Types of Torture Practitioners Are Subjected to in the Second Detention Centre and Forced Labour Camp in Changchun

1. Suffocation

This is a type of torture that the Chinese police and prison guards (referred to as "torturers" from now on) frequently resort to when interrogating practitioners (about where they obtained the materials containing the facts about Falun Gong, and who helped produce them). The torturers would seal a practitioner's head with a plastic bag to suffocate him while punching and kicking him, or shocking him with high-voltage stun batons. The feeling of being suffocated is horrific. The torturers would open the plastic bag after a while and ask the victim if he is now willing to provide the information, which would surely cause his fellow practitioners to fall into the hands of the torturers. If the victim refuses to do so, the torturers would repeat the suffocation until the victim passes out or dies.

2. Hanging Falun Gong Practitioners with a Weight on Their Ankles

This is another cruel torture that the Chinese police and guards often use to torment practitioners. The torturers would hang a practitioner about one foot above the ground at first, and ask if he will provide the information of his fellow practitioners. When the victim refuses to do so, the torturer would bind the victim's ankles with a rope and tie a weight, such as a brick, to the end of the rope. The weight on the ankle adds additional pain to the victim. The torturers would repeat the same question every several minutes. Each time the victim refuses to betray his conscience in exchange for the cessation of the torture, the torturer would add an additional brick to the victim's ankles until the victim passes out or succumbs to the torture.

3. Typing the Ropes: Hanging in the Air With Hands Tied Behind the Back

"Tying the Ropes" is another torture method that the guards often use. With both arms tightly tied behind the back, both feet off the ground or only the toes barely touching the ground, the victim is hung from a high place with rope. When the rope is tightly fastened, the rope will cut into one's flesh, which is extremely painful. As a severe punishment, this torture is only applied twice at most to criminals who try to escape from the detention centres. But the guards often subject Falun Gong practitioners to this type of torture eight to nine times. It is really inhumane.

4. Chopping Practitioners' Buttocks With the Edge of a Board

This is a type of torture that the prison inmates would subject to each newly-imprisoned practitioner. They first strip off a practitioner's clothes and make him bend over with his head in between the two metal bars of a ladder on a bunk bed. Each "mattress" is made of several boards of one inch in thickness and four inches in width. Then an inmate would chop away at the practitioner's buttocks violently using the narrow edge of a plank. The inmate would thereby inflict severe bruises and injuries upon the victim's buttocks in no time. It takes more than a few days for the victim to recover from the wounds and injuries. The camp guards can see the entire torture through the surveillance camera, but they have always turned a blind eye to the torture, silently approving the prisoners' crimes.

5. Flogging Practitioners' Shins with Metal or Rattan Bars

This is one of the flogging tortures that the camp guards apply to Falun Gong practitioners. The torturers violently flog practitioners' shins using a metal or rattan bar as thick as a finger. Because there is less flesh in the shin, the victim would suffer painful injury. Many practitioners have been handicapped by this torture.

6. Forcing Practitioners to Sit on a Stool for a Long Time

The torturers make practitioners put their hands on their laps, with backs straight while sitting on a bench for 18 hours per day. If a practitioner twitches a little, he will be immediately beaten up and cursed. Because of the long time spent sitting on the hard and sometimes rough and sharp edged benches, the buttocks grow big sores that hurt badly. They could not even urinate normally because of the pain. The guards would not allow practitioners to have ventilation or the chance to get some sunlight. Practitioners were locked up for so long that countless red scabies grew all over their bodies, and became extremely itchy and painful. The pus that burst out from the festering scabies would glue to the pants and bleed when they remove their pants.

7. Shocking Practitioners With High-Voltage Stun Batons

Stun Baton (100,000-600,000 volts)

Shocking with high-voltage stun batons or stun guns is the most frequently used torture in the forced labour camp. The guards shock practitioners on their most sensitive areas and pour water over them to maximize the impact of the torture. For example, the torturers would pour water over a practitioner's head and then shock him on the face and neck. The victim's face would swell and become distorted within several minutes. Some victims' faces were so swollen and distorted that there was only a narrow slit in each eye. It is an appallingly cruel torture.

8. Making a Large Number of Practitioners Sleep on a Small Wooden Platform

The camp guards also make sleep a form of torture for practitioners. They make a large number of practitioners sleep on a small platform at night. The only way to have every victim sleep on the platform is to have every one sleep on one of his sides without changing sides throughout the entire night. Moreover, the heads of the victims sleeping on the even numbers of the rows have to be on one end of the platform while the heads of the victims on the odd numbers of the rows have to be on the opposite end of the platform. Sleeping in this painful posture causes the victims to experience an increasing amount of back pain as each night progresses. During the hot and humid summers in China, crowding on a small platform like a can of sardines is painfully hot and suffocating. No victim could possibly fall asleep or rest comfortably at night. This torture adds additional spiritual and physical torment to Falun Gong practitioners incarcerated in the forced labour camps.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/18/82031.html