How Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City Persecutes Falun Gong Practitioners

1. Violently Beating Practitioners with Stools or Benches

Falun Gong practitioners were forced to squat on the floor with their hands behind their back. Prisoners and policemen then used stools or benches to beat them violently on the head and the back. If the practitioners did not obey them, they would be tortured with even more cruel methods.

Using a bench to strike Falun Gong practitioners

Falun Dafa practitioner Yang Xueqiu and Sun Qiang firmly refused to obey the unreasonable orders of the prison authorities. They were dragged to the "Education Room," which was specifically used for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. The policemen used all kinds of cruel methods to torture them. Practitioners were put in the confinement room in succession. Eight prisoners beat them viciously and then handcuffed them to chairs designed for restraining violent criminals. Some were beaten to the point where their faces were swollen and disfigured beyond recognition. Falun Gong practitioners felt that their lungs were exploding when the prisoners used the stools to violently beat their backs. They could hardly breathe, as any amount of breathing would cause even more severe pain. The suffocating pain is hard to describe. They felt the world was turning upside down, and they fell to the floor.

They were forced to squat on the floor from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight, and sometimes to 2:00 a.m. the next morning. If they moved even a little bit, they would be beaten and tortured cruelly. As a result, they suffered excruciating pain in their backs and legs, and extreme fatigue and physical and mental anguish.

2. "Pushing Back and Forth"

"Pushing Back and Forth," "Breaking Off," and "Pushing Up" are components of one the cruellest torture methods in Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. There are many actions involved in this set of tortures.

"Pushing Back and Forth"

Four prisoners press the practitioner face down on the floor and pull his arms to his back. One prisoner then sits on his body and holds his wrists, lifting his arms forward and upward with full force starting from the side of his body, straight up over his back, then his head, and finally pressing his palms on the floor. In this way, the prisoner repeatedly pushes the practitioner's arms back and forth along an angle of 180 degrees. As a result, the shoulders feel as if they were being torn off. The pain from the ripping muscle and ligaments is excruciating.

3. "Breaking Off"

"Breaking Off"

Two prisoners press the practitioner on the floor and hold his feet still. Then they move the practitioner's arms to his back and bend the lower arms against the way the joints naturally bend. The practitioner cannot breathe properly while being tortured. The arms feel extreme pain, as if they were being broken off. The photos demonstrate two ways of "breaking off."

4. "Pushing Up"

"Pushing Up"

Two prisoners press the Falun Gong practitioner on the floor. While one of the prisoners is "breaking off" the arm, the other places his foot on the practitioner's bottom, grabs the practitioner's leg and uses his shoulder to push the practitioner's leg up with his full force, causing extreme pain in the hips.

5. Pressing the Fingers with Sticks

Pressing the fingers with sticks

The guards and prisoners put hard objects (wooden sticks, metal rods, etc) between the practitioner's fingers, and then twist the fingers, press down, or heavily strike the practitioner's hand with a fist while holding the tips of the fingers tight. The fingers are injured instantly, causing extreme pain. Some Falun Gong practitioners' fingers were permanently injured by this torture. The resulting wounds penetrate to the bone and the practitioner's hands are mutilated into a mash of flesh and blood.

6. Handcuffing Practitioners to a Chair

The prisoners and policemen handcuff the practitioner to a metal chair, with their hands behind the back of the chair (here we use an ordinary chair to demonstrate). One perpetrator steps on the handcuffs and presses downward with force. In the end, the person stands on the handcuffs with their entire weight. By that time, the handcuffs become extremely tight on the wrists and the arms and the wrists become numb and lose all feeling. The wrists become swollen, turn blue, and bleed. Meanwhile, the policemen and prisoners whip the practitioner with a leather belt or beat the practitioner violently. They also pour cold water on the practitioner.

7. Body Bending and Forcing to Stand for Prolonged Periods

Two more methods of physical punishment are body-bending and forcing practitioners to stand for prolonged periods of time. In body bending, the practitioner is forced to stand with their feet apart. Their head is lowered towards the floor and the arms pulled upward from the back. Holding this posture for a long time causes extreme pain in the legs and back. Some practitioners were forced to hold this posture for as long as five hours. Dafa practitioner Yuan Qingjiang suffered this physical punishment for a very long time. In forced standing, they were forced to stand facing the wall for a long time, from early in the morning to midnight. Many practitioners suffered this physical punishment for as long as a month.

8. Shocking with Electric Batons, Burning with Cigarettes, and Using Needles to Stab the Back

Using electric batons to shock Falun Gong practitioners	Using cigarettes to burn practitioners

Using needles to stab practitioners in the back

Note: The real situation in the forced labour camp is far more brutal than what is shown in these photographs. Since the torture methods are extremely cruel, and because the safety of our volunteers is of the utmost concern, we can only demonstrate the torture to a certain extent. Many actions cannot be conducted to their full extent and cannot even be described by words, nor do we possess the actual torture tools. Finally, there is no way to demonstrate or convey the atmosphere of terror and evil in the forced labour camp.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/10/14/86592.html