Mr. Song Guanghua Brutally Tortured

Name: Song Guanghua
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Worker
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 26th, 2003
Most Recent Place of Detention: Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, sleep deprivation, electric shock, physical constraint, home ransacked, unknown drugs administered, beatings, forced labour.
Key Persecutors: Shi Yingbai, Zhao Shuang

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Song Guanghua from Harbin City refused to give up his belief. As a result, he has been subjected to sleep deprivation, shocking with electrical batons on his eyes and mouth, as well as other tortures. He was later subjected to three years of forced labour and suffered various tortures at the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. At the labour camp, Mr. Song was put in handcuffs and shackles. The scars caused by the handcuffing can still be seen today.

Mr. Song Guanghua was born on July 3rd, 1954. He had been laid off from Harbin Longjiang Electrical Plant. On December 5th, 2000, he was arrested by police in Beijing when he went there to appeal, and later taken back to his hometown by police officer Wang Wei from the Xinyi Police Station in Harbin. He had been detained for two months at the Tiaping Detention Centre (now called the Daowai Detention Centre). Guards at the detention centre extorted him out of more than 200 yuan¹ claiming it was for a boarding fee.

On August 26th, 2003, Mr. Song was arrested for handing out informational materials at his former workplace - the Longjiang Electric Plant. He was framed by Liu Jian, who worked at the security section of the plant (and now works at a police station in Jiangbei District). Liu Jian, together with deputy head Ma Tao and Chen of the security section, arrested Mr. Song and took him to the Xinyi Police Station. Police Chief Zhao and others broke into Mr. Song's home and took Falun Gong informational CDs.

That evening, the police arrested Mr. Song and took him to the Taiping District Detention Centre. When Wang, head of Taiping Detention Centre put him into the cell, he intentionally told criminals, "No beating the Falun Gong practitioner." The criminals understood his hint. As soon as Wang turned around, the criminals jumped on Mr. Song and viciously pinched the insides of his thighs. Both of his legs were black and blue and covered with bruises left by the pinching.

The guards assigned two criminals to follow Mr. Song around the clock. For seven continuous days they didn't allow him to sleep or use the restroom. After putting unknown drugs into his food, the criminals smiled at him in a strange way. The drugs caused Mr. Song to become muddle-headed. Suddenly he felt an unbearable itching in the lower part of the body. Also, his hands, which were still restrained in the handcuffs, instantly swelled. Listening to Mr. Song's screaming in misery, the criminals stopped laughing and started asking the guards to take his handcuffs off. The guards reluctantly consented to remove them but left on the shackles that weighed more than twenty pounds.

Former police officer Han Huabin from the Daowai District Police Department works at the Daowai District 610 Office². He and another co-worker surnamed Xu threatened and cross-examined Mr. Song several times in order to determine the source of the Falun Gong materials. They also humiliated him and forced him to swallow his own vomit. Mr. Song refused to betray fellow practitioners. Han Huabin sent him to the Harbin Mental Hospital for further persecution. Mr. Song's younger brother worked there. Many of his brother's co-workers at the hospital knew that Song Guanghua was a kind person. One doctor resisted the pressure to accept Song Guanghua and refused to take him.

Officer Han Huabin and the other officers failed to successfully brainwash Mr. Song. In late September 2003, he was sent to the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp for further persecution. The police told him that the longest term for forced labour is three years, but if there were a ten-year term, he would get that one.

Song Guanghua was put into the fifth team (the strictly controlled team) of the labour camp. That same day, team leader Zhao Shuang savagely slapped Mr. Song and another practitioner, Zhang Yiwei, until he was exhausted.

While in the fifth team, Song Guanghua was forced to do slave labour and allowed to sleep for only two or three hours. He was forced to sleep in a small double bed with five other men. Everyone had to sleep on their side and it was so cramped that even breathing was difficult. After six months in the fifth team, Song Guanghua was transferred to the first team.

On April 10th, 2004, Song Guanghua's elderly father, who had been cared for by Mr. Song for a long time, died due to his extreme grief and the trauma of his son's imprisonment. A member of Song Guanghua's family applied at the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp to allow him to go home to attend the funeral and at least have a last look at his father, but team leader Shi Yingbai rejected the request with the excuse that it was on a weekend.

Around March 25th, 2005, when Mr. Song recited Falun Gong teachings, he was slandered by criminal Qi Kunlei who reported him to guard Zhao Shuang. Zhao Shuang pushed Mr. Song to the office floor and jumped on top of him. Then Zhao Shuang twisted Mr. Song's arms backwards and pushed them upwards. He did the same to Song's legs. This is the way that guard Zhao Shuang routinely tortures Falun Gong practitioners. He's even given it the nickname "rowing a boat." Song Guanghua could not move his arms or legs after this torture, and he had to be carried back. The next day, Zhao Shuang still demanded that Mr. Song carry coal in the boiler room. After the severe torture Mr. Song could not even move so another practitioner had to take over. Even after a couple of months, his legs were still partially paralysed.

In the spring of 2005, the first team leader brought a group of people with badges reading "China Inspector." These people had large syringes and were collecting blood samples from Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Song strongly resisted and was forcibly dragged away. Guards Zhao Shuang and Yang Yu once again tortured him using the "rowing a boat" torture on him. Additionally, guard Wang Kai took a fully-charged, large-sized electric baton to shock Mr. Song's eyes and lips for more than ten minutes. When Wang Kai was tired, guard Dou Jianwen immediately took over and shocked Mr. Song's heart area repeatedly. As a result of this torture, Mr. Song had insomnia and coughed for more than two months.

In 2006, when Mr. Song's three-year term had expired, officers from the Xinyi Police Station together with personnel from the local residential committee went to Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp to take Song Guanghua. In fact, they wanted to force him to write the so-called guarantee statement promising to no longer practise Falun Gong. He refused.

After Mr. Song returned home, the local residential committee personnel harassed him several times.

Partial list of persons who participated in persecution:

Xiyi Police Station, 86-451-57682372

Changlinzi Labour Camp:
Shi Yingbai, head: 86-451-82037077 (Office), 86-451-82737856 (Home)
Yang Jintang, Zhang Chunliang, Yang Yu (first team): 86-451-82037101
Fifth team - strictly controlled team: Zhao Shuang (86-451-82037105), Li Jianfeng (86-13359720818), Dou Jianwen, Wang Kai

Note

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

2. "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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/10/1/209403.html