I Was Severely Tortured in Huizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Jilin Province

My name is Wang Ying. I am a 52-year-old female from Changchun City in Jilin Province. I was a high school teacher. Since practising Falun Gong, I have been detained twice, lived under supervision once, and was sentenced to one year of forced labour. During my time in Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp I was cruelly tortured.

I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in March 2003 and was sentenced to one year of forced labour by the Nanguan District Police Sub-department in Changchun. I was taken to the No. 4 Division of Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp. Upon completing my term, the prison guards extended my sentence for another year because I would not give up my belief.

During my two years in the forced labour camp, the guards used many vicious tactics to try to force me to give up my belief. All of the practitioners who arrived new to the camp were "greeted" at the entrance door with electric shock. The guards were always armed with electric batons. They used the batons to threaten, terrorise, and shock me (among others), and I remained bedridden after suffering from a heart attack.

When the torture failed to produce any results, the guards stepped up their tactics. They forced me to sit in a double lotus position with both hands stretched backwards. They forced me to sit in this position from the time they arrived at work until the time they clocked out. During that time they did not allow me to move and would not let me to go to toilet. My legs hurt terribly, and I felt pins and needles in my ankles. The tendons on the inner sides of my thighs also cramped severely. I could only grimace in pain. My back was very sore, and I felt I could not hold myself up any longer. Large drops of perspiration rolled down my forehead and cheeks, soaking me. The acute pain led to palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. I could only slightly tilt my body to relieve the acute pain. If the guards discovered this, they would kick and punch me. Sitting like that was extreme torture, both physically and mentally.

When the guards clocked out from work and left, I was able to uncross my legs. Since I had been in the lotus position for so long it took me half an hour to stand up again. I was unable to walk, and it felt as if the muscles in my legs had been severely pulled. Taking even a step was extremely difficult, so I had to lean against the wall.

This torture lasted for a week, and then the guards changed their tactics. They transferred me to a a newly finished six-story building that faced north. By the end of October, in the northeast of China it was winter already. The building was cold and damp. There was no heating system in the building. The concrete floor was wet and damp; the tiled walls were icy cold. Though I was wearing fall clothing, I still began to shiver not long after I was placed in that cold environment. The guards used leather belts to fix my arms and legs to the four corners of a bed, which was made of thin wires. I realised that the thinly wired bed was the notorious "death bed"¹.

I was locked in the icy cold room for many days and nights. There was no bedding whatsoever. My lips turned purple and I shivered constantly as a result of the cold. In the first few days I was allowed to get up and have meals as well as go to toilet. When the guards found that I still would not give up Falun Gong, 4 or 5 days later they ceased allowing me to get up from the bed, not even to go to the toilet. I was tied to the "death bed" for virtually 24 hours a day. My meals were fed to me by the inmates. If I wanted to move my bowels or urinate, it was also the inmates' job to collect my waste. They grabbed a very dirty tub and crammed it under my hips. My waist and hips were raised very high, and I could not possibly move my bowels in that position. On top of that I had no movements. Several days later I became very weak and completely lost my appetite. I was in a trance-like state and reacted very slowly. My muscles ached and I felt sore and numb all over. What was hardest to bear were my body's reactions. I started to have very long gastrointestinal spasms. Each time I had spasms, I felt as if my entire body was being vehemently pulled apart, and I would sweat all over.

To make things worse, the guards also force-fed me. They adopted nasal feeding since it was more painful. They inserted a 5mm diameter rubber tube into my nose, down my oesophagus, then into my stomach. The guards roughly inserted the tube. When it sliced into my throat, it felt as if a tree branch been thrust into my neck. I could not swallow, and I could not remove the tube. It was excruciating. I was not the only practitioner going through this agony. Some practitioners died from this form of torture.

The guards then "fed" me thick salt water and corn flour paste through the tube. This kind of force-feeding seriously harms the victim. During the forced feeding, the guards tied my arms and legs and firmly held my head. I remained unable to breath or to break free. Each time the forced-feeding was over, my face would be covered with blood, the "meal" paste, and mucus.

Repeated force-feedings caused injuries to my nasal cavity, so it was impossible for them to continue the forced-feeding in that manner. But the guards thought of an even worse method. They simply left the tube in me. With a tube half inside and half outside, I was unable to close my mouth, so I had it open all the time. Saliva and mucus dripped from my mouth constantly. No one helped me to wipe it all away. What's more, the odour of the rotten food that I threw up filled the surrounding area. Even a healthy person would become ill in that kind of environment. And then, even at a time like that, the guards still came to insult me. The force-feeding caused great injury to my stomach as well. I began to have pus and blood in my stool. Several days later I collapsed. I could hardly breathe, and my blood pressure was extremely low. I was dying.

When I menstruated, I was never given any sanitary napkins. As a result my private parts were red and swollen after being soaked with blood and pus. The prison guards did not stop the force-feeding and did not untie me. During my period I would lose consciousness from time to time. I had no reactions when the Division head yelled at me. I was very close to a vegetative state.

When I was finally untied, it felt as if my back had been broken. The pain was so acute, it was as if needles were stabbing my heart. I had no feeling, and I could not move or breathe or cough. I could not feel my legs and the muscles in my arms were seriously strained. It took three weeks until I was able to move my arms again.

This is just a small sampling of what I was subjected to. The physical and mental suffering that I experienced during those 700 and more days and nights are beyond any description. Though this all happened to me several years ago, I still hurt and am still suffering adverse effects. The reason I was tortured so brutally was simply because I wanted to be a good person and I did not want to give up my belief in Falun Gong.

Those who tortured me included the heads of the No 4 Division Guan Wei and Zhang Guimei, as well as guard Yuan Ying.

Note

1. "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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/9/11/229509.html