63-Year-Old Mr. Wang Shilin Detained and Tortured Five Times

Mr. Wang Shilin, 63, lives in Longfeng District, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province. He started practising Falun Gong in the summer of 1996. Since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Mr. Wang has been arrested five times and suffered brutal torture. He said, "I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution at Jiamusi Detention Centre in Heilongjiang Province. As a result, I was chained to the ground with all four of my limbs stretched for 15 days. Even now, I don't dare to think about the pain I suffered. It was horrible!"

The following is Mr. Wang's account of the persecution he suffered:

1. Tortured at Longfeng District Detention Centre, Daqing

I was doing the Falun Gong exercises with over 30 other practitioners at a park in front of Longfeng Factory in Daqing on June 20th, 2000. Soon after, more than 20 policemen from the Longfeng Police Department arrived and arrested everyone. They took us to the Factory West Detention Centre in Longfeng District and extorted 6,000 yuan¹ from our relatives.

I was detained in a room with criminals on death row. In the hot summer, more than 20 people slept on one big bed and we could hardly breathe. All of us were forced to lay sideways, with our head next to someone's feet in order to fit everyone on the bed. We couldn't sleep on our backs or turn to the other side once we laid down. We were packed like sardines in a can.

2. Persecuted at Changxi Detention Centre

Policeman Yan Chengfeng and three other officers from the local police station broke into my house at around 2:00 p.m. on April 24th, 2003. They ransacked it and confiscated Falun Gong books and tapes, and a photo of Teacher Li Hongzhi [the founder of Falun Gong]. Then they forcibly took me to the police station. There, they interrogated me until midnight. Afterward, I was sent to Changxi Detention Centre in the Longfeng Area and detained for 15 days.

3. Barbarically Forced-Fed at Jiamusi City Detention Centre, Heilongjiang

Five practitioners and I went to Xinmin Village, Songjiang Township, Jiamusi to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong on December 11th, 2005. We were reported, and the police arrested us and took us to Songjiang Police Station. We were detained there for over 24 hours without any food or water. Chen Wanyou, Zhang Donghui, Liu Yan, and personnel from the Jiamusi "610 Office" [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong] instructed the police to harass us.

We were transferred to Jiamusi Detention Centre the following evening. Immediately, I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. On the third day of my hunger strike, guard Zhang ordered the criminal inmates to cuff my arms and legs to chains on the ground, with all four of my limbs stretched out. The pain was excruciating. I felt as though my body was coming apart.

Once they cruelly force-fed me a large amount of salt water, making me very thirsty. My stomach and oesophagus felt weird and the pain I felt is difficult to explain with words. As result of the pain, tears and mucus came out of my eyes and nose. The tube that was used to force-feed me smelled of manure. At the instigation of the guards, the criminal inmates tortured practitioners for fun.

I was tortured at the detention centre for more than 20 days. I was later transferred to Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp on December 31st, 2005 for further persecution. There, I was imprisoned for over 60 days.

4. Chained to the Ground for Fifteen Days

I was on my way home at around 6:00 p.m. on June 3rd, 2006 when Yue Yawen from the local police station arrested me. He conducted a body search and confiscated a Falun Gong magazine and an electronic reader with Falun Gong books. I was then sent to Jiamusi Detention Centre.

I went on a hunger strike to protest and was chained to the ground for 15 days. At that time, it was raining continuously outside. I had only one thin layer of clothes on and couldn't move. It was so cold that I felt I couldn't endure any longer. I then saw the detention centre director Zhang and asked him to close the window. He replied, "You are on a hunger strike...why are you afraid of being cold? I'll let you be afraid of the cold!" He then opened all the windows and more cold air blew at me. I was trembling continuously.

Chen Wanyou from the 610 Office ordered to have me detained in a forced labour camp for three years, so I was sent to Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp. I went on a hunger strike and was in critical condition. As a result, I was released five days later.

5. Tortured in Mishan City, Heilongjiang

Li Changlong, director of the local police station, led five frontier guard soldiers to arrest me when I was telling people the facts about Falun Gong in my hometown at the Second Division in Xinzhi Village, Shuangsheng Township, Mishan on January 16th, 2007. One of them forcefully hit my mouth, causing it to swell and all of my teeth to loosen.

A few days later, most of my teeth fell out. Now I have only one tooth on the bottom and five upper teeth. The soldiers beat and kicked me. My whole body was bruised black and purple, and in extreme pain.

At the detention centre, my weight dropped from 90 kilograms (198 pounds) to 60 kilograms (132 pounds) and I was in critical condition. I was no longer a healthy person in his sixties, but an old man whose body trembled every step he took. My son could barely recognize me. He tried hard to hold back his tears, but tears still fell. He thought I wouldn't survive.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/9/15/229674.html