What Dafa Practitioner Mr. Song Changguang Suffered Prior to his Death: Relentless Beatings and Electric Shock Torture

Mr. Song Changguang was 26 years old and lived near Dehui City. He was in his senior year at Changchun Post and Telecommunications Institute, majoring in Telecommunications, and was about to graduate. He was arrested in late 2000 for displaying a banner at Tiananmen Square. During his imprisonment in the detention centre, the police tortured him by putting a toothbrush in between his fingers and squeezing his fingers together while turning the toothbrush around. They used this excruciating abuse to force him reveal his address, then sent him to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp.

After May 2001, because of the extremely poor hygienic conditions in the labour camp, such as overcrowding, lack of daylight all year, and foul air, scabies began to spread extensively. Many practitioners were affected, with severe pain and itching. They suffered sleepless nights, their whole body festering with scabies, with bloody scars sticking to the clothes and with hardly any healthy skin left. Even so, the labour camp did not quarantine anyone. They let it spread and ignored it. In addition, the guards commonly used the "slapping scabies" torture, consisting of using a hardwood plank or pieces of plastic to strike the scabies sores. As a result, blood and pus burst out. It was too horrifying to watch. A drug addict said at that moment, "Beating is not called beating, it is called 'curing the scabies.'" In the No. 4 Division classroom, a wooden square club over ten centimeters thick was used as a tool for "slapping scabies." The club was saturated with blood, which was used to repeatedly strike the scabies.

Until July and August 2001, scabies had afflicted many practitioners. The scabies caused several to become emaciated and some even were near death. Song Changguang was one of the most severely affected by scabies in the Chaoyanggou Labour Camp. His scabies spread all over his body, the damaged skin reaching as high as 60%. In the beginning his body was covered with blisters, but after the guards brutally subjected him to the "slapping scabies" torture, the affected area expanded and became more severe. His skin had become purulent, particularly his buttocks. Almost the entire skin surface was covered with scabies, and he had several large blisters. Once the blisters formed, the guards slapped the scabies to cause excruciating pain. The long-term condition made his skin abnormal and his sweat glands atrophied. The skin on his upper body was wrinkled and as dry as paper. It felt unbearably dry and itchy. The redness and swelling, symptoms of systemic poisoning and long-lasting fever often made him lapse into a coma. The guards never paid attention and just acted as if he were sleeping. Due to long-term malnutrition and severe anemia, his immune system was deteriorating and the chronic inflammation eroded his lymph system. He developed lymph hyperplasia throughout his body. The lymph node on his chin was swollen like a duck's egg and eventually it emitted green purulence. All the labour camp authorities did was insert a bandage into the hole as treatment, to stop the purulence flow, completely disregarding the patient's critical condition.

In the meantime, the guards did not relax the so-called "attack" and continuously forced him to sit on the bed board for a long time, while forcing him to do labour. Sitting on the bed board made his clothes stick to his flesh. Due to the severe rotting condition on his feet and legs, he was often seen limping with difficulty. Because his scabies-covered hands were rotting, his palms displayed many small holes the scars had left. His thumb-nails were almost rotten and disintegrated and he could not touch water at all. In spite of this, the guards forced him to use dirty rags to scrub the floor. In the fall when corn was harvested, the vicious guards even forced him to pick corn. They also ordered him to make the beds for the cell every morning, while in the evening he could only sleep on his side because the bed was crowded with inmates.

After over a year of torture, Mr. Song, who was once 5.9 feet tall and healthy, had become skin and bones. His bony joints were sticking out and the skin on his lower body was full of scabies with purple decayed flesh that was open and bleeding. Later, because he was depleted of blood for such a long time, he was extremely anemic. His face was pale. The wounds no longer oozed blood, but began discharging tissue fluid. Since April 4, 2002, when the so-called "attack" began, the guards from No. 4 Division of Chaoyanggou took the extremely weak Mr. Song to the instructor's classroom for brainwashing. The Division Head Fu Guohua supervised while Vice Head Fan Shenlu "attacked" in person accompanied by "small head" guard Wang and "abnormal evil" guard Zhao. They used two high voltage electric batons in addition to police batons. They used the batons to hit his feet and the electric batons to shock his face and neck. When he was sent back to the cell, his feet were too swollen to walk.

This devastating torture made his body and mind extremely weak. New wounds were opened before the old ones had recovered. His legs were extensively decayed. There were scabies 6.7 cm long and 0.5 cm deep; up to a hundred big and small breakages. There were dozens of indentations visible on his body. Those felt rough and hard on the skin and were swollen. He finally suffered heart and lung failure and he was near death.

On July 22, 2002, policeman Fu Guohua noticed that Song Changguang was in critical condition and hurried to find director Zhang from the Labor Re-education Division of Justice Department. He requested that they sign the labour camp release form without following any due procedure to release him in a hurry.

After returning home, Song Changguang did not recover. He died on November 12, 2002. Jiang's group is responsible for the loss of another innocent life.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/5/24/75435.html