Recent Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners at Deyang Prison, Sichuan Province

In July 2008, before the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, the Falun Gong practitioners who were detained in Deyang Prison, Sichuan Province, were forced to participate in a so-called "study" session. Those who had refused to write the three statements¹ were specifically targeted. The "study" session was just a name. The session was actually used to torture the practitioners in a variety of insidious ways. Here we will expose what really happened in the prison during the period between July and December 2008.

The prison authorities appointed some inmates as so-called "messengers," who were fully in charge of the so-called "transformation²" of Falun Gong practitioners. They were rewarded if they could make practitioners write or acknowledge the three statements, verified by the prison authorities. Such a policy indicated that these "messengers" could do anything to the practitioners in order to get their rewards.

1. Deprivation of basic human rights. The practitioners who refused to be "transformed" were not allowed to speak to others. Without the permission from the "messengers," the practitioners were not allowed to use the toilet, shave, wash or sleep. Sometimes the practitioners were deprived of sleep for four days and nights.

2. Punishment of standing upright for long hours. Sometimes such treatment could progress all day, and until 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. the following morning. The location for such a punishment was carefully chosen, in the storage room on the first floor, so it was concealed from other people. Such punishment has continued for more than five months.

3. Beatings by the inmate "messengers." These messengers privately beat the practitioners with all kinds of tools, including small bamboo strips, bamboo flakes, tape to seal the mouth, clothes, needles, cigarette butts, broom handles, plastic shoes, sleepers, and their fists and feet. One practitioner's inner thighs were injured by a hostile beating, and the backs of a practitioner's hands, as well as the legs, nose and face were swollen, purple and covered with blood.

4. Here are some specific methods of brutality used: Beating the hands with bamboo strips, mouth beaten with bamboo flake, sealing the mouth with tape, binding hands with cloth strips, choking of the neck, pinching legs, burning hands with cigarette butts, beating the face with broom handle and plastic shoe, beating the soles of the feet with broom handle, covering the head with the practitioner's trousers, covering the practitioner's head with the trousers from the "messenger," beating with fists. In July, there were three inmate "messengers" who beat the practitioners on 25 occasions. In August, there were twenty incidents of beatings by two inmates; in September, there were ten incidents of beatings by two "messengers"; in October, there were eight incidents of beatings by two "messengers"; in November, there were six incidents of beatings by two "messengers"; and in December, there was one incident. The total number of beatings was 70.

5. The inmate "messengers" were unimaginably indecent and immoral to the extreme. They took off the practitioners' trousers to rape and sodomize them.

6. The inmate "messengers" treated the practitioners like slaves - forcing them to do everything for them, including washing tea cups, preparing water and towels for bathing, preparing cigarettes and food, drying shoes outside, preparing the beds, rubbing the messengers' backs during showers, doing all the cleaning, beating and scolding the practitioners at will, and so on. A 22-year-old "messenger" treated a practitioner older than his father like a slave.

7. The inmate "messengers" often threatened the practitioners with vicious words such as "I will choke you to death if you don't write the three statements," "I will fabricate documents to extend your prison term and not allow you to return home," "I would have killed you if we were not in prison. I have broken other's limbs and buried someone alive outside. I would like to see how strong you are," "I will pour chilli water or white wine into your throat. I will beat you till you are disabled. I will soak you in freezing-cold water for two hours."

The above is the true situation in Deyang Prison regarding the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. This treatment takes place secretly. The prison guards and the evil inmate "messengers" strictly prevent the practitioners from contacting others, so their crimes are not exposed publicly.

Perpetrators in Deyang Prison:
Guards: Li Jie, Lai Dengzhou, Cui Weigang
Inmates: Lu Yan, Wang Jinsong, Wang Lian, Yan Wei, Li Xingjian, He He, Liao Huaming, Pei Chi

Note

1. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/12/21/191973.html