Brutal Force-Feeding Used to Torture Practitioners in Huludao City Detention Centre

The violent force-feeding used at Huludao Detention Centre in Liaoning Province is an excruciating torture. The guards demand that criminal inmates force-feed hunger striking Falun Dafa practitioners. The prisoners are usually reluctant to do it, and they often vent their anger on the practitioners that are to be forcibly fed. They curse, beat and otherwise abuse their victims while force feeding.

First, five or six prisoners shackle the victim's hands and feet to an iron chair (1). Then they hold his head, pry his mouth open with a special tool (i.e. similar to a tongue depressor) and insert a ratchet-like wooden brace between the upper and lower teeth. Then they pinch the person's nose, fill an empty 500 ml. water bottle with salty corn gruel and pour it into the prisoner's mouth. The victim has to breathe through the mouth and will inadvertently swallow the corn paste while desperately trying to breathe. However, the corn paste is often sucked into the trachea and can enter the lungs, which is very dangerous.

Each feeding includes a bottle of water and two bottles of salty corn paste, and takes thirty to forty minutes. Force-feeding is conducted twice a day, after which the prisoner will have difficulty exhaling, causing them to breathe heavily. Even the next morning, it will still be difficult for them to breathe normally. Such forced feeding injures the trachea and lungs. In terms of a normal person's health status, force-feeding for two or three days will severely injure the lungs, rendering the victim unable to restore his or her health for a long time afterwards and become susceptible to severe infection.

Administered in this manner, forced feeding is such a severe form of torture that few people are able to continue refusing to eat after enduring only several days of forced feeding. Huludao Detention Centre only uses this method of torture on Falun Gong practitioners who are already very weak.

On July 16, 2001, Huludao Detention Centre caused a death by using the forced feeding method of inserting a tube through the nose and into the esophagus, in order to feed Jin Lifeng, a female English teacher at Huludao Maritime Technical College in Liaoning Province. According to the Clearwisdom.net report (2), the cause of Jin Lifeng's death was the plastic tube, inserted through the nose, which punctured her lung.

In early April 2004, Huludao Detention Centre illegally detained at least twenty Falun Gong practitioners. Around April 6, more than ten practitioners a day were being tortured by force-feeding.

Around April 20, another Falun Gong practitioner, Fan Dezhen, suffered from "pneumonia" as a direct result of forced feeding. As he approached the verge of death, the detention centre authorities became fearful of bearing responsibility for his impending death, so they released Fan Dezhen, who was already very close to taking his last breath.

In addition, Huludao Detention Centre also tortures Falun Gong practitioners by beating them, using the "tiger bench" (3) and "washing" (4). The guards also often command many criminal inmates to torture a single practitioner by beating them and other methods of torture. On April 6 and 7, 2004, instigated by the guards, seven or eight criminal inmates tortured Fan Dezhen, who had gone on a hunger strike for protesting the persecution, to the point where he was unable to walk.(5)

Currently, there are still many more Falun Gong practitioners in Huludao Detention Centre who are being tortured to various degrees.

Relevant telephone numbers:
Country code: 86; city code: 429
Huludao Detention Centre: 3960806, 3960813
Huludao Judicial Bureau: 311486; Director's office: 3128088; Deputy Director's Office: 3110430, 3110130, 3110142
The Complaint Telephone of the Huludao City Government: 3366
Commission for Inspecting Discipline of Huludao City: 3116717

The Huludao City Public Security Bureau:
Director General: Bao Ruoyan, 3113229(Office), 024-86404969(Home), 13842929999(Mobile)
Deputy Director: Gu Changjiang, 3119068 (Office), 2170002(Office); 3160799(Home), 13309890929(Mobile)

Deputy Director: Zhang Ying, 3118828(Office), 3113698(Home), 13304295398(Mobile)

Deputy Director: Yu Tingwu, 3113815 (Office), 2170003(Office), 3120369(Home), 13904299918(Mobile)

Deputy Director: Ye Shuhe, 3111786(Office), 2170005(Office), 8231888 (Home)

Deputy Director: Lin Baizhi, 3118266(Office), 3180199(Home), 13304290299(Mobile)

1. The iron chair is often made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time. See illustration: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html
2. "A Female English Teacher in Liaoning Province Dies of Force-Feeding," http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/3/21/20082.html
3. 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 See illustration: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html
4. "Washing" is a form of torture in which the victim is stripped naked while buckets of hot and cold water are alternately dumped on the victim.
5. "Recent Abduction of Dafa Practitioners in Huludao City (Photos)" http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/4/16/47092.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/5/11/74340.html