused severe pain and itching that went beyond words. She could not scratch the areas. She is now sentenced and jailed in the female prison of Jilin Province.

Ms. Zhang Shuqin's brother is also a practitioner. He was arrested for spreading truth-clarifying materials with balloons. In November 2001, the first division of the police bureau of Changchun City sent him to Jingyueshan to torture him. He passed out during the torture. Under Jiang's policy, "Beat them to death without responsibility. Count the deaths as suicides," the police paid no attention to his condition and dragged him out to the mountains to die from exposure to the cold. Unexpectedly, he was still alive the next day. He was subsequently sent to a forced labour camp.

An elder sister of Zhang Shuqin is also a practitioner. She was arrested for assisting in the broadcast of truth-clarifying material on TV. Nobody knows her whereabouts since she was arrested in March 2002. A person resembling her has been seen in the police bureau hospital of Jilin Province. Her leg was injured by a bullet. It is not clear whether Zhang Shuqin's sister is dead or alive or where she is right now.

Ms. Zhang Shuhong, a younger sister of Zhang Shuqin, was arrested when she was making truth-clarifying materials. The police tried to force her to hand them over. When she refused, the police immediately tortured her and another male practitioner at the scene. The police tortured them nearly to death to put pressure on her to hand over the materials. Her husband was also sent to the labour camp for persisting in practising Falun Gong.

The whole family of Zhang Shuqin is a typical example of tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who are suffering from persecution. Now they are all jailed. Let me sue Jiang in the international court on their behalf. Please enforce the law and hold Jiang accountable in order to save the kind people who are suffering.

Ms. Zhao Jian is a college graduate and a resident of Changchun City. She was put on the most-wanted list for assisting in the broadcast of truth-clarifying materials on TV. The police bureau of Changchun city was offering a 20,000-Yuan award for her arrest. In March 2002, she was arrested on the street and brought to Jingyueshan with her face covered. She was tortured with the "tiger bench", electric batons, nose stung with smoke, suffocation with a plastic bag covering her head, and "carrying a sword on the back". Her arms are still stiff from the torture she suffered in April 2002. She is still unable to sit cross-legged. She is now jailed in the female prison of Jilin Province.

Ms. Zhao Aiguo is a Dafa practitioner from Jilin City and was arrested when she was making Dafa truth-clarifying materials. The police from Luyuan District police sub-bureau tortured her with brutal means: the "tiger bench", shocking her nipples with electric batons, the "big hang-up" [for an explanation, see footnotes], piercing finger tips with nails, burning the centres of palms, suffocation with a plastic bag covering the head, prying open the toe nails, etc. Because she didn't give in, she was tortured until she nearly died. She was sent to the third detention centre of Changchun City and was only released when she was near death. Right now she is living a homeless life. One could scarcely believe in the existence of such inhuman torture, but the scars on her body are the proof of it.

Ms. Liu Xiu-e has a master's degree and was a secretary in the transportation bureau of Jilin Province. She was arrested for downloading materials from Dafa website's. She was tortured with the "tiger bench" for 3 days and 3 nights. Before this arrest, she was arrested and detained in Balibao detention centre and Tiebei detention centre of Changchun City. She is still being detained in the third detention centre of Changchun City.

In the third detention centre, the practitioners who were on hunger strike were force-fed brutally. The male inmates would be responsible for making corn meal porridge with a lot of salt. Practitioners were brought to the town clinic. They were held tightly by 5 or 6 male and female police by their legs, arms, and hair. While they held the practitioners tightly, they kept on cursing. Zhang Zhimin (male) and Geng Weiying (female) from the clinic were responsible for the force-feedings. Zhang Zhimin kept on saying dirty words. While he was inserting the tube into the nose of practitioners, he kept on cursing Falun Dafa. He would repeatedly insert the tubes into practitioners' noses if he failed to put the tube in. He paid no attention if the practitioners' noses or throat were bleeding or not. Sometimes, several practitioners were made to share one tube. The tube was full of blood, phlegm, and stomach fluid.

Why is force-feeding considered brutal and intentional torture? Please think about it. Why is nearly saturated salt water used? Why were practitioners force-fed on their first day of hunger strike? According to medical regulations, people have to be checked for certain diseases before feeding, such as flu, heart disease, and inflammation of lungs and stomach, which are diseases that prohibit feeding. However, the police never check practitioners' health. The head of the management division, Han Xinguo, shouted: "You are not going to the hospital even if you are dying from the force-feeding". One reason is that they don't want to pay for the medical bill. Another reason is that they don't want to see the practitioners released when they are diagnosed as being in serious physical conditions. Dafa practitioners go on hunger strike because they are arrested and detained unjustly, and yet, they have no right to appeal. How painful is hunger strike? It is painful beyond description. Every force-feeding is test of life or death. Because of the police's brutality, it is possible at any time that the tube will be inserted into the trachea by mistake and cause suffocation. Ms. Han Yuzhu died from being force-fed with concentrated salt water in Weizigou Forced Labour Camp of Changchun City. Ms. Wang Xiufen died during force-feeding in Jiutai Forced Labour Camp. In September 2001, Ms. Wang Yin nearly died during force-feeding in Heizuizi Female Forced Labour Camp in Jilin Province. There are too many examples to be listed here.

The female prison doctors from the third detention centre have adopted new methods of torture since the beginning of 2003--piercing the 10 fingertips with needles. Without Jiang's orders, how could these police be so fearless?

The third detention centre of Changchun City is one of the thousands of detention centres in China. I would like to sue Jiang on behalf of the 22 practitioners who are still being detained there. The following five practitioners I met personally, Ms. Yu Lixin (31 years old) and Ms. Deng Shiying (42) from Jilin City, Ms. Zhou Wenjie (40) from Liaoyuan City, Ms. Zhi Guixiang and Mr. Liu Haipo (34) from Changchun City were tortured to death between March 2002 and now. They all died while still in the prime of their lives. Every time we question the police about why they arrest, detain, and torture us while they know we are all kind and innocent, they would say: "We are doing what the higher authorities instruct us to do, you can go and talk to Jiang about it if you dare!"

Jiang's hands are stained with the blood of Dafa practitioners. The deaths of thousands of kind and innocent people are on his hands. Tens of thousands of Dafa practitioners have received sentences. Hundreds of thousands of people who want to practice "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" are sent to forced labor camps. Tens of millions of Dafa practitioners are put on a blacklist. Their homes are monitored daily and they are harassed everyday. Some of them have been forced to become homeless. Hundreds of millions of family members and friends of Dafa practitioners live in the pain of emotional torture. I appeal to the international community to uphold righteousness by bringing Jiang to justice as soon as possible. Make a fair judgment, stop the genocide from happening in China, and support the righteous in the human world.

---

[1] Tiger Bench: Practitioners 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. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force them to remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioners' lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse.

[2] Carrying a sword on the back: The practitioner's hands are tied behind his back with one hand over the shoulder and the other hand against the lower back. The police then apply a great deal of force to pull the two hands toward one another and handcuff the two hands together.

[3] Big Hang-up: There are two forms in this torture: (1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/10/27/59569.html