The Torture Experienced by Yao Yanhui of Shijiazhuang City in the Detention Center and Forced Labour Camp

Mr. Yao Yanhui is 31 years old this year. He lives in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. After receiving his college degree, he worked in the Jinxi Petroleum Processing and Chemical Complex of Liaoning Province. In 1996 when he was at a university in Guangdong Province, he read Zhuan Falun and started to practise Falun Gong. In 1999 he went to Beijing to appeal and was sentenced to three years of forced labour. He was also fired from his job. In Huludao City Forced Labour Camp and Wujiapuzi Forced Labour Camp of Fushun City, he suffered all kinds of torture and became paralysed in bed for about six months as a result. He went on a hunger strike for over two months and was on the verge of death before he was released. At the beginning of 2004, he was abducted and tortured again by the Xinhua Police Precinct of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province.

Lawless policemen in Xinhua Police Precinct burn Yao Yanhui with cigarettes and insert toothpicks into the wound

At 3 o'clock on the afternoon of January 19, 2004, Yao Yanhui was abducted by Xinhua Police Division of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. The policemen burned Yao Yanhui's toes and toenails with cigarettes, and after one cigarette burned up, they lit another one to keep burning him. They then forced a toothpick into the burned nail and dug into the wound with the toothpick. This caused the flesh under the nail of his left toe to fester with pus. Yao Yanhui had to have his toenail removed in a hospital.

A photo of Yao Yanhui's left foot: the nail was burned with cigarettes and the wound was dug into with a toothpick by the police

Practitioner Yu Jingxia was detained along with Yao Yanhui.

Mr. Yao Yanhui was later sent to Huludao City, Liaoning Province, where he has his registered permanent residence. He was illegally detained in Huludao Forced Labour Camp. Yao Yanhui went on a hunger strike to protest the brutal persecution, and he was force-fed using a tube inserted into his stomach through his nose. The force-feeding put his life in danger several times. Dr. Gao of the forced labour camp, while forcefully giving Yao Yanhui infusions, stuck the needle into Yao Yanhui's body over a dozen times but still failed to find the right location. Even after Yao Yanhui developed an egg-sized lump, Dr. Gao still forcefully gave him the infusion. Other inmates looking on were angry but dared not to say anything.

Three months after Yao Yanhui's toenail was pulled out, his toe had grown a new toenail when he had a check up in the hospital. It was reported that, up to June 7, 2004, among the practitioners who had gone on hunger strike, Yao Yanhui went on hunger strike for 130 days, You Yuehong for 90 days, and Huang Lizhong for 38 days. They were released to their families by the forced labour camp when they were on the verge of death.

Huludao Forced Labour Camp and Wujiapuzi Forced Labour Camp of Fushun City hung up and tortured Yao Yanhui until he became paralysed

From October 30, 1999 to February 2001, Yao Yanhui suffered brutal torture in Huludao Forced Labour Camp. In the first six months of 2000, the forced labour camp authorities, under the order of "transform with force" from their higher authorities, carried out brutal persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners. They started by sending seven practitioners including Yao Yanhui, Wang Zhuo, Chen Dewen, and Zhang Xuan to a strictly monitored division. After all the windows and doors were closed tight, the head of the disciplinary section Zhang Fusheng and the clerk Tong took the lead to brutally beat the practitioners. They forcefully pushed the practitioners down on their knees and forced the practitioners to kneel on mop handles. Yao Yanhui's arms were very weak due to the torture he had suffered, and he could barely deliver food to his mouth with his hands. He was also unable to open his mouth to eat. All he could do was to pry open his mouth with chopsticks and stuff food in, and then get some soup into his mouth. This was all he could do to feed himself. However, the torture kept escalating.

Clerk Tong took Yao Yanhui and Wang Zhuo into two separate rooms and instigated four to five camp personnel to take turns beating them. They beat and kicked the practitioners, and struck them with sticks. The practitioners' bodies were covered with bruises. At about 3-4 o'clock in the afternoon, Yao Yanhui was kicked in the back of his head. He lost consciousness and fell to the ground. They tried to revive him but were unsuccessful. He was then escorted to the hospital for a CT-scan. He finally woke up on the second day.

After the guards of the forced labour camp had used up all their torture methods, Yao Yanhui was sent to Wujiapuzi Forced Labour Camp of Fushun City at the end of February 2001. In the forced labour camp, with the division head Wu Wei's support and with the deputy division head Jiang Yongfeng's planning, the male and female team jointly carried out a series of brutal tortures against Yao Yanhui. Their goal was to force him to give up practising Falun Gong.

To start with, Yao Yanhui was beaten until his face was swollen and his nose was bloody. His head swelled severely. They also used needles to stab Yao Yanhui's fingers and the bottom of his feet. They tortured him this way continuously for several days, but still they failed to force him to yield. They then started using more brutal means. They tied Yao Yanhui's arms behind his back with rope and hung him on the wall for several hours. On other occasions, they tied up his legs and feet and forced him to remain in one place with his head down for several hours.

Under the instigation of the female team head Chen Linghua, the torturers tied together Yao Yanhui's two legs and his arms behind his back. Then they connected rope from his feet to his hands and hung him from the railing of a bunk bed. Yao Yanhui was hung in the air in an arched shape. The pain from this torture made him cry out in misery. These torturers asked whether he still wanted to practise Falun Gong. Yao Yanhui nodded his head, and they continued to hang him. Yao Yanhui eventually lost consciousness.

The forced labour camp authorities saw but ignored Yao Yanhui's injuries. They continuously tortured him for eight to nine days. When he was let down the last time from the hanging, his legs were feeble and paralysed. His calves were aching and limp, and his Achilles tendons were limp. Both his feet had completely lost sensation and the ability to move; he could not even move his toes. Yao Yanhui had lost the ability to take care of himself as a result.

When Yao Yanhui was crippled from the torture, he was examined and diagnosed by the same doctor in Fushun Mining Bureau General Hospital. However, the outpatient medical record book was taken away by Jiang Yongfeng of Fushun Forced Labour Camp. The diagnosis by then was "serious injury of the sciatic nerve" and the doctor had recommended hospitalisation for treatment. Since the labour camp authorities did not allow Yao Yanhui to be hospitalised, he was carried back to the labour camp and was only given some simple treatment instead.

Because his leg injuries did not heal for a long period of time, Yao Yanhui submitted an application in October 2001 and requested many times to have medical treatment outside the labour camp. The labour camp authorities kept putting him off. They verbally agreed, but they simply put his application off without processing it. Then Yao Yanhui started a hunger strike on February 4, 2002, requesting the camp to process his application as soon as possible, but the labour camp authorities still ignored him. In the beginning of March 2002, Yao Yanhui appealed to the Fushun City People's Court and requested the labour camp to pass on his appeal letter, but he did not receive any answer.

In Wujiapuzi Forced Labour Camp of Fushun City, Yao Yanhui was tortured until he became paralysed in bed for about six months. He was finally released on parole when he was on the verge of death, after over two months of hunger strike.

In the beginning of June 2003, Yao Yanhui and Falun Dafa practitioner Yang Jiangwei's father and younger sister from Suizhong County went to the forced labour camp to visit the head of the camp Wang Yuanchun, trying to get Yang Jiangwei, who was still in danger, released on bail for medical treatment. At that time, Huludao Forced Labour Camp tortured Yang Jiangwei to the verge of death. Yang Jiangwei had gone through serious surgery and was still suffering from the persecution in the forced labour camp. With Wang Yuanchun's instigation, the police abducted the three of them and detained Yao Yanhui in Huludao Forced Labour Camp. Yao Yanhui went on hunger strike for two months and was finally taken back by his family when he was on the verge of death.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/4/83330.html