The Brutal Torture I Experienced in 2002 at The Haidian District Detention Centre

After exposure of the Communist Party’s crimes of stealing living Falun Gong practitioners’ organs in concentration camps, leaflets exposing the persecution were distributed everywhere. The building where I lived also received those materials, delivered by fellow practitioners. However, some people didn’t bother to read the leaflets. An older lady in the building even said some bad words about Dafa. This incident encouraged me to write about my experiences in order to deter people from believing the party’s lies.

Not long after I began practising Falun Gong, all my diseases disappeared. Therefore I am grateful to Dafa from the bottom of my heart. On September 18th, 2002, I decided to board the train for Beijing. I planned to go to Tiananmen Square to tell people that Falun Dafa is good. I made a banner over one metre (approx. 3 feet) long with characters saying, "Falun Dafa is Good." At Tiananmen Square, I faced the passers-by and quickly took out the banner. I held the banner high and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good! Zhen Shan Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance) is good!"

There were many policemen, both plainclothes and uniformed, at Tiananmen Square. I was arrested and transferred later from the Tiananmen Police Station to the Haidian Detention Centre, where the adjacent building was the 610 Office¹ (also known as the National Security Office). The policemen at the Haidian Detention Centre would not listen to the truth told by Falun Gong practitioners. They used about ten different methods to torture the other practitioners and me.

Those thugs took me to the No. 4 interrogation room that belonged to the 610 Office, and bound me to the interrogation chair. The 610 Office officials pointed to my banner and slandered Falun Gong with various filthy words. Because I refused to cooperate with them, they used an electric baton to shock me on my face, head, mouth, neck, armpits, chest, and back. With the sizzling sound and sparks from the baton, my skin was burned to the point that it turned black, and the room was filled with the smell of grilled meat. With the evil perpetrators grinning at me, I was shocked in this manner twice, with each session lasting over one hour.

The Haidian District Detention Centre also brutally beat Falun Gong practitioners. My face was beaten until it was distorted beyond recognition, with wounds covering my entire face. Anyone who saw my face at that time would have been horrified. My chest was also beaten so badly that I had difficulty breathing and could not stop coughing. Coughing caused me to double over in severe pain.

To further torture Falun Gong practitioners, the Haidian District Detention Centre created a device that had a sharp side pointing up regardless how it was placed on the ground. The sharp edge was about 4 centimetres (less than 0.39 inches) high. When I was forced to sit on this torture stool, the sharp edges cut into my flesh and hurt severely. This torture usually lasted 4 to 5 hours. The detention centre officials soaked our quilts in liquid medicine and forced the practitioners to sleep with the stinking wet quilts. When the practitioners could no longer sleep with the foul-smelling wet quilts, the evil officials instigated the criminal inmates to force us to lie down in them. In this kind of environment, sleep was scarce and one who experienced this kind of torture for one day felt like it was a year.

There were also other torture methods such as forced squatting, forced standing, forced feeding, spinning practitioners around, pushing and shoving, brutal shaking, forced drug feeding, and other types of methods that I had never imagined. After I was transferred to a local detention centre, the director of the political security department got furious at me and other practitioners and shouted, "Which one of you Falun Gong practitioners have I not beaten yet? My leather boots have had the soles replaced many times."

To protest against the torture and persecution, I went on hunger strike several times, with the longest one lasting 28 days. A prison doctor cursed at me loudly and ordered the inmates to use pliers and a big bottle opener to pry my mouth open for force-feeding. I did not know what substances they force-fed me with, but my abdomen felt quite full and I had difficulty relieving myself afterwards.

The party’s torture caused my skin to peel off, with each layer shedding off like ashes. Every time I undressed, a lot of dead skin fell to the ground and skin pieces were scattered all over the room.

The unknown drugs they force-fed me included yellow, white and some colourless substances. Those drugs were known to destroy peoples' nervous systems and render people disabled or paralysed.

In the Haidian Detention Centre, the perpetrators held a cup of liquid drug and ordered me to drink it. I tried to resist, but seven to eight perpetrators jumped on me and forced the drug into my mouth. They used an iron instrument to force my mouth open (they put tape on my eyes so I could not see.) During that night, I thought that those perpetrators should not kill me. I should let people know what happened to me. I then shouted, "Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance are good!" Hearing me, the perpetrators quickly grabbed a cloth to cover my mouth. They then inserted a dirty wet towel into my mouth. I used all my force to break free, and shouted again, "Falun Dafa is good!"

After nearly an hour, the practitioners detained in the next cell heard me. They joined in and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" Someone hit the iron bars to support me. Due to this, the persecutors restrained their brutal torture, however they kept putting poisonous drugs into my food and water. Even later when I was transferred to another detention centre, I was also treated in the same way. I did not know how much poison I had consumed, but I clearly understood that it was our compassionate Teacher who saved me from being destroyed by the drugs.

During the freezing winter when I was detained at the local detention centre, the persecutors attempted to strip me and subject me to the "bathing with cold water" torture. I was so exhausted at that time due to the persecution that my weight plummeted to sixty to seventy Jin (on Jin is 0.9 lb.), half of my normal weight.

In addition to using drugs to torture me, the perpetrators also burned mosquito-repellent incense and cigars in order to boost the drug’s effect. I was forced to sleep with the smoke from burning incense and cigars. The perpetrators kept blowing cigar smoke in my face. After being tortured this way for some time, I could hardly talk and my memory was getting blurred. I gradually lost memory of my close relatives, and even totally forgot what they looked like.

Yet there was one thing that firmly remained in my mind: I must cultivate and not disappoint our Teacher. I would not miss this precious opportunity that only happens once in millions of years.

In order to find out my identity, the Haidian District Detention Centre intensified the persecution on me. [Note: Due to the Communist Party's policy of implicating and persecuting family members, friends, and work units, Dafa practitioners often refuse to give their names when they are illegally arrested.] At the time when I first came to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, all my belongings, including my clothes and daily necessities, were transferred from different places. Because I could speak Mandarin even though it was not very standard, the perpetrators could not determine where I came from, so they brutally tortured me.

My health, physical and mental, deteriorated daily. I wanted to talk with the practitioners but it was impossible until one day another practitioner was temporarily put into my cell. His eyes were lightly closed. The persecutors walked in and out in front of him, but he never spoke. When he finally noticed that I had been brutally tortured, his face showed compassion. After a couple of hours, the persecutors took him out of the cell but where they took him, I had no idea. When he walked by me, he stopped and talked to me in a soft voice, "Don’t speak." The perpetrators were especially brutal in treating those steadfast practitioners. Several days ago, due to my refusal to tell my name and where I came from, I heard a persecutor say in a low voice, "If he refuses to tell, no one will care about him even if he dies. It is a good thing."

They continued to force-feed me with drugs and I continued shouting words in support of Falun Gong. However, due to other practitioners’ protests, the persecutors eventually restrained their criminal actions. At this point I realised that there were many practitioners who were detained there like myself.

Daily, the persecution persisted and the drugs continued to seep into my body. I had a thought, that if I died, I should let my family know. With such thought, I gave the perpetrators my address. Several days later, police from my local area came to the Haidian District Detention Centre and took me back to my area. At this point, my face was disfigured from the tortures.

I walked out of the detention centre gate. Seeing the pedestrians on the street, I shouted loudly, "Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance are good!" I also told people my name and that I was innocent of any crime, and I told them of my experiences of being tortured. Upon hearing me, the Haidian police immediately followed me and stopped the taxi I was in. They then fiercely slapped my face until blood covered my face and I almost fainted.

I was brought onto the train. The window was firmly shut and my hands were cuffed. Then I saw a woman in her 40s walk by. I pressed my hands towards her. Later that woman, who was a reporter, and a policeman also boarded the train.

After a while, I heard someone at the other end of the compartment asking, "Did anyone see this person who had blood all over his face?" Unfortunately, when the reporter approached me, I was taken away by the police. I did not have a chance to speak at all. I will always remember that woman and all the people who tried to help me.

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/2006/5/12/127497.html