Severe Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners at Guangyuan Prison, Sichuan Province

Guangyuan Prison officials began incarcerating and grossly mistreating and abusing imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in 2003.

March 18th, 2009 Incident

Horrendous violence against Falun Gong practitioners broke out in Prison Ward Three on March 18th, 2009. Guards and criminal inmates viciously assaulted several practitioners. Instead of punishing the offenders, the prison authorities blamed Falun Gong practitioners. This notorious violence is known as the March 18th Incident.

At noon that day, prison guard Li Senquan encouraged criminal inmates Yang Yaoyuan, Ma Cheng, Dong Ping and Yang Gang to drag practitioner Mr. Ran Tongyi, who is in his sixties to a small room on the second floor of the residential building. Behind the closed door, the inmates attempted to force Mr. Ran to write the three statements renouncing Falun Gong. Mr. Ran refused, and he told these people about Falun Gong' s principles. The inmates slapped his face and punched and kicked him ferociously until he was severely injured. Mr. Ran suffered multiple injuries from the assault. They stretched Mr. Ran in an excruciating torture called "five horses splitting the body." The torture almost killed him.

Practitioners learned of the violence at 3:00 p.m., and reported to prison guard Li Senquan, asking for an investigation. Li didn't bother to answer their request and went to play basketball. At the basketball court several criminals boasted to Li Senquan and deputy prison head He Bin that they had beaten Mr. Ran. Criminal Yang Gang bragged, "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to practise our boxing techniques. I beat the hell out of Mr. Ran."

Criminal Dong Ping suddenly pushed practitioner Mr. Min Qinjun to the ground, and several inmates rushed to punch and kick him. Practitioners Mr. Yang Zhengming and Mr. Xu Weidong also became targets of violence. Guard He Bin pinned Mr. Xu Weidong to the ground, and punched and kicked him while yelling, "Don't be afraid of killing him!" Guard Li Senquan threw the basketball at Xu Weidong with all his strength. The ball missed its target and hit guard He Bin in the face, knocking off his glasses and causing a bloody nose. Shortly afterward, guards Li Senquan, Feng Wenjia and Yang Xiang compelled practitioner Mr. Min Qinjun to go to the enforcement office, where they continued attacking him, also using electric batons to shock him. Mr. Min sustained multiple wounds, and his face became severely swollen.

During a prison meeting that evening at 7:00 p.m., Third Prison Ward political head Gou Jianfeng blamed the practitioners for "making trouble." Practitioners Xu Weidong, Yang Zhengming, and Min Qinjun were locked in solitary confinement for a month, taking up all existing solitary cells in the Third Ward. Mr. Tao Yuan and Mr. Peng Baiding were chained to the basketball pole until midnight following severe beatings by the guards. Mr. Tao Yuan lost consciousness several times.

The prison authorities forbade the practitioners from speaking with each other. Their rights to send and receive letters were abolished, along with phone calls. All channels of communication with their families were cut. Practitioner Xu Langzhou of Prison Ward Two had not seen his elderly mother for years. His mother traveled seven times from Panzhihua City to visit him, but the aged mother was denied a visit every time. Xu Langzhou was forbidden from making even a single phone call during his six years of incarceration. Similarly, practitioner Xu Weidong was also denied all visits from his family in the past seven years.

Mr. Peng Baiding's mother died as a result of persecution at the Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp in 2008.

To this day Mr. Tao Yuan has not fully recovered from the injuries inflicted last March. But only two days after the beating he was assigned to move heavy concrete pillars by carrying them on his shoulders. They were too heavy for him to carry, and Mr. Tao Yuan collapsed and lost consciousness. He suffered a fractured sixth vertebra and severe injury to his head.

Abuse of Mr. Wang Huaifu

Criminal inmates Xiang Cheng and Li Ping in Ward Three discovered on July 20th, 2009 that Wang Huaifu had copies of Falun Gong lectures. They slapped and punched Mr. Wang violently before reporting to the prison guard. Deputy prison head He Bin ordered the two criminals to continue beating Wang Huaifu. Guard Li Senquan encouraged them, saying, "When you go down there, just follow what ward head He told you and be bold. If he dies, we will just burn him in the incinerator."

Once inmates Xiang Cheng, Dong Ping and Deng Hu got the guard's orders, they pushed Mr. Wang Huaifu into Room One on the third floor and began to violently try to "reform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] him. They deprived Mr. Wang of sleep for two days, forced him to sit still on a small bench, and used extremely dirty language to insult him.

At 3:00 a.m. on July 22nd, 2009, criminal inmates Xiang Cheng, Dong Ping, Deng Hu, Li Ping and Wang Jianxiong grabbed Mr. Wang's hair and repeatedly hit his head against a wall. Others in the building could hear the loud knocking sounds and ferocious shouting. Mr. Wang, who is in his sixties, cried out at the top of his lungs and collapsed.

Abuse of Mr. Zeng Geping

Under the supervision of guard Li Senquan, criminals Yang Lei, Liu Guangquan and Fang Guangjun forced practitioner Zeng Geping to stand under the summer sun for four days starting on July 22nd, 2009. Mr. Zeng was not even allowed to wipe the sweat from his face. When he tried to do so, the criminals pulled away his hand and slapped his face. Mr. Zeng lost consciousness several times during the four days of broiling under the sun.

Encouraged by guard Li Senquan, inmates Yang Lei, Liu Guangquan, Su Bo and Fang Guangjun assaulted Mr. Zeng on the afternoon of July 25th, 2009. After the four days of broiling under the sun, he was already very weak. He again lost consciousness when the criminals pinned him to the ground and violently hit him. They continued hitting and kicking him after he became unconscious. Seeing no reaction from Mr. Zeng, the criminals said he was faking and slapped his face repeatedly. They even burned his face and legs with a cigarette. Even the burning caused no reaction. Finally, Xiang Cheng and Luo Shaoyong carried the bleeding Mr. Zeng into Room One on the second floor. Mr. Zeng was finally sent to the prison clinic for treatment two days later, on July 27th.

Guards sent the recovering Zeng Geping into Room One on the third floor on August 21st, 2009, to continue persecuting him.

Guanyuan Prison: Post Office Box 104, Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province, Zip Code 628019
Prison head: Wei Chengjian
Political commissar: Li Jian
Deputy head: Xie Ping
Head of Ward Two: Yao Baocheng
Deputy ward head: Quan Wei

Political head of Ward Three: Gou Jianfeng
Head of Ward Three: Deng Peixin
Deputy ward head: He Bin
Guards: Yang Xianghe, Li Senquan, Feng Wenjia
Guard in charge of Ward Four: Zhan Weimin

Yingshan Town Procurator House (supervises Guangyuan Prison), political head: Li Jianming

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/3/2/219092.html