An Account of the Inhuman Torture I Suffered at the Hands of Police in Dalian City

On January 26th 2003, while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution, I was arrested by four policemen. At the police station, the policemen forced me to sit on the Tiger Bench (1) for one day and one night and tried to force me to tell them where the leaflets came from, and where and how I contacted other practitioners. I told the policemen that the Falun Dafa materials are used to tell people facts about Dafa. I said to them: "I believe in the principles of 'Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.' The first principle is truthfulness. I can't lie to you. I did get the materials from other practitioners. But I won't tell you who they are or where they live even if I die." The policemen said: "You can't die. We'll send you to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp for three years of forced labour."

I was detained at the detention centre for fifty days. During this period, the head of the detention centre often talked with me and asked me whether I would practise Falun Gong at the detention centre. I told him that I would. I practised the Falun Gong exercises for forty days. Later, the policemen put me in the solitary confinement room. They put handcuffs on my hands and shackles on my feet. Ten days later, they sent me to the Dalian City Forced Labour Camp.

At the labour camp, they first put me in the brainwashing centre for 17 days. While I was there, I refused to give in no matter how badly they tortured me. I told the policemen there: "Falun Dafa is righteous. I will always believe in Dafa and will never give it up." They then decided to take me out the brainwashing classes and forced me to work for them for six and a half months in the labour camp.

At this point, I worked with two other practitioners and we wrote an appeal letter together. In the appeal letter, we stated that over 100 million people in China and people in over 60 countries practise Falun Dafa. Dafa can help people improve their morality and health, and is beneficial to individuals and society alike. Yet the Chinese government, led by Jiang Zemin, banned Falun Dafa. Telling people the facts about Dafa is not illegal. In fact, it is saving people from the vicious lies fabricated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). We requested that the government allow us to practise Falun Gong openly and to stop the forced labour and the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

After we gave the authorities the appeal letter, they were quite upset. Over a dozen police heads came and talked with me, and I tried to reason with them. On October 27th 2003, they put me in the solitary confinement room again. They handcuffed me to two metal beds until December 20th. Since I still refused to give in, they raised the handcuffs and hung me up by my wrists, with my feet barely touching the ground for four days and four nights. Later, a policeman with the last name of Song saw that my legs were swollen from the feet all the way to the hip and that I could not stand any more. They then gave me a folding stool to sit on. My feet were shackled to the stool and my hands were still cuffed to the metal beds. I was shackled and handcuffed for 23 days, and I was not allowed to sleep during this period.

On February 10th 2004, the policemen tried to force me to turn against Dafa. They didn't give me water to drink and only gave me a little food to eat. I was only allowed to use the restroom once a day and not allowed to sleep. If I fell asleep, they would beat me. Since I was exhausted, sometimes even the beating couldn't wake me up. They would then burn me. They lit nylon ropes and allowed the flaming plastic to drip on my arms. My hands and arms were covered with blisters due to the burning, and many scars were left after the blisters were gone. During the daytime, they ordered eight people to beat me. They asked me whether I would continue to practise Falun Gong. I would say yes, and they would slap my face with the sole of a shoe. This went on and on. They sometimes got tired from beating me and sat on the bed, panting. The skin on my face was broken and my flesh was torn. Later my face turned blackish purple. Every inch of my body had been struck at some point.

When the police beat me, I thought to myself, practising Falun Gong is the right thing to do. I will always listen to Teacher Li and continue to practise. I will never give in to the relentless persecution. They beat me for 28 days. I told them not to treat practitioners so cruelly, as they would receive retribution for their actions. They put me in the solitary confinement room and shackled me to a folding stool. Two policemen used wooden boards to hit my legs. While hitting me, they asked me whether I was a human or a ghost. I told them I was a Dafa practitioner. After repeated beatings, my legs turned black and blue and didn't recover even after more than a month.

For a long time, they didn't give me any water to drink. They poured dirty water on the ground and stepped in the water. They then forced me to lick the soles of their shoes. They threw most of the steamed bread into the rubbish and only left me with a small piece to eat. I had severe constipation and had only one bowel movement in 12 days. A policeman with the family name of Jiang said, "Falun Gong practitioners don't drink? Force-feed him with some alcohol, then. If he doesn't 'transform', (2) use electric batons to shock him. Let's see whether his mouth is harder than the electric baton." For four days, they force-fed me with alcohol. I was forced to squat down. I was not allowed to rest my bottom on the ground. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., I squatted for 12 hours. Whenever my buttocks touched the ground, they shocked me with 15,000-volt electric batons. The next day I was forced to squat for 9 hours. During this time they asked me to write the three statements (3). I told the policemen that even if they beat me to death, I would not write the "three statements." I am so fortunate to practise Falun Dafa, and I'm not afraid of death.

When the policemen saw that I was not afraid of death, and that they could never "transform" me, they gave up.

On January 26th 2005, I finally went back home.

Note:

(1) "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

(2) "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

(3) "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/8/23/109009.html