Brutal Persecution in Guangzhou's Tianhe District Detention Centre

Since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, all cells in Guangzhou City's Tianhe Detention Centre have been equipped with surveillance devices to monitor the inmates. Every day, the inmates are forced to count off, walk with military precision, and recite the rules of the detention centre. Each cell, which should only house a maximum of 16 people, now holds over 30. The sanitary conditions inside are horrible. The inmates are forced to work 13-14 hours daily. The police shackle the inmates. Practitioners held in Tianhe Detention Centre are subjected to extreme physical abuse. For instance, shackled practitioners are also chained to a fixed iron ring on the floor. Their hands are placed on the sides of their legs and handcuffed under their legs. No matter how one positions oneself, one has to lower the back at a sharp angle. This is called "Shackled Through a Needle." Many practitioners are subjected to this type of punishment for refusing to recite the rules and going on a hunger strike.

On July 19 and 20, 2002, the Tianhe District 610 Office (1) personnel used their surveillance network to arrest a group of displaced practitioners and lock them up in the Tianhe District Detention Centre.

At the detention centre, they separated all the practitioners into different cells, one in each. Ms. Chen Yanping, and was suffering from liver ascites and her abdomen was filled with fluid. She had hepatitis B before she took up the practice. She was taken away under 24-hour surveillance. All the other practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest their abductions. The head of the centre, Zhu Wenyong, led all the police officers and inmates to force-feed the practitioners. They pressed the practitioners down on a chair, with one inmate holding their feet, one their hands, another their heads. The police officer would insert a rubber tube through their nostrils into their stomach. When the tube was taken out, it was all bloody. Sometimes, they pushed the tube in and pulled it out several times to torture the practitioners. The police also coerced the practitioners into wearing the prison uniforms. Ms. Zou Lin refused to wear the uniform, because she felt she had done nothing wrong by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Zhu Wenyong, the chief of the police station, provided the Tianhe District 610 Office with a room for interrogations, so they could persecute the practitioners on an on-going basis. They even brought in Li Huajie, husband of practitioner Li Xiaoru, to torture them. Under pressure at Tuanhe Labour Camp, Li Huajie had denounced Falun Dafa. They deprived practitioners of sleep for several days and continuously tortured and interrogated them. They even brought in Li Xiaoru's two-year-old daughter to break her spirit. She gave in, wrote defaming remarks about Teacher Li, and went astray from then on.

Ms. Zou Lin was tortured by 610 Office officials. For days, she was not allowed to sleep and had to to stand up. They ordered her to sit down with double crossed legs and tied her entire body with ropes so she could not move. A 40-year-old male inmate tried to sexually harass her. She yelled at him to stop him while everybody else in the interrogation chamber pretended not to see what had happened. Ms. Zou Lin told one of the inmates that the police had put a mind-altering substance in her food and beat her, so she could not sleep for several days. Under tremendous pressure, Ms. Zou gave in and provided the information they wanted. She realized later that she had made a mistake. She now solemnly declares that whatever she said or signed under the influence of the psychedelic drugs and the intensive persecution of the local 610 office are void.

According to some sources, practitioners Ms. Xue Jun and Ms. Zeng Yanfei were sentenced to forced labour. Ms. Li Xiaoru was released soon after she agreed to work with her collaborator husband.

When the 610 Office, the head of police station, and a police officer attempted to sentence Ms. Zou Lin, she refused to sign the warrant for her arrest, wear the prison uniform, or do anything that inmates were required to do. In order to make Ms. Zou wear the prison uniform, they ordered inmates not to give her any change of clothes or toiletry items. Ms. Zou had to put her wet clothes back on after showering. When Ms. Zou went on a hunger strike to protest and demand her release, the police shackled her. After she went on a strike for two days, they force-fed her with high concentration salt water. She resisted and vomited all the water. During the time when she was on a hunger strike, almost everyday she was force-fed, which caused her nose and oesophagus to bleed. Every week, the police dragged her to the Guangdong Postal Hospital on Zhonshan Avenue. She wore iron shackles and was tied to the bed. Her hands were tied to the head of the bed so she could be force-fed and have intravenous injections. All the milk powder for her intravenous injections was paid for by the inmates, which caused great resentment towards her. Ms. Zou Lin's hunger strike lasted for two months, and she was shackled everyday to prevent her from moving.

Ms. Zou Lin persisted in doing the exercises inside her cell every day, both morning and evening, to protest the treatment and demand her unconditional release. Police officer Zheng Fenghua shackled her, fixed her shackles on the floor, and then ordered inmates to torture Ms. Zou in B102. Several inmates submerged her head in a bucket full of water. Inmate He Guiqin used her toenail to scratch a six-centimetre mark on Ms. Zou's right cheek. Inmate Ming Lili pulled Zou Lin's hair until she had pulled out a fistful. To make Ms. Zou wear the prison uniform, police officer Zheng Fenghua authorized the inmates to take off her clothes while she was shackled to the floor ring and force the uniform onto her. Ms. Zou Lin took it off, but her clothes had been taken away. She had to sleep naked on the cement floor. In the end, they had to return her clothes to her.

Ms. Zou explained to the inmates and guards the truth of Falun Dafa and suggested that heavenly principles of good bringing rewards and wrongdoings bringing retribution. But they refused to listen and continued to torture the practitioners. Zheng Fenghua even organized inmates to read defamatory articles to Ms. Zou from morning to night.

Due to this brutal treatment, Ms. Zou Lin became very frail. Doctors from the Guangdong Postal Hospital could not even do a blood test, because they could not draw any blood from her. It was also difficult for them to give her intravenous injections. When Ms. Zou was taken to the Justice Department's Guandong Police Hospital, she was injected with an unknown substance every day, which made her foam around her mouth. She often felt dizzy and lost consciousness. When the authorities felt that Ms. Zou was dying, they conspired with the Tianhe District Court, went to the hospital, and gave her a sentence of four years in prison. Ms. Zou Lin appealed and went on a hunger strike for three and a half months. In the end, they had to release her unconditionally.

Note:

(1) "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/6/27/104973.html