Guards at Zhuanghe Detention Centre in Liaoning Province Brutally Torture Practitioners

In order to seek justice for Falun Dafa, we four practitioners from Dalian City ( Liu Hongyou, Liu Hongjun, Liu Hongxue, and Li Chunying—three men and one woman) went to Beijing to appeal on February 9th, 2000. From that moment on, the local police "illegally detained¹" and beat us. They even tried to extort money from our families. If we didn’t give them money, they threatened to put us in a labour camp.

When we reached Beijing, we were arrested. We and four other practitioners from Zhuanghe City, Liaoning Province (a total of eight people), were confined in one room. Later, our local police came and took us directly to Zhuanghe Detention Centre.

At the detention centre we saw a practitioner in only thin clothing standing still in the yard in the freezing snow for a whole day. When he came back inside, it was nighttime. He limped when he walked. He was stiff from the cold. The next day Guard Ju and two other guards ordered us to stand in the corridor. There were a total of 16 practitioners, four men and 12 women. The guards carried electric batons and ordered us to do push-ups on top of frozen human waste. If we refused, they would kick us and shock us with the electric batons at our heads and necks. Liu Hongxue was forced to walk in a squat position. When he lost consciousness, the guards hung him up in a vegetable awning.

They used all kinds of methods to torture us. For example, they would make a practitioner hold one position for a long period time, which caused extreme pain in the arms, legs, and lower back. They beat practitioners with a stick that doesn’t damage the bone but is nonetheless very painful. The four male practitioners were taken into an isolated room one by one. Guards kicked and badly beat them. They asked the practitioners during the beating whether they would still practise Falun Gong. The practitioners were beaten numerous times. Bruises and cuts were all over their bodies. Hua Shuangwu and Liu Hongyou’s conditions were most serious. Everyday they were dragged back. Every day after dinner the perpetrators tried to force us to "transform²." We refused to cooperate with their demands because living with the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" is not wrong. Falun Dafa is good.

On one occasion Liu Wenju, the head of the division; Lin Jiquan. political head; and the prison doctor came to Liu Hongyou’s cell and asked whether he still practised Falun Gong. Liu Hongyou answered, "I do." They then shouted, "Come here." Liu Hongyou got off the bed and barely stood up before Lin Jiquan kicked and hit him. Liu Hongyou’s face and mouth bled. Liu Wenju grabbed Liu Hongyou by the hair and threw his head into the wall. After the beating, they ordered Liu Hongyou to strip off his clothes. When they saw dark bruises all over his body, they sneered and walked away.

Within several days, the skin on the practitioners’ hands fell off because of the cold. Large and small blisters grew. Their fingernails fell off as well from the cold. Dead skin fell off one layer after another. Even under such conditions, the perpetrators still wouldn’t let up on the practitioners. Some practitioners’ arms would no longer bend because of swelling from the beatings. The practitioners were not able to take care of their daily needs either. They helped to feed each other one spoonful at a time, but they were still hungry. The practitioners had to do intense and dirty labour everyday.

Forty-eight days later, the Chengguan Street Committee and police station told the practitioners’ families to pay 5,000 yuan³ for their release. The families learned of the news and borrowed 5,000 yuan. Liu Hongjun’s family was fined 1,000 yuan by Song Shihe and then another 3,000 yuan. No one came to pay the extortion for Liu Hongyou. Fifty-four days later, his brother paid Song Shihe 500 yuan. Song blackmailed the family for another 3,000 yuan before his release. Liu Hongyou was persecuted because he practised Falun Gong. His wife moved to her mother-in-law’s village during his detention. Meanwhile, the Longwangmiao village officials harassed them numerous times. Chengguan Police Station Director Zhu Wenjia and policeman Han Zhimin, who has already transferred to the police department, also went to Liu’s residence to harass and intimidate him.

On July 16th, 2000, Liu Hongyou went to his new residence to check on things. Police officer Han Zhimin and Director Zhu Wenjia lied to Liu Hongyou’s wife and claimed that some officials wanted to talk to him. When Liu Hongyou went to their car, Zhu Wenjia was there alone. Zhu Wenjia closed the car door and drove Liu directly to the police station. At the police station Han Zhimin wrote a statement and claimed the director had approved it. He sent Liu Hongyou directly to a detention centre.

This second time in the detention centre, Liu Hongyou suffered even crueller persecution. Forty days later, Liu Hongyou’s brother-in-law and his friends all came to persuade Liu to give up Dafa cultivation. Liu Hongyou said, "That is not possible." Song Shihe, present at the time, told Liu, his wife, and family, "Pay several thousand more and we will release him right away." Liu Hongyou said to his wife in all seriousness, "You must not pay the money. They have become used to this. They have already extorted money, and now they are trying to do it again."

Song Shihe and Police Chief Zhu Wenjia didn’t get the money this time. They sentenced Liu Hongyou to two years of forced labour. Liu Hongyou was detained at Zhuanghe Detention Centre for five months before being transferred to Dalian Forced Labour Camp. At the labour camp he refused to follow demands, so they added six more months to his detention. He was sent to Guanshan Detention Centre. Later, he was transferred to Mazhonghe. Because he was held in the "Strictly Monitored Division," he was always handcuffed until the Chengguan Police Station police took him back on January 16th, 2003.

During the time of Liu Hongyou’s persecution, his wife went to the police station many times to request his release, as well as to get news about his condition. The police station didn’t want to be held responsible, and they claimed that they didn’t know that Liu Hongyou had been sent to Dalian Forced Labour Camp. They said that they didn’t even know of this person. Liu Hongyou’s wife was frightened, intimidated, and rendered helpless by the persecution.

Note

1. Illegally arrested: Contrary to what former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who initiated the persecution, and the Chinese Communist Party would like the world to believe, practising Falun Gong is NOT illegal in China. Although the Public Security Department issued an unconstitutional set of restraints on the practice at the onset of the persecution in 1999, no laws have been passed by the only legislative body in China, the People's Congress, banning Falun Gong or granting the police the authority to arrest Falun Gong practitioners for practising the exercises or distributing flyers. For a more complete discussion of the illegality of the persecution of Falun Gong, please refer to the article "The Ban on Falun Gong—A Dictator's Whim, Not the Rule of Law". (Variation: "illegally sentenced")

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/19/130796.html