Graphic Illustrations of Torture Methods Used at the Zhangshi Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City (Photos)

The Falun Gong practitioners held at Zhangshi Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City are mostly male. Over the past few years, the guards have ordered inmates to torture Falun Gong practitioners. Below are pictures and illustrations of several tortures used at the labour camp.

1. Tying up the legs

In late December 2002 Cheng Diankun, the labour camp warden and the main perpetrator in charge, along with a guard and four or five inmates, tied up the legs of 28-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Liu Xianyong in a kneeling position. They tied his hands together and then tied the other end of the rope to a bedpost. They pulled on the rope until it could no longer stretch, gagged him and taped his mouth shut. They tortured him this way for three hours, four or five times daily, for several days. Liu Xianyong was a thin person and often had a stomachache. Because he was also forced to do manual labour such as making comb boxes and making combs with rubber heads for over four months in the labour camp, he was very weak. The ropes cut off the circulation in his hands, and he also had severe leg cramps. Later, his legs became swollen and numb, and he needed help going to the toilet.

The perpetrators also tortured women practitioners this way. Over half of the ten rooms on the third floor were used to hold brainwashing sessions. People often heard beatings and verbal abuse as well as screaming coming from those rooms.

2. Hanging up and electric shock

The perpetrators at the labour camp force visiting family members of practitioners to step on the picture of Falun Gong's founder. In late December 2003, Song Baishun, an instructor at the labour camp, sent practitioners who refused to follow this order to different divisions to be "strictly controlled." Later he sent the practitioners to brainwashing classes in a small building. Song Baishun and division head Chen Wei led guards to strip off practitioners' coats and shock their sensitive body parts such their mouths or armpits. Then they hung the practitioners up with their hands cuffed, tied their legs with a rope, and deprived them of sleep. Inmates took turns monitoring the practitioners. The guards shocked practitioner Guo Dianhui's mouth until his mouth and cheeks were blistered and he could not eat. They shocked Cai Wenzhang's armpits and ordered inmates to tie up and beat Jiao Guolian until he had difficulty walking.

3. Wearing a tall hat

The perpetrators would make a paper hat and put it on the practitioner's head. They would hang two pieces of fruit from the sides of the practitioners' head and then comb the practitioner's eyebrows to humiliate him. They also would fold a paper bullhorn and scream Dafa-slandering words through it into the practitioner's ears. Some determined practitioners were on the verge of a nervous breakdown from lack of sleep and this abuse. In early 2001, practitioner Liu Jianguang from the Dadong District was tormented this way.

4. Beating with wooden bed boards

In August 2001, guard Shi Fengyou headed up a "collaborator group" from the Zhangshi Forced Labour Camp and the Longshan Forced Labour Camp. Collaborators are former Falun Dafa practitioners who have turned against Dafa. They went to the Tiexi District Mental Hospital to brainwash those practitioners illegally held there. Shi Fengyou ordered perhaps ten collaborators to harass practitioner Mr. Hu Lin, a 32-year-old researcher at China Aviation Shenyang's Aircraft Design & Research Institute. Because Hu Lin refused to give up his belief, Shi Fengyou forced him to squat and whacked his back with three wooden boards put together until the boards broke.

5. Stabbing the soles of the feet and shocking with an electric baton

Around 8:00 p.m. one day in early December 2001, instructor Song Baishu and four inmates took practitioner Zhang Guoyi, who hadn't eaten anything for four days, to Room 7. This is a large, unheated room, around 200 or 300 sq meters, with windows on three sides. It's usually used for storage and is nicknamed the "natural refrigerator." Song Baishun ordered the inmates to immobilize Zhang Guoyi on a ping-pong table. Two inmates violently stabbed the soles of Zhang Guoyi's feet with the sharpened end of a toothbrush. Then another inmate, Dong, broke the toothbrush and jabbed the sole of Zhang Guoyi's feet with the broken, sharp end until his feet bled. After forty or fifty minutes of torture, Song Baishun ordered the inmates to immobilize Zhang Guoyi again and shocked his mouth with an electric baton for nearly ten minutes.

6. Squatting above drawing pins

One evening in February 2002, practitioners Zhang Guoyi and Yan Hongwei were taken to Room 5, where they were forbidden to sleep. Four or five perpetrators forced Zhang Guoyi to squat on a brick. If he moved, the inmates would kick his back with the heels of their boots. One inmate placed pushpins on the ground below Zhang Guoyi's buttocks and also in front of him. If he fell backwards or forwards, the pushpins would jab into him. He was forced to squat all night in the same posture until he lost the feeling in his legs and his feet were so swollen he could not wear shoes.

7. Shocking with several electric batons

Around midnight on August 3, 2002, Song Baishun called Zhang Guoyi to the office. In the middle of the room was a quilt with four or five inmates standing around it. Three fully charged electric batons were on the table and three more were hanging on the wall. Song Baishun asked what Zhang Guoyi thought, and Zhang Guoyi said, "It's not wrong to be a good person according to Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." Song Baishun immediately ordered the inmates to strip off all of Zhang Guoyi's heavy clothing. They immobilized him on the quilt and cuffed his hands behind his back. Song Baishun and division head Chen Wei each sat on a chair and repeatedly shocked Zhang Guoyi's mouth, armpits, stomach and arms with two electric batons. Song Baishun kept hurling insults. Zhang Guoyi felt his chest tightening up, as if his heart was about to burst out of his chest. His body jerked violently and the handcuffs cut into his wrists. When the two batons ran out of electricity, they started again with two other batons.

Another division head, Wei Maojin, who is in his 30s, shouted, "If he still doesn't give in, let's shock him in his anus!" Division head Pan Jinwei, in his 40s, was also present. This torture lasted nearly three hours, and Zhang Guoyi's mouth was so swollen he could hardly speak. Blisters the size of eggs appeared in his armpits and on stomach and arms. There was hardly any skin left intact on his upper body. His wrists were swollen and black and blue. The inmates said, "You Falun Gong practitioners are all good people! Why are the division heads so hard on you?"

8. Sitting on small stools

A small stool is 20 cm long, 25 cm wide, and 17 cm tall. On the stool is a corn flour bun to provide a context for how small the stool is.

The picture shows the small stool often used to torture Falun Gong practitioners at the Zhangshi Labour Camp, the Longshan Labour Camp and the Masanjia Labour Camp. The stool is made of hard plastic. The practitioners are forced to sit on it until their buttocks turn black and blue and sometimes even develop boils.

9. Eating small, corn flour buns

On the stool pictured above is the steamed bun given as food to practitioners at the Zhangshi Labour Camp and also at the Xinshou Division of Shenyang City's Judicial Bureau. The buns are made of corn flour and other ingredients. In the Xinshou Division, the authorities tell the guards not to give the practitioners enough food. Male practitioners are given one bun and two spoonfuls of vegetable soup at each meal. Any remaining food is flushed down the toilet. The practitioners are forced to do slave labour, including manual labour. If they don't meet the quota, they are given only half a bun or nothing at all. As a result, the practitioners suffer from constipation and they can't have a bowel movement for weeks or even a month at a time. The time and frequency they are allowed to use the toilet is limited, and if they exceed the time limit, the guards will beat and punish them by forcing them to squat with their buttocks pointing up.

Other torture methods used at the Zhangshi Forced Labour Camp can be found at:

http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/30/82915.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/12/52361.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/9/16/84310.html