A Victim of Torture in China Exposes the Darkness of a Forced Labour Camp (Photos)

Ms. Dong Jingzhe, thirty-one years old, is an advertising designer. Since practising Falun Gong, she has been a person of high moral character. Because she firmly adhered to her belief, the police from the Jixian Police Station, Shenyang City arrested her at her workplace. She was sentenced to two years of forced labour and arrived at the Longshan Forced Labour Camp on July 4, 2001. The authorities released her on December 30, 2001, when she was on the verge of death in the Dabei Prison Hospital after suffering severe physical and psychological trauma.

The following is an account in Ms. Dong's own words about her horrifying experience at the Longshan Forced Labour Camp. The methods used by Jiang's regime to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners are a meticulously guarded secret. The regime tries to block this information from reaching governments and people overseas, and even the general Chinese population is unaware of the extent of the persecution because of the controlled media. For this reason, Ms. Dong had some pictures taken of herself to demonstrate the torture methods used on her while incarcerated, which would serve as a record for history. However, the torture that the victim actually suffered cannot fully be appreciated from these photographs. For example, during a torture called "forceful positioning," in one motion, Ms. Dong's feet were pushed down and outward, her head forced down to a position lower than her crotch, and her face touched the cement floor. Several bones and joints in her body were dislocated by this torture. These pictures cannot convey the terror and sense of spiritual darkness and psychological trauma in the labour camp.

In the following photographs, Ms. Dong Jingzhe is wearing the same clothes and shoes that she wore in the labour camp.

Torture 1: "Pulling Up a Radish" (Photographs 1 and 2)

After enduring brainwashing, sleep deprivation and being forced to squat for long periods of time to make me renounce Falun Gong, the camp director and Group 1 leader came over to pressure the collaborators (1) to intensify their efforts to force steadfast practitioners into renouncing Falun Gong. Li Fengshi ordered them to hurry up and transform me. After he left, forty to fifty collaborators abused me in shifts, each of which lasted about one hour. About twenty of them circled around me and were attacking, yelling at, and threatening me. During the noise and chaos, they ordered me to squat down while they were seated around me. Because I refused to do so, they forcefully pushed me down into a squat.

On the night of July 6, 2001, over a dozen of them forced me to squat (Photograph 1). The abusers on both sides pressed my shoulders downwards, as the person behind pulled my head upwards; the one in front grabbed me by my neck; while two of them held my legs on each side and someone held my feet to make sure I couldn't move; others from behind raised my arms high above me. At that moment I felt as if the joints of my arms, wrists and ankles were all being broken. Later, my arms and legs went completely numb. Because my neck was tightly restrained, I was gagging and kept vomiting, but the abusers didn't stop. Suffering from the extreme pain, I threw up just attempting to speak. It was over 90 degrees and sweat was pouring from me in this cell full of people with a tightly shut door. Because my legs were pulled outward as my feet were turned inward, the twisting force on my feet reached the extreme and broke my shoestring an hour later. (The shoe in Picture 2 is not a prop, but is the actual evidence.)

Torture 2: "Positioning Under a Quilt" (Photographs 3 and 4)

On July 10, 2001, I felt dizzy because I had not been allowed to sleep for days. The assistant leader of Group 3 came into East Cell 3. He pointed at me and yelled at the collaborators, "Check her out! It won't work like this. You need to make it happen, hurry up!" Immediately, the collaborators shut the door and forced me to squat down. My arms were raised high behind me, my legs pulled outward and feet pushed inward, they smothered my mouth and nose with towel in order to keep me from crying out. The abusers forced my head down and made my face touch the cement. Several bones and joints of my body were dislocated. After that, they covered me with a quilt.

In the cell, where the temperature was well over 90 degrees, I was suffocating under the quilt in this painful posture. My clothing was sticking to my body and my hair was all wet, as if I had just washed it. My head was dizzy and I had congestion. I was almost unconscious, as my mouth and nose were being smothered. While threatening and cursing me, the perpetrators did not allow me to move even a little bit. I felt I would rather die than live like this and my spirit was almost broken. One hour later, my legs were numb and I was unable to walk. Because they pulled out lots of my hair, my scalp was in pain and numb, and developed scabs a few days later. The contusion to my right eye caused severe swelling of the eyelid (Photograph 5).

In general, the will to live is very strong, but tortures like these make victims want to die. Had I not remembered the principles that strictly forbid killing and suicide in Falun Dafa, I would have committed suicide.

Torture 3: Beaten by the Team Leader (Photographs 6 -- 8)

By the end of July 2001, Zhao Yan, the leader of Group 2, transferred me to West Cell 2, because the prisoners in East Cell 3 came to understand good from evil, and refused to torture Falun Gong practitioners for the team leaders. A "squad leader" there assured me in a meeting that they would never beat others in East Cell 3. Later, the cell was disbursed and the prisoners were sent into Group 2. On August 7, 2001, assistant group leader Li Yuansheng forced me to squat at the door of his office after depriving me of sleep for twenty-four hours. When I clarified the truth to him, he started screaming and grabbed me by my head. Using a book, he beat me on my face over a dozen times, causing immediate swelling. After I went back to the cell, he had collaborators give him a hand, and grabbed me by my hair and threw my head against the cement floor (Photographs 6 and 7), then he beat my face again with a book over a dozen times (Photograph 8), leaving my face bloodied with severe swelling of my forehead.

In the first half of December 2001, having experienced long-term physical and mental torment in the camp, I started to suffer from nerve pain, toothaches and vomiting. The right side of my face was severely swollen and I was unable to eat. On December 20, 2001, when the medical section of the camp gave me a blood infusion, the chief found I had symptoms of kidney failure. Director Li Fengshi had the assistant leader of Group 1 take me to the Dabei Prison Hospital. I had no clothing to change into, but fortunately, the inmates in the ward knew the truth about Falun Gong and gave me some clothing. I had not eaten for fifteen days and I drifted in and out of consciousness. The medical exam indicated I was suffering from arrhythmia, kidney failure, and serious urea poisoning, among other problems. Refusing to take the responsibility for my death, the camp authorities released me from the prison hospital on December 30, 2001.

After coming home, I recovered by practising Falun Gong. Later, however, I was forced to leave my home because the police from the Longshan Forced Labour Camp, under the authority of their director Li Fengshi, kept harassing me.

Compared to Wang Hong and Wang Xiuyuan who were tortured to death in the camp, I was so very lucky. Compared to the dying Gao Rongrong, whose face was ruined by electric shock torture in the camp, I felt so fortunate. However, as a person who follows the principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance, I should not have to feel fortunate to have overcome such severe persecution, because in the twenty-first century, in today's China, human rights and laws are supposed to be protected by China's Constitution. Good people should never have to endure what Falun Gong practitioners are facing. But Jiang's regime has manipulated the entire nation's resources to maintain this five-year persecution of Falun Gong. A hundred million Falun Gong practitioners -- kind people and good citizens -- are still being subjected to this persecution.

August 22, 2004

1. Collaborators are former Falun Gong practitioners who have gone astray due to brainwashing and torture.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/8/23/82400.html