Hebei Province Taihang Prison's Atrocities Against Falun Dafa Practitioners

Since July 20th, 1999, led by Zhao Jinzhou, some police officers at Taihang Prison have implemented a "be consistent" policy and executed the policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. They used propaganda to instill CCP culture, broadcast videos attacking Falun Dafa, posted a cartoon that slandered Falun Dafa's founder, deceived the general public and forced practitioners to undergo brainwashing. They threatened and harassed prison doctors Mr. and Ms. Wang Yan, forcing them into hiding. They confiscated 8,000 yuan¹ of the couple's personal money. In addition, they brutally beat and tortured Falun Dafa practitioners who were detained in that facility.

Persecution Methods

Because some guards were blinded by personal interests, abiding by the CCP's policies regarding Falun Gong practitioners, these guards shamelessly implemented the orders to "ruin their reputation, bankrupt them economically and destroy them physically." They treated practitioners who believed in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" as enemies. They used many inhuman persecution methods and excruciatingly painful tortures on practitioners. Their torture methods included:

1. Using electric batons to shock female practitioners' mouths;
2. Brutal beatings: beatings with rubber clubs, slaps on the face, kicking, pulling hair, inciting the criminals to take turns beating the practitioners;
3. Dragging: pulling them by their hands and hair, dragging them down the stairs, dragging the practitioners along the floor;
4. Other tortures: standing; standing and facing a wall; standing under the burning sun in the summer and exposure to inclement winter weather; standing with head against a wall; standing with hands touching the floor; overtime labour; reducing the meal quantity
5. Depriving them of personal rights: forbidden to sleep, to go to the toilet, to wash and take a bath, to talk with other people; gagged with towels and denied family visits.
6. Handcuffed: handcuffing and being handcuffed behind the back; one hand up and one hand down on a chair or on a heating pipe;
7. Shackled and locked with a dog chain;
8. Restricted freedom of movement: locked in a small cell, dark room, and appointed female criminal to monitor around the clock;
9. Tied-up: Tied up on a bed board to keep one immobile;
10. Burned with cigarette butts to burn practitioners' necks; inserting cigarette butts into practitioners' noses;
11. Bar punishment: being handcuffed backward to the back of a chair, with both legs stretching straight forward while sitting on the ground. One bar is inserted between the hands. Someone then steps on the bar. They also use a stick to hit the feet during this torture.
12. Use of hallucinogens: wiping medicine into practitioners' nostrils
13. Prying the mouth open with a piece of metal. When practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest, the officials used metal hardware to pry their mouths open for force-feeding.
14. Mental abuse: Writing dirty words on Dafa practitioners' bodies, faces and clothes.
15. Financial persecution: They forbid family members to deliver things. Instead, practitioners had to buy their commodities from the prison canteen that charges extremely high prices for food and other necessities. Moreover, they confiscated practitioners' cash.
16. Deception: Fabricated writings, using lies and hypocrisy to "show their concern"; compiling fabricated news and stories, and deceiving practitioners and the general public with performances.
17. Tempting criminals to aid and abet: Using criminals to monitor, torture, threaten, brutally beat and force-feed practitioners. In return, they add or deduct points from these criminals' scores and adjust their terms.
18. Forced-feeding: When force-feeding, practitioners were tied up on the bed board. They slowed down the feeding and tortured practitioners for more than 40 hours.
19. Brainwashing: They force practitioners to view videos that attack Falun Dafa. Asking them to write reports, discuss experiences, writes the four statements (dissociation statement, self-criticism statement, repentance statement, and guarantee statement).
20. Secret transfer: Transfer among prisons without informing family members. Psychologically isolate practitioners, making them feel helpless.
21. Using family relationships as a tactic: They invite practitioners' family members to visit and persuade them to write the four statements and give up cultivation to be a "kind person;" give up "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and be a loyal CCP follower.

Persecution Cases

Since July 20th, 1999, more than 70 Dafa practitioners have been detained in this facility and subjected to long-term persecution. This doesn't include those who were temporarily transferred or detained short-term. The guards tortured Zhou Yu to death. Ding Yan was secretly transferred to the Chengde Prison and died from being tortured. Liu Jinying and Dai Lili were persecuted to the point of mental collapse. Niu Minjie was disabled. Chen Yanyu had her face disfigured. In addition, Gong Fenglan, Zhang Lijun, Lang Qizhi, Liu Qiaozhen, Zhao Lingru, Lu Fengling, Zhang Lijun and others also suffered severe persecution. The following are some examples:

Liu Jinying, over 40 years old, was a former deputy head at the Laishui County Letter and Appeals Bureau in Hebei Province. Because she firmly believed in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," she was sentenced in August 2000 to five years in prison. On the evening of October 16th, 2003, she was transferred from the Shijiazhuang No. 2 Prison to the Taihang Prison. That very evening she encountered inhumane treatment. The guards deprived her of sleep and tortured her with all kinds of methods. This lasted seven to eight days. Some people who came from the same hometown saw her suffering, so they wanted to deliver some daily commodities to her. The guards did not permit this. A female criminal monitored her and attempted to brainwash her.

Liu Jinying refused to accept brainwashing. The guards incited criminals to take turns to beat her. There was a criminal called Ma Li. She grabbed Ms. Liu's hair and hit her head against a wall more than 300 times. Another criminal called Zuo Maomao deliberately stepped on Liu Jinying's feet and ripped off three of her toenails. She sexually assaulted Liu Jinying and hit her until her body was black and blue all over. She scratched Ms. Liu's oral cavity raw. Ms. Liu's face was also bruised. These tortures lasted for more than half a year.

After seeing Ma Li and Zuo Maomao failing to change Liu Jinying's firm determination in Dafa cultivation, the guards called upon Fang Jihong, who resorted to unceasing, intense violence. They handcuffed Liu Jinying behind her back, shocked her with an electric batons and attempted to force her to write the four statements². When they failed, they transferred Liu Jinying to Shijiazhuang for further persecution. She was eventually sent back to Taihang Prison for further rounds of persecution.

An originally very healthy, kind person was persecuted so severely that she ended up mentally traumatized. The insiders knew that the reason for a criminal's violent acts are the guards' incitement. When I was beaten mercilessly once, guard Du Lijing said, "Kill her! It is on me!" Political head Zhu Xiaohong and team leader Liu Jing, who incited criminals to torture Liu Jinying, were the ones in charge. Later, when section head Li Yulong and deputy production team head Ge Shuguang planned to hold a brainwashing session, they tried to force Dafa practitioners to write the four statements. Zhu Xiaohong and others cooperated closely. Even when Liu Jinying was in a state of being mentally traumatized, they still did not let her go and continued the abuse day and night, beating and verbally abusing her as before. They continued to torture her by forcing her to stand, deprived her of sleep, and forbade her to go to the restroom or to talk with others. They incited a criminal named Cong Yaqin, who used to be a drug dealer and drug addict, to kick Liu Jinying. If Liu Jinying "reformed³", they might all get a higher bonus. Therefore, they incited criminals to brutally attack the practitioners. Ge Shuguang praised Zuo Maomao's actions and recorded her "merit."

Another Dafa practitioner, Ms. Dai Lili, was about 30 years old. After suffering cruel tortures, this young woman suffered a mental collapse and often took off all her clothes.

The guards tortured another practitioner Ms. Niu Minjie, a model training teacher from Shijiazhuang City, with excruciating methods because she refused to renounce the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." Being forced to wear a "dog chain" disabled her legs, and she could no longer stand up and walk. This is what is happening in the Taihang Prison, where the administration boasted, "Manage with virtue; Educate with law; Convince with rationality; Move with emotion."

On August 20th, 2005, Zhang Lijun and other practitioners re-established their determination to uphold the good principles of Falun Dafa and refusal to write the "four statements" or "reform." What would a kind person "reform" to? They wrote a "solemn declaration" and stated what they had written under persecution that does not conform to Dafa's requirements are all invalid. On August 22nd, 2005, they were detained in small cells and monitored by criminals around the clock. They were again deprived of their human rights. At the beginning of September, after the visit of deputy section head Tan Lei and deputy section head Liu Xinke, they accelerated the persecution of Zhang Lijun and took turns torturing her.

A person is entitled to basic living necessities and conditions [food clothing, decent shelter, air and water]. A person needs to eat and to rest. However, this was not at all the case. Political head Yan Hongyu used to say fiercely, "All I want is to make you die and bully you to death!" Bonuses and promotion actually became the motivation on which the guards based their cruel, merciless and brutal persecution of Dafa practitioners. There is a torture instrument room in the Taihang Prison that is especially used to torture Dafa practitioners.

Taihang Prison address: Taihang Prison, Mancheng County, Hebei Province, Zip code: 072150

Shijiazhuang Women's Prison office telephone: 86-311-83939625

Prison Affairs Section telephone: 86-311-83939712

Education Section telephone: 86-311-8393726

Appeal

The persecution of Dafa practitioners at this CCP-operated prison is continuing. According to incomplete statistics, 2,926 Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of the persecution.

We appeal to people inside China and outside of China, to civil organizations, human rights organizations and governments of all countries: please pay attention to this inhuman persecution, promote justice, declare your support for the innocent Falun Gong practitioners, and end this brutal persecution, which has lasted over seven years.

Note

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

2. "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.

3. "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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/11/21/142897.html