Jiuquan Prison Authorities in Gansu Province Frenziedly Persecute Dafa Practitioners

The order from the 610 Office¹ of Jiuquan City, Gansu Province was that 80 per cent of Falun Gong practitioners must be "transformed²" at Jiuquan Prison, but the chief of the prison was more ambitious, saying, "The target here is 100 per cent, and all of them must be transformed." To achieve this goal, the policemen from Jiuquan Prison resorted to all kinds of vicious means to torture Falun Dafa practitioners.

At the end of 2005, all of the steadfast Dafa practitioners detained in a prison in Gansu Province were transferred to Jiuquan Prison by fully-armed policemen. The practitioners later learned that one month prior to their arrival, policemen had provided the prisoners with detailed information about the practitioners, such as their photos, names, and so on, and told them that they could do anything they thought effective to force Falun Dafa practitioners to renounce their belief. They were told that it was fine to beat them to death, too, and when that happened it would be reported as a death by natural causes.

When Dafa practitioners were brought in, prisoners tried to force them to write the "four statements³." Practitioners who refused to give in would be brutally tortured by policemen and prisoners alike. The torture methods include the following:

1. Scalding with boiling water and burning with cigarette butts;

2. Striking with a iron hook and scalding with a heated iron hook;

3. Eight policemen and prisoners hold one practitioners down and savagely beat him;

4. Placing live rats in practitioners' trousers;

5. Chaining practitioners in a way that they could neither stand nor squat;

6. Beating practitioners with baseball bats;

7. Wrenching practitioners' arms behind their backs and pressing the backs of their necks against the wall.

In the prison, practitioners were often seen with bloody, swollen faces and their bodies were covered with bruises. Those who refused to be "transformed" would be deprived of sleep. If a team had practitioners who refused to be "transformed," that whole team would be restricted. Sometimes as soon as a police team leader dismissed a prisoners' meeting after announcing that a certain team would be restricted, the inmates in that team would surround practitioners and beat them, with policemen standing there watching. Ward 6 was the worst in the whole prison, and practitioners from other wards who refused to be "transformed" would be transferred to Ward 6 to be subjected to heavier punishment.

When practitioners' families came to visit them, they saw that their loved ones were in bad physical condition. They asked the police if they were beaten. The police replied: "We didn't beat anyone here, but they would not be allowed to sleep if they refused to be transformed." In fact, it is routine that the policemen and inmates beat practitioners. Fearing that their vicious deeds would be exposed to the public, they did everything they could to block the truth.

Quite a few practitioners have implicitly expressed a message to their families: we have been brutally tortured here and probably won't get out of here alive.

Wang Zexing, a Dafa practitioner from Jiaojiazhuang Town of Yongchang County who has been sentenced to ten years in prison, has suffered a mental collapse from the torture and no longer recognises people. In July and August, 2006, officials from Jiuquan Prison went to Wang Zexing's home and, in a show of hypocrisy, bought Wang Zexing's daughter a school bag and took video pictures of her. The girl was so frightened that she did not dare to speak a word. With both of her parents heavily sentenced by Yongchang Court, the girl now lives with her grandmother. She suffers from malnutrition and is noticeably shorter than her peers.

The chief of Jiuquan Prison was merciless toward practitioners and he told Zhang Keqin, Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Jiuquan City, "We will do our utmost to implement instructions in this respect (persecuting Falun Gong). In other places Falun Gong practitioners are required to write three statements, but here they have to write 'four statements'."

People responsible for the persecution:
Chief of Jiuquan Prison, Han Quanli (overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners)
Deputy Chief of Jiuquan Prison, Ma Zhanming (charged with persecuting Falun Gong practitioners)
Deputy Chief of Jiuquan Prison, Wang Yin
Education Section of Jiuquan Prison: 86-0937-2614859

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.

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. "Four Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write the "four statements" as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the 610 Office, they consist of "a letter of repentance," "a guarantee" to never again practise Falun Gong, a "Dissociation Statement" to declare a dissociation with Falun Gong and promise not go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/11/3/141651.html