Brutal Forced-feeding: "Saving" Lives at the Daqing Detention Centre and Labour Camp

In the detention centres and labour camps in Mainland China where Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned, force-feeding is not for saving lives, but for harming and persecuting innocent people. In the name of "saving" lives, the authorities deceive and confuse the international community and Chinese people while attempting to suppress the imprisoned practitioners through cruel torture.

In Mainland China, once a Falun Gong practitioner is arrested or illegally detained, it means he or she will be deprived of not only freedom but also all legal rights as a citizen, such as the right to appeal or the right of visits. However, Falun Gong practitioners will not yield to such injustice or give up their belief in "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance" in exchange for their freedom. Under the most vicious torture, they often choose hunger striking to protest the persecution.

When a detainee refuses food, it usually means that he or she has been wrongfully accused and severely abused. In any country that cherishes life and respects human rights, three-day hunger strikes need to be reported to the authorities, and seven-day hunger strikes are dealt with carefully. However, in China, the illegal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has never stopped. On the one hand, every practitioner who goes on hunger strike will be force-fed and further tortured by police. On the other hand, the perpetrators, from the central government to the local level, will label Falun Gong practitioners who go on a hunger strike as "committing suicide." The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled media then deceives people and claims that the force-feeding is to "save" their lives.

Using the media, the Chinese government has been fabricating lies over the past six years. Even many families of Falun Gong practitioners were deceived by the propaganda. Some only wake up to realise the truth after the exposure of cases where practitioners were "transformed¹" to the point of becoming ill, handicapped, and even mentally ill or dead.

Most of the detained Falun Gong practitioners who were illegally arrested on September 23rd, 2005, when the Daqing City 610 Office² dispatched a large group of police officers to arrest Falun Gong practitioners within the city, were subjected to forced-feeding and torture after carrying out a hunger strike. Let's see exactly how the authorities "save" Falun Gong practitioners' lives at the Daqing Detention Centre and Labour Camp.

The atrocities at the Daqing detention centre

At the Daqing Detention Centre, when someone goes on a hunger strike, the warden never asks why. No one will care or bother to ask for the first three days. On the fourth day, the warden will ask the practitioner: will you eat or not? If the answer is no, then the practitioner will be dragged out to be force-fed. No one cares to hear your appeal or request. One is subjected to force-feeding twice a day. Each time, four criminals drag the practitioner to a corner of the duty hall to place him on a specified bed. They hold down the four limbs so that the practitioner cannot move. Two doctors take turns force-feeding. A female doctor named Qi is especially vicious. While forcefully inserting the tube she harshly shouts, "Swallow! Swallow!"

They use the same force-feeding tube on several people, until the tube breaks. After it is pulled out from one practitioner, they rinse it with cold water to "sterilise" it and insert into the nose and throat of the next practitioner. The tube will be kept in a regular plastic bag and will be used the next day. The secretions, blood, gross food and stomach fluids that stick to the tube often make the participating inmates throw up and they cannot recover for several days.

Practitioners who are subjected to force-feeding experience different degrees of bleeding, ranging from nosebleeds to vomiting blood. Long-term force-feeding results in severe injury to the nose, swelling, bleeding, and pain. However, no one will care for the practitioners and they continue the force-feeding. Practitioner Tang Zengye went on a hunger strike in protest of the persecution. Consequently they force-fed Tang every day. The police and participating criminal inmates were very violent and vicious. After vomiting a large amount of blood, Tang Zengye still had to suffer through more force-feeding.

Force-feeding is a horrifying experience. At Daqing Detention Centre, the process of the first forced-feeding administered to every Falun Gong practitioner who was involved in the September 23rd arrests was videotaped. They use it as "evidence" to report to the 610 Office. Watching the practitioners' struggling, vomiting, bleeding and screaming during force-feeding, the perpetrators often mock, make fun of or even beat them up.

Practitioners once asked the participating doctor: "Don't you fear that they will die from such cruel force-feeding?" That doctor said, "If that happens, it has nothing to do with us. We can say that you died from disease." According to one source, the detention centre has a death quota every year. Since 2002, at least three practitioners have died from force-feeding at Daqing Detention Centre. Practitioners Lu Xiuyun and Wang Shuqin died in 2002 and Yang Yuhua died on May 12th, 2005. Countless practitioners suffer injury or complications as a result of force-feeding.

The crimes committed in Daqing Labour Camp

Compared to the Daqing Detention Centre, the situation is even graver at Daqing Labour Camp.

Falun Gong practitioner Li Yequan was one of the practitioners illegally arrested on September 23rd, 2005. On September 27th, he was sentenced to two years in a labour camp and was imprisoned in the 1st Division of Daqing Labour Camp. He went on a hunger strike and requested to be released. Lai Zhonghui, the instructor of the 1st Division, and policeman Wang Yingzhou incited criminals to handcuff and chain Mr. Li. He was subjected to force-feeding three times a day, sometimes lasting four hours. As a result, his throat was injured and he repeatedly lost consciousness. Inmate Wang Yingzhou, who claimed he was a reincarnated ghost from hell, together with other criminals, force-fed over one pint of white wine into Li Yequan's mouth. He also spit into his mouth. Li Yequan has been without food or water for sixty-three days. He is unable to walk and his body temperature is only 30oC (86oF). He shivers all the time. He also suffers from pneumonia and a nervous system disorder. His white blood cell count is up to 20,000.

At present, over half of the practitioners who were involved in the September 23rd arrests are still detained. Many are still on hunger strike. Such enormous effort and sacrifice is a courageous means to fight for the basic rights they have been deprived of - the right of belief and the right to live.

Note

1. "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")

2. "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/2005/11/30/115545.html