Accounts of Forced-feeding at Jiutai Forced Labour Camp and Jilin City Detention Centre

Below are two accounts of brutal persecution by force-feeding at the Jiutai Forced Labour Camp and the Jilin City Detention Centre:

Mr. Li Wenjun held a hunger strike at the Jiutai Forced Labour Camp to protest the persecution and was force-fed

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Wenjun was tied to an iron chair commonly known as a tiger bench¹. Mr. Li was then fed through a naso-gastric tube with a concoction of corn flour gruel mixed with salt and unknown drugs. He was force-fed once or twice per day, depending on the decisions made by the Section Chief, Yu, the prison doctor, or the prison manager, Lei. Mr. Li Wenjun experienced great pain and once told his mother, "My body is in a overwhelming amount of pain!"

A witness released from the Jiutai Forced Labour Camp explained the tube: The naso-gastric tube used to force-feed Mr. Li Wenjun was usually soaked in a basin and placed under a tap to flush water through the tube. When Mr. Li Wenjun was force-fed, the tube was taken from of the basin. Because of cold the temperatures in November in North east China, the water was ice-cold and kept the naso-gastric tube rigid. The rigid tube was then forcefully inserted into Mr. Li's extremely feeble body. Because Mr. Li was on hunger strike and did not intake any water, his nasal cavity, pharynx and oesophagus were dry and not lubricated. The stiff and cold naso-gastric tube was forced down his nose and into his body. By contrast, a rubber naso-gastric tube is usually immersed in lukewarm water and then gently placed into the nasal cavity. Even with gentle application the tube would still have a negative effect on the body. Mr. Li exhibited a great amount of endurance to withstand such treatment and not compromise his beliefs. He had a spirit of great courage to be brutally tortured in such a manner without expressing any complaint or showing any grievance.

Ms. Zhao Yingjie went on a hunger strike between June and July 2007, at the Detention Centre in Jilin City to protest persecution

The guards and the prison doctor incited criminal inmates to force-feed Ms. Zhao Yingjie. She was forcefully pushed into a corner. Ms. Zhao Yingjie's hands and feet had already been tied together by the guards with "joint-body shackles." Her hands and feet were then raised upward and her shoulders were held by the criminals. The bottom was cut out of a water bottle and pushed into her mouth. When she resisted, the criminals held her nose to force her to open her mouth, and then they forcibly poured rice soup and other materials into her mouth. Because she did not cooperate with the brutal forced-feeding, some of the gruel was forced into her trachea. The final time Ms. Zhao was being force-fed, food entered the trachea and suffocated Ms. Zhao Yingjie, causing her to become unconscious. Being in the state of unconsciousness she stretched out her legs and her body with so much force that it caused her hands to break away from the handcuffs instantly. This cut her wrists and they bled. The guards and inmates present shouted and wrangled with Ms. Zhao for over twenty minutes before Ms. Zhao Yingjie finally took a weak breath and woke up. The time was then after 1:00 p.m. and she was taken to the No. 222 Hospital. After 4:00 p.m., she was returned to the detention centre.

The unscrupulous and heinous act carried out by the guards was done inside the cell in front of other people. The ultimate goal of force-feeding practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party personnel is to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their beliefs. There is an ethic in medicine that states: Only when a patient is in critical condition or when there is no abdominal pressure can forced feeding be carried out. In such a circumstance, forced feeding should be done with a naso-gastric tube that is an appropriate temperature, equal to the body temperature, and under proper conditions. Also stipulated in the law is this code: A hunger strike lasting for three days suggests that there is some deep grievance that needs to be readdressed and the situation must be reported to the Procuratorate. The detention centre and the forced labour camp did not report the hunger strikes, but instead they proceeded to carry out persecution through brutal forced-feeding. They were breaking the law while serving as law enforcers.

Note

1. "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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/12/22/192003.html