The Torture I Suffered in Baishan City Detention Centre

I am a Falun Gong practitioner in Baishan City, Jilin Province. At 3 p.m. on February 4th, 2002, I was arrested by police when I was hanging banners about the facts of Falun Gong with fellow practitioners.

The supervisor of the police station (name unknown) and policemen searched my body and took the 200 yuan¹ I had, as well as my eyeglasses and my new belt. They also beat me and tied me to a tiger bench². I used silence to protest the threats and persecution towards me. The director got extremely mad and ferocious. He ruthlessly pinched my genitals.

Another assistant director of the police department came after that. Since, for a long time, he was unable to catch any Falun Gong practitioners hanging banners, he was extremely angry and attacked me right away. He punched my head fiercely and kicked my chest badly until I was dizzy and faint. He then hit me one more time and left.

The next morning I was sent to the criminal police unit in Badaojiang District. I was hanging there for four days and three nights. My hands were bruised purple and black and my wrist was injured. They did not provide me any food or drink and they tried to extort evidence from me every day. Afterwards, I was sent to the Baishan City Detention Centre.

In the detention centre, two fellow practitioners and I firmly refused to cooperate with the authorities unjust requests. We used hunger strikes to protest the persecution. We also requested the police station to return our personal belongings and the cash they took from us.

The third morning, I was cuffed with heavy shackles and was tied to the death bed. In the afternoon, two other practitioners also suffered the same torture. In the evening, supervisor Piao and staff member Zhang, who was on duty, came to the small cell and commanded seven or eight criminals to pry open up my mouth, and brutally forced feed me in turn. During the forced feeding, my rib was badly bruised.

After three days, they cuffed me with heavy shackles and tied me to the death bed again. They used a plastic bottle with the bottom cut out to brutally forced feed me. The chief of the Prison Political Section said, "This time you have to hold your head." The on-duty group leader and a few criminals jumped onto the death bed. Group leader Wang used his leather boots to crush my hand ruthlessly. My wrist was locked by chains and my palm was extremely painful. The other criminals pressed, rubbed, pinched and beat me and used all kinds of punishments to torture me brutally. The chief of the Prison Political Section threatened, "The Falun Gong practitioners who hunger strike here can never survive (the force feeding) for more than two days."

They tortured me on the death bed³ for five days. My body was seriously weakened and I was hard to recognise. I carried very heavy shackles and it was very hard to walk. My ankle was bleeding. Due to my extreme weakness, they did not dare to force feed me on the death bead anymore. Instead, they moved me to the duty room on the second floor to force-feed me. When they started to force-feed me, the criminals came up all together. They consider torture and killing entertainment. The prison police really enjoyed the criminals forced feeding me. The criminals knocked me down and held me down firmly. Then six or seven criminals started to torture me. They used their thumbs to firmly press my ribs, they pinched my crotch, stepped on my hands, twisted my belly and forcefully squeezed my head. The criminals pried open my mouth in turn, inserted the plastic bottle into my mouth and corked my mouth with a toilet cleaning rag. Then another criminal would take a turn to force-feed me. I nearly suffocated several times.

After a month of brutal persecution, the prison police and criminals were all tired. Staff Zhang was extremely mad and yelled at the criminals, "feed him to death!" Seven or eight criminals followed his order and used all kind of dirty methods unscrupulously. It felt like my head was exploding and my body could not move. A criminal pinched my nose and another criminal fed me brutally. I could not breathe because every time I inhaled, the rice entered my lungs and I spurted out the food. Then a criminal used a thick paper to block the mouth of the bottle. After a while, I lost consciousness. After I woke up, I was sent to the Baishan City Hospital emergency room in critical condition.

After six days, the doctor brought my chest X-ray to supervisor Piao and told him that they found small blisters in my lungs and they diagnosed that it was acute pulmonary tuberculosis. Supervisor Piao was afraid and they transferred me to the Baishan City Tuberculosis Hospital. The police still cuffed me to the bed, forcibly gave me injections and fed me from my nose. Since the medical fee is too expensive, after a week, they transferred me back to the detention centre but still continued the persecution of feeding me through the nose and giving me injections. The brutal persecution lasted for two months and my weight dropped from more than 70 kilogrammes to about 40 kilogrammes.

On June 25th, the Jilin Province Prison refused to accept me by the reason of "serious malnutrition." But supervisor Piao colluded with the local judge who judged the case unscrupulously. On June 28th, I was sent to the Jilin Province Prison again to be persecuted according to the fake judgement that said: "fasting is a self-inflicted injury and therefore should not qualify for bail release for medical treatment."

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. "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.

3. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/26/131369.html