Elderly Women Hung up Outside Overnight in Subzero Beijing Weather

I'm an elderly woman who practises Falun Dafa. Like other practitioners, I once went to Tiananmen Square and cried out my most heartfelt message, "Falun Dafa is good." As soon as I unfolded a banner, the policemen came over to grab me. They knocked me to the ground and dragged me to a police car. They stepped on my head and neck, twisted my hands, and dragged me along the ground with my face and nose pressed against the ground; my face turned blue and I could hardly breathe. When I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good," they'd hit me on the head with an electric baton. My head was swollen in many places, which made it difficult for me to sleep.

Afterward, they dragged me into an iron-barred cell full of detained Falun Dafa practitioners, including young practitioners, practitioners in their eighties and a baby who was not even a year old. Together we shouted from the cell, "Falun Dafa is good." The policemen aggressively hit people with electric batons. Some people's faces were all bloody, including my own.

I was later sent to the Huairou District Detention Centre. They dragged all the practitioners out and had drug addict inmates torture us. They ordered us to remove all our clothes, bend over and submit to the "flying an airplane" torture (1) while we stood on the icy ground with our bare feet. It was during the bitter, cold winter, and ice and snow covered the ground. The temperature in Beijing was -20 degrees Celsius: the ground was covered with a thick layer of ice and the snowflakes fell on our heads. We had not had anything to eat or drink for several days, yet they tortured us continually for more than two hours. If our pose was even a little bit off, the policewomen would violently whip us with leather belts. My body was left with several bruises that took several months to fade.

A policeman stomped on an elderly practitioner in his seventies. A young lady was having her period, yet she was forced to stand on the icy ground. The menstrual blood flowed down along her pants, and her whole body was shivering. After returning to our cell, one after another, we were knocked down and shocked with electric batons. Then we were subjected to force-feeding. Several policewomen threw us on the ground and inserted a thick rubber tube through the mouth to the stomach. Any careless movement could puncture the oesophagus and cause bleeding. Three to five policewomen pressed me down by force with a hard pad against my back. They twisted my arms, legs and neck and aggressively inserted the tube into my mouth. They pried my mouth open to force the tube down, which damaged my teeth. I had injuries and bruises all over my body. They still did not quit and gave me an IV. They did not inject much, yet my blood spilled all over the floor. Then they again shocked me with an electric baton, which still did not work. They pressed my body firmly against a wall, and as I was completely immobilized, a policewoman violently kicked my lower abdomen. She kicked me several times in a row. I was in so much pain that I could not even stand up straight. That night I found blood in my faeces and this lasted for four or five days. Six months later, the deep impression of the hard leather boots was still visible in my lower abdomen. They deprived us of sleep. One after another, they took turns to interrogate us nonstop. I went on a no food or water hunger strike, and as they were afraid that I would die, they released me after 8 days.

In 2001, in order to seek justice for Falun Gong, I again went to Tiananmen Square. At that time, I saw the great and splendid scene of a huge, 100-meter-long banner unfolded in Tiananmen Square. Falun Dafa practitioners had arranged it very cleverly, some practitioners distributed flyers and others held small flags. The policemen saw the flyers and the small flags and went after those practitioners; meanwhile, the huge, 100-meter-long banner was unfolded, and it remained unfurled in Tiananmen Square for a good 60 seconds. At the same time, the sound of "Falun Dafa is good" and "Restore Teacher Li's reputation" could be heard throughout the Square. The sounds were so loud that it reached the sky. The huge banners and the small flags flapped together in the air. It displayed an extremely magnificent and grand scene of Fa-validation.

The policemen were busy catching and beating people, and grabbing flags. I also took the opportunity to unfold a banner and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Restore my Teacher's reputation." After a while, a police car came over. They dragged me into the car. Then, they put me in an iron cage, which was full of practitioners. The walls and the top of the cage were filled with banners that read, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Restore Teacher's reputation," and so on. Together practitioners recited Teacher's articles and cried out "Falun Dafa is good."

Seeing that there were too many people, the policemen dispatched us to different local detention centres. I was sent to the Fangshan District Detention Centre. More than ten policemen interrogated us at the same time. After one group was exhausted, another group of police would take over. We refused to tell them our addresses and names. After interrogating us for a day and night to no avail, they hung us from a tree, with our two hands circling around the tree trunk and our two palms pressing against each other. They poured water on the tree roots. The temperature was -20ħ C outside, so the water immediately turned into ice and formed many small, slippery ice patches. We stood on the roots of the trees, and our hands would be tied even more tightly if we stumbled to the ground.

The winter night in Beijing was especially cold. Together we shouted, "Falun Dafa is good" as we were hung up on the tree. The policemen stayed indoors by the furnace, yet they still felt cold. We were hung up outside in the cold for the whole night. The second day they took us to a room, and in a team of two, they locked one of our hands together to the arm of a wooden sofa. We could not move or stand, nor could we sit with our back straight. If one person moved, the other person's handcuffs would become tighter. They tortured us like this for five days. Our hands were swollen and could not move freely. Moreover, we did not eat or sleep, so everyone looked ashen and pale. We asked to use the toilet, but they refused. Afterwards, they took us back to our cells to undergo force-feeding. The thick rubber tube was violently forced down through the mouth to the stomach. I felt extremely nauseous. After the force-feeding they took our blood pressure and pulse. They were perhaps worried that something serious might happen, so they released practitioners who were over 55 years old.

They claimed that they were releasing us, but actually what they did was to transfer us to another place. They sent us as a group to a remote area in Xi'an City. After our train left the Beijing Train Station, a fellow practitioner and I used our wisdom to escape police custody and after we got off at Baoding, we regained our freedom.

Note:

(1) Flying (an Airplane) Torture: This is one of the common tortures used in labour camps and brainwashing classes on Falun Dafa practitioners who refuse to give up their belief. It is called "Flying," or "Jet Plane." In this torture, the head is bent down until it cannot go down any further, while the hands are pulled up and held up at the highest point against the wall.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/11/29/90297.html