Exposing Several Tortures Used in Chinese Labour Camps

I am going to describe scenes from labour camps, detention centres and brainwashing centres in China, where Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted. I personally experienced or saw these scenes with my own eyes. I hope that all kindhearted people in the world would join together to condemn these atrocities.

Torture 1: What drug addicts call the "Great Gap" (Location: The Pingantai Labour Camp in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province)

Two homemade metal handcuffs (made of reinforced steel bar and an iron lock) are put on the victim's wrists. Then, the victim's arms are lift up, parallel to the shoulders. The palms face down. The arms are twisted and pulled to the back. At this point, the palms have turned 270 degrees . The victim's arms are pulled back forcibly and unnaturally at the shoulder joints, until both arms form a 90 degree angle with the body. After that, the handcuffs on the two wrists are tied together with a shoelace.

The victim feels searing pain in the muscle and tendon of the chest when the two arms are twisted back and forcibly pulled to the back from the two sides. At that same time, the two shoulder joints seem to be broken and both arms are twisted beyond its limits. The victim feels so much pain that he or she becomes drenched in sweat. The guards still continue to insert two beer bottles under the victim's arms or pull the arms, tied together, towards the head from the lower back, to aggravate the pain. The torture lasts half an hour to an hour. When the guards see that the victim is about to lose consciousness, they unfasten the handcuffs. In the best case, the victim's arms are numb, the shoulder joints have no strength and the victim feel jolts of pain for more than one year. In the worst case, the victim's arms are disabled permanently.

Torture 2: Hanging (Location: labour camps, I saw this with my own eyes)

The victim's arms are handcuffed from the back. Then, a rope is used to hang up the victim from the handcuffs, which causes the victim's head to face down and the body to curl up. The guards do not let the victim wear shoes. The victim's toes just barely touch the ground. There are two kinds of hanging tortures: one is to hang the victim from a metal wire and the other is to hang the victim from a pole. In the latter case, two bricks are placed at the base of the pole. The bricks stand upright and the victim's toes just barely touch the edges of the two bricks. This causes excruciating pain and wears out the victim mentally, as well, as he is constant afraid of tipping over the bricks and causing more pain.

Torture 3: Burning (Location: labour camps, I saw this with my own eyes)

The guards burn practitioners' palms using heated metal rods.

Torture 4: Slamming Into the Wall (Location: labour camps)

The victim's arms are pulled to the back. Then, the guards slam the top of the victim's head against the corner of two walls. The victims feel a shooting pain in their heads and trauma to the brain.

Torture 5: Body-Folding (Location: detention centres and labour camps, I saw this with my own eyes)

The victim faces a wall and stands 20cm away from the wall. Then, the head is forced down and the body is folded in half, so that the back touches the wall. The arms are forced up so that the palms also touch the wall. Such torture causes the victim's blood to pour towards the head and aggravates the pressure on the brain. When the victim suffers such torture for a long time, he will lose consciousness. However, there is no sign of physical violence afterwards.

Torture 6: Psychotropic Drugs (Location: brainwashing centres)

The victim is injected with drugs typically used on mental patients. The drugs damage the neural system and make the victims sleep lethargically for long periods of time. The brain feels blank, the neck becomes stiff and the tongue turns numb. The victim speaks incoherently and drools uncontrollably. The fingers and shoulders twitch. One shoulder faces forward and the other shoulder backward. The victim also feels pain all over the body and suffers from amnesia.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/9/12/84019.html