Methods Used by Jilin Prison to Torture Falun Gong Practitioners (Drawings)

There are more than 120 Falun Gong practitioners detained in Jilin Prison. The people who work for the prison use inhuman methods to torture Falun Gong practitioners into giving up their belief in Falun Gong. Below are some of the facts about how they persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Encouraging criminals to carry out the persecution

As soon as a Falun Gong practitioner is detained in Jilin prison, he is sent to a zone in which there are around ten persons. Then he is sent to a sub-zone. At the sub-zone, the "educational instructor" assigns some prisoners to monitor this practitioner and "transform¹" him. Three to four prisoners work in shifts around the clock. Except when it is time to have meals, use the toilet, wash or sleep, the only thing the practitioner can do is "sit on a board." Sometimes, one is forced to do so until after 10:00 p.m. or even until midnight. Meanwhile, those prisoners who are responsible for watching him can beat and curse him at will.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wang Guiming was previously detained in Zone No. 7 in 2002, but was transferred to Siping Prison in 2004. When Mr. Wang Guiming was detained in Zone No. 7, a prisoner named Kong Qingguang (released from prison in 2004) violently beat him and broke two of his ribs.

A prisoner from Zone No. 4, Gao Guoxing, viciously persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. He squeezes practitioners' testicles with his hands and flicks practitioners' eyeballs with his fingers. He even boasts that "no one can survive the way I torture them" and teaches his experiences in other zones.

Persecution like this is found in every zone and reached its peak in 2002 and 2003. In order to encourage the prisoners to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, the prison gives each prisoner five credits whenever there is one practitioner "transformed." Those prisoners who cannot do a good job in transforming Falun Gong practitioners have their credits reduced. Because of this, the prisoners who are responsible for "transforming" Falun Gong practitioners use even more evil methods to persecute the practitioners. In addition, Jilin Prison uses a method that involves every prisoner in the persecution. The prisoners are assigned to different "mutual help groups." Every member of the group will be affected when it comes to whether the job of "transformation" is done well or not and whether credits will be added or deducted. The prison uses this method to check prisoners' work and shamelessly calls this the "chain" method. Many of the prisons in China currently use this method.

Using torture methods that are hidden from the public

In order to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, Jilin Prison conducts torture in "strict" zones, dark confined cells and remedy centres. Some of the methods of tortures include:

"Sitting On A Board"

In Jilin Prison, any practitioner who is detained in a "strict" zone, dark confined cell or remedy centre will be persecuted by the "sitting on a board" method.

When "sitting on a board," one has his two legs crossed with his hands on his knees. His neck, back and waist form a right angle with the surface of the bed board. The body is not allowed to move. The person must hold one position continuously. In order to prevent the person from moving, a crease is made at the back part of the clothes. If the crease disappears, it means the person has moved. As a result, he will be beaten, kicked, or tied to a "stretching bed." "Sitting on a board" usually starts at 5:00 a.m. and ends at 8:00 p.m. with ten minutes to use the toilet to urinate twice, thirty minutes to use the toilet to defecate twice, ten minutes to drink water twice and forty minutes is given for three meals, which altogether makes one hour and thirty minutes. This means that every day the person is forced to "sit on a board" for as long as thirteen hours.

Many people are injured from being forced to "sit on a board" for such a long time. The skin on the outer side of their ankles breaks and festers. It's common for the victims to have urine or stool in their pants. The prisoner in charge of the "strict" zone, Xu Zhigang, and six other prisoners work in three shifts every day. There are three eight-hour shifts, with two prisoners working in each. The other six prisoners are responsible for watching when the person who is forced to "sit on a board" uses the toilet, sleeps, and has his meals. They also physically assault the person.

"Stretching Bed"

There are two types of "stretching beds" in Jilin Prison: movable and immovable.

On an immovable "stretching bed" a person lies face up with his legs and arms pulled apart. At each of the corners of the bed there is a steel plate of 30 square cm (11.8 in.) and 1 cm. (0.4 in.) thick. There are many holes drilled in each plate. The person's hands and feet are placed in four shackles. Each shackle is made of two half-circles. In the bottom half, there is a long pin that is put through the holes in the plates. The long pin in the shackles allows the shackle position to be adjusted. Putting the pins in different holes adjusts the degree of "stretching."

When the police use this torture method, they first put the person's hands and feet in shackles and fasten the screws. Because the pin in the bottom half of the shackles is long, the person's body hangs in the air. The heavier a person is, the stronger the stretching will be. There is no room to loosen up. Every joint is stretched out and one feels like he's being pulled in five directions.

Figure 1	Figure 2

After twenty or thirty minutes, when the person no longer feels anything in his limbs, the torturers release him from the bed and rub his hands and the feet so that he can regain his feeling, and then put him back on the "stretching bed." Xu Zhigang, the prisoner responsible for the "strict zone" once said, "For all the years I've been working here, I've never seen anyone who can survive after being stretched three times." (For Stretching Bed, please see image one and image two)

Adjustable "Bonding Bed"

This kind of "bed" is made with a board two metres (6.6 ft.) long. At each end of the board, there is a steel plate with a row of holes to fasten the shackles for hands and feet (see Image Three). This kind of bed is most often used as a restraint. When a person is fastened to the bed, his body rests on the board directly, and the person is kept there for as long as several months. Generally the person may be let down to defecate, but they have to urinate and sleep on this device.

Figure 3

There are many practitioners who have been through this kind of persecution in "strict" zones, dark cells and remedy centres. Zhang Hongwei is one of them. He has been detained in Zone No. 10 since the beginning of 2002 and has been persecuted in the strict zone or dark cells for almost two years. He has been fastened to the "stretching bed" many times. Liang Zhenxing, who has been detained since 2002, was put on the "bed" twice in the remedy centre. He was later transferred to Siping Prison. Cao Hongyan has been detained in Zone No. 6 since the beginning of 2002. In October 2003, he was put on the "stretching bed" for more than twenty days. Wang Hongliang is being detained in Zone No. 5. In October of 2003, he was put on the "stretching bed" for more than ten days. In 2004 and 2005, he was detained in the strict zone for more than four months. Shi Wenzhuo is detained in Zone No. 1. In May 2004, he was put on the "stretching bed" for more than thirty minutes. Liu Jingxin was detained in Zone No. 1. In January 2005, he was put on the "stretching bed" for three days. He has since been released from the prison. Lei Ming, Liu Gequn and Diao Shujun, who are detained in Zone No. 7, have all been through the torture of both types of the "stretching bed."

More serious cases involve Dafa practitioners Liu Chengjun, who was detained in Zone No. 5, and Wei Xiushan, who was detained in Zone No. 7. Both of them were persecuted to death.

Use of collaborators²

Ever since Jilin Prison began to detain Falun Gong practitioners, the Education Department has continuously used all kinds of methods to persecute them.

They call brainwashing through talking "establishing a level form of communication" with Falun Gong practitioners. They talk to each Falun Gong practitioner endlessly. From 2002 to 2003, the Education Department and 610 Office³ sent someone every day to talk to Falun Gong practitioners, but they couldn't get a good "conversion" rate. So in 2004 they found some people who used to practise Falun Gong only for their personal gain but gave up after the persecution and asked them to assist in the "conversion" work. These collaborators were grouped into two groups, with four to five persons in each group.

Under the instruction of Li Yongsheng and Wang Yuanchun, these collaborators can demand to talk to Falun Gong practitioners at any time of the day, no matter if it's morning, afternoon or night. It's totally at their will. They control the length of a talk, making it however long they want and using whatever methods they like. For example, they can have practitioners put onto the "stretching bed" at any time. They assault Falun Gong practitioners both mentally and physically.

Shi Wenzhuo, who is detained in Zone No. 1, had a heart attack while he was on the stretching bed. After he had an infusion in the hospital, he was carried back to the strict zone again. Liu Gequn, who is detained in Zone No. 7, had cramps in his legs when he was on the stretching bed. He was forced to talk with the collaborators for more than three or four months.

These collaborators take a few words and sentences out of context from the Falun Gong books and distort the true meaning of those sentences. They verbally attack Dafa and curse Falun Gong practitioners. They encourage the police to send practitioners to the strict zone to be tortured with the "stretching bed." After the talk, the collaborators analyse and discuss how they will talk to Falun Gong practitioners the next day. They give the police many ideas about how to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Based on incomplete statistics, at least ten Falun Gong practitioners were tortured when they were forced to have talks with the collaborators over the past four years. This prison has been rewarded by different levels of the government as an "advanced," "model" and "highest-level" work unit. There are awards and banners all over the walls.

In a video made by the prison, they call the it "a pearl perched at the Southwest of Jilin City" and a "garden prison without high walls or electrical fences." Every summer, government officials from different levels, people from different work units and even students come to visit the prison. People are only allowed to see flowers, trees, pavilions and machines working. It's a great sight for them, but they don't know that this prison is actually a living hell where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecutes Falun Gong practitioners.

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. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

3. "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/2006/1/26/119476.html