Mr. Li Shaotie Tortured in Two Forced Labour Camps

Mr. Li Shaotie, 56 years old and a Falun Gong practitioner, who lives in Fujin City, Heilongjiang Province, has been arrested several times because he didn't give up practising Falun Gong. Three of his four immediate family members were imprisoned. The following is Mr. Li Shaotie's personal statement about his experience during the persecution.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in China, my family was categorized as "rich farmers." As a result, we suffered from serious persecution. The fear of the CCP, which started in my childhood, still lingers on today. Therefore, I was very careful while talking about my spiritual beliefs, until one year when I suffered from serious illnesses. Nothing in my body was functioning well, and many things were wrong with me, such as cardio-cerebral-vascular disease, arteriosclerosis, kidney stones, heart disease and various other problems. I tried all kinds of treatments in hospitals all over Beijing, but it was all in vain. I was the primary breadwinner of my family. Moreover, my two children were studying in a university and needed my support. At the time I had no way out, so I started practising Falun Gong. Seven days after I started practising, every one of my diseases disappeared. Falun Gong taught me the principles of being a good person and the importance of having a righteous mind for good health. From then on I was determined to practise Falun Gong.

I. My Experience in the Jiamusi Xigemu Labour Camp

On July 20th, 1999, the CCP government started to crack down on Falun Gong. On January 23rd, 2000, I was arrested in Beijing while I was there appealing to the government and letting them know the facts about Falun Gong. Sun Weiyang, an official from the Politics and Security Section in Fujin City, extorted 790 yuan¹ from me. He shouted in the Jiamusi Affairs Office in Beijing, "I am in charge of the Falun Gong issue today, so you have to obey my orders. If Falun Gong is redressed tomorrow, I will obey your orders."

While I was detained in the Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp, police officers and detainees beat and cursed me frequently. Officials in the labour camp used several torture methods and one of them was called the "iron chair²." The victims were restrained onto the iron chair with both arms and legs tied to it day and night. Only during meal times did they free one hand for a while. Once, I was tortured this way for three consecutive weeks. When they released my arms and legs, I couldn't even walk. My legs and feet were swollen and for many days, I couldn't put on my shoes.

In the labour camp, practitioners were constantly subjected to all kinds of torture, such as electric batons, the iron chair and the "dead person's bed³." When I was tortured with the iron chair, Cao Jingyan (police officer #23-099) forcefully twisted my hands behind my back and tortured me. One hand was turned upward and the other downward and handcuffed together behind my back and pulled up, which was extremely painful. Then Cao Jingyan punched me heavily in the head twenty times without stopping. I could feel consciousness drifting away. This was at about 10:00 p.m. The commander on duty was afraid that I could be beaten to death, so he asked Guard Liu to stop the beating.

In 2001, some practitioners received extended terms of forced labour. Officials were authorized to do this at will. If a practitioner could not be "transformed⁴" within a certain time frame, one day delay caused that person to receive a half-day term extension. We went on a hunger strike to protest the term extensions. As a result, director Li of the clinic in the labour camp force-fed Mr. Du Wenfu, other fellow practitioners and I with a mixture of concentrated brine and a small amount of milk after inserting a tube into our stomachs. Li said, "I am not afraid even if you go on hunger strikes." After this procedure, we threw up and had loose bowels.

In February 2002, the chief of the management section was passed over for promotion and took it out on me. He slapped my face with plastic shoes in a small room, which was used for torturing detainees. He beat me violently over ten times, while cursing at me. I could feel my face swelling up as he did this. A guard named Li Fuguo hit my hands with an electric baton. A practitioner next to me was in tears as he watched this happen.

Falun Gong practitioners in the camp were forced to do heavy labour. One time, the middle finger of my right hands were squeezed between two iron tubes and bled heavily. I used the blood to write "Falun Dafa is good" on my white shirt. I wore this shirt while we protested against the persecution and asked for the release of those practitioners whose terms had been up.

Another torture used in the labour camp was called the death bed. A tall policeman named Li stretched out my four limbs and tied them to the four corners of an ice-cold metal bed. Many practitioners have been tortured this way. Some practitioners were tied down like this for several months, and their flesh began to fester and ooze pus.

II. Being Tortured in the Suihua Labour Camp

In the evening of August 12th, 2004, officials from the Jiamusi Railway Police Bureau arrested me because I distributed flyers explaining the facts about Falun Gong. I suffered from terrible torture while I was detained in the Jiamusi Railway Detention Centre. I had no choice but to go on a hunger strike to protest this maltreatment. However, one month later, I was sentenced to three years of forced labour and taken to the Suihua Labour Camp. This is a labour camp that had received an award from the Heilongjiang Province Labour Re-education Bureau for its high "transformation" rate of Falun Gong practitioners.

On September 15th, one month after I went on a hunger strike, I was force-fed and injected with drugs. Wang Wei, Deputy Commander of the No. 1 Group, cursed at me when I closed my eyes. He stretched a rubber band and released it, striking my eyes. He did this again and again. Finally, I lost my eye sight temporarily for about forty minutes. There were big bruises all around my eyes.

On September 16th, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped my hunger strike. Diao Xuesong, the current Commander of the No. 2 Sub-Group, punched me repeatedly, knocking out my front teeth. A jail guard named Shi Jian hit me in the forehead for half an hour, which caused my forehead to swell up. Then he took me to the workshop, where more than fifty practitioners, divided into two groups, were doing hard labour.

Feng Tao, a detainee from Daqing and imprisoned for stealing, came over and beat me. I shouted loudly, "Falun Gong is good." Then the police ordered four detainees to beat me down to the ground, and had them lift me back up. In the yard, I continued shouting, "Falun Gong is good." The detainees threw me to the ground and continued beating me. After that, they dragged me along, with my skin scraping along the ground and bleeding. My trousers and my shorts were torn off as they dragged me along.

On September 17th, while I was sitting on a small bench, the detainees reported me to the guard Gao Zhonghai, saying that I was practising the exercises. Gao Zhonghai told detainee Liu Haibo to take off my shoes. Gao Zhonghai came over and stomped on the toes of my right foot heavily and grinded down while saying, "You dare to practise?" My white socks soon turned red. Later, both my big and second toe nails peeled off.

On October 11th, because I refused to give up my belief, Cong Handong, Commander of Group 1, said, "Detainees like you, we should hang you up and beat you." They were afraid because I shouted, so they sealed my mouth shut with packing tape. Long Kuibin, Commander of Sub-group 2, said, "Let me do it. You don't have to do that." Six or seven jail guards were present in the room, and five of them beat me together. Long Kuibin kicked me in the groin, and they beat me violently for forty minutes. I lost consciousness at that point. I did not know how long it had lasted, just that I woke up when I heard someone open the door. It was the jail doctor. One month later, my groin was still black.

On June 19th, 2005, I started to protest against the persecution and refused to answer roll call. Zeng Lingjun, Director of Sub-Group 1, shocked me with an electric baton until it ran out of charge after ten minutes. Zeng Lingjun then punched me until I fell unconscious again. When I woke up, Gao Zhonghai, a jail guard, gave me some toilet paper and said, "Clean up your face." It was not until then that I realized my face was covered with blood.

In October 2006, Lian Xing, the new commander of the Sub-Group 1, ordered Hou Chen, a robber convict, to beat practitioners. Practitioners did hard labour from 5:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., but were given only two meals. After 16 hours of hard labour, we had to "position" ourselves in the cell. That meant each practitioner had to stand on one tile, which was only 70 centimetres wide. Anyone who stood outside of the tile was beaten. I started to protest against this maltreatment by means of a hunger strike. Wang Wei and Lan Xing threw me downstairs in front of the dining hall. I shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" Then Lan Xing stepped on my mouth with his leather shoes and pressed down. Once, I didn't obey Hou Chen's order and refused to stand on the tile. As a consequence, Lan Xing ordered me to go to his office. I told him not to persecute Falun Gong, and then he beat me. I said nothing. Lan Xing kicked my genitals violently. I shouted loudly, "Falun Gong is good! Falun Gong is good!" Practitioners in cell 1 and 2 heard my voice, and they also shouted together, "Falun Gong is good! Falun Gong is good!" Lan Xing was so upset that he left without another word.

Once, Lan Xing ordered me to go to his office, where he asked me under what conditions I would agree to eat and do labour. I said, "Stop the persecution!" He then kicked me right in the chest. Immediately, I tasted blood and spat it out reflexively. Lan Xing gave me a piece of paper and asked me to clean my mouth.

In January 2007, after having been tortured in the Suihua Labour Camp for two and a half years, I felt extremely faint. The labour camp finally released me for medical treatment.

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. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

3. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

4. "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.ca/mh/articles/2004/11/30/90383.html