The Cruel Torture of Falun Gong Practitioners in Botou City Detention Centre

Meng Qingzhong, the director of the Botou Detention Centre, Hebei Province, cruelly persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. In the freezing winter they hung practitioners by their arms outside, beat them and shocked them with electric batons; they bound a 16-year-old girl onto an iron bed to torture her, and guards stuffed foeces into the mouths of practitioners who were on hunger strikes.

In January 2001, after a heavy snowstorm, the head of the Botou Detention Centre, Meng Qingzhong forced six female practitioners including Sui Ruimin, Jia Yanhong, Yang Rongli, Meng Xiangqin (one of them a 16-year-old girl) outside. They stripped off their coats and shoes, leaving them with only thin clothing on. Then on that freezing day, the guards bound Yang Rongli, Meng Xiangqin and another practitioner to a concrete column. The guards hung up Sun Ruimin by her arms, and beat Jia Yanhong and then hung her up.

Meng Qingzhong used a high-voltage electric baton to shock Jia Yanhong, first on her head then her face. Because Jia Yanhong was hanging by her arms, she was shocked so that her feet swung from side to side. Meng Qingzhong then pulled her pants off and shocked her around her navel. Jia Yanhong's face was misshapen and swollen for several months. Then Meng shocked Sun Ruimin around her mouth, her ears and her abdominal area until the flesh was burned.

Because Sun Ruimin was tied up outside under an overhang, water from the thawing snow dripped onto her body, drenching her clothes. Then the water froze again, causing her socks to freeze to the ground.

Meng Qingzhong bound the 16-year-old girl to a big steel bed. This steel bed was a piece of steel sheet with holes and sharp steel angels; snow still remained on the bed. The guards bound the hands of the girl to the two bedposts, then stretched her body to the maximum limit and bound her feet to the other bedposts. Meng Qingzhong then took four high-voltage electric batons to shock this girl. From her feet to her legs, abdomen, neck and face, until all the electricity was used up. The girl's flesh was burned, swollen and misshapen. Her feet were injured to the extent that she had great difficulty walking for a long time afterwards.

The guards kept the practitioners frozen outside for a whole day. The girl was bound on the steel bed for a whole day. When police released the girl, the snow under her body had thawed from her body heat and then became ice again and stuck her clothes to the bed. For the whole day the guards did not give the practitioners any food and did not even let them use the toilet. They thus had to soil themselves.

At night the guards sent six of them and another six practitioners including Gao Zhiying, Liu Zhiling and Guo Fengge to a small cell in the south yard. Meng Qingzhong ordered other guards to take down the plastic that was covering the window (there was no glass in the window frames), to let in the cold outside air. On the bare bed frame there were only a few grass mats and there was nothing else for warmth. The cold wind blew in. Practitioners set up a grass mat to block the cold wind, however they were scolded by criminal inmate He Laosi.

He Laosi was a hoodlum off the street who has since committed suicide. Meng Qingzhong let He Laosi be the head of the cell, and he frequently extorted money from the other inmates and persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.

In the Botou Detention Centre, detainees were fed corn meal that contained mouse dropping and was only half cooked. Breakfast and dinner consisted of corn meal and a radish. Lunch was a soup made of boiled cabbage. The guards detained 12 practitioners in a small cell and did not give them any water. They could not wash their faces or brush their teeth, they could only use the lunchtime soup to wash their hands. The plastic bowls could not be washed either, and they would freeze together in the winter and could not be separated.

During this time, police forced the practitioners to sweep the snow. They wore only thin clothing, with no shoes - only socks. The 16-year-old girl was also forced to sweep the snow, even though her feet were still injured. After that they had to push the snow to a wheat field. When they came back their feet were swollen.

During the coldest part of the winter, the 12 practitioners were detained in that small, windy and cold room for nine consecutive days.

In 2001 a practitioner named Fu Qimou (an employee of the food bank) was brought to the Botou Detention Centre. A few days later, staff of the State Security Team took a detention certificate and told him to sign it. He refused to sign, saying that the behaviour of the security team and the detention centre was illegal. While detained at the detention centre, he went on a hunger strike three or four times to protest the unfair treatment, demanding that he be released unconditionally. Every time he went on a hunger strike, Meng Qingzhong bound Mr. Fu to a steel bed, like they did to the 16-year-old girl. Fu Qimou lay there, unable to move. The guards would pry open his mouth and force-feed him. They did not release him even to go to the bathroom.

In the detention centre, the inmates ate, slept and relieved themselves all in the same room. Their feces was quickly put in a cesspit. Once, Meng Qingzhong ordered the criminal inmates to open the cover of the cesspool and stuff feces into Fu Qimou's mouth. They fed him dozens of bowls of feces. They finally stopped when a criminal inmate became so disgusted that he vomited.

Fu Qimou was bound like this for nine days and nights. Once in the summertime, he was left in the sun to bake for a few days. A kindhearted guard saw that Mr. Fu had been on a hunger strike for a few days, and worried that his life was in danger. He carried him to a cool place. After he was persecuted for six months at the Botou Detention Centre, Fu Qimou was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp.

In 2002, Dafa practitioner Xia Zhongjie was force-fed for six months. During that time, Meng Qingzhong and Chang Xinli forced salty water and urine into him which made him lose consciousness many times. Later, because his life was in danger, the authorities had to release him.

There was a female practitioner who went on a hunger strike for many days, demanding to be released instantly. As a result, she was force-fed. Her limbs were bound to the steel bed and a rubber tube half a meter long was inserted into her oesophagus through her nose. When they inserted the tube, the practitioner's painful cries made one tremble.

Related phone numbers:
Botou Police Department: 86-317-8186431, 86-317-8186433, 86-317-8181198
Wang Haitao: 86-317-8184728 (Home)
Sun Feng
The head of the State Security Team, Zhao Dongsheng: 86-317-8191068 (Home)
Huang Chunzhu: 86-317-8227027 (Home)
Zong Hongfeng: 86-317-8295630 (Home)

Detention Centre: 86-3178222676
Meng Qingzhong
Shang Tielin: 86-317-8263794 (Home)
Chang Xinli: 86-317-8290795 (Home)