First-Hand Account of the Brutal Torture Experienced by a Falun Gong Practitioner

Below is a Falun Gong practitioner's personal account of the persecution that he suffered. His health had greatly improved from practising Falun Gong. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong, however, he was severely tortured many times. Police agents arrested him in 2001 and physically abused him. Later, he was detained in the Harbin and Daqing Prison, where he was tortured until February 2009. When he was unable to walk because of the torture, he was released, and his family carried him home.

First-hand account of the persecution:

I am an intellectual in Qiqihar City. I used to have high blood pressure, heart disease, and severe rheumatoid arthritis prior to practising Falun Gong. After practising Falun Gong, my physical health greatly improved, and I also acquired an improved mindset and a more positive attitude toward work. Then, however, the CCP started the massive persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

Tortured at the Beidajie Police Station

I went to Gaotou Village to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong on February 28th, 2001. Agents from the Beidajie Police Station in Jianhua District arrested me. Police station head Yu Zhiqiang and some other agents took me to an abandoned room in the Jianhua Construction Development Company. There were several bunk beds in the room. Five agents participated in abusing me. They handcuffed my hands behind my back and onto the upper level of one bed, and stretched my feet to another bunk bed. Yu kicked me hard to make my body swing between the beds. I immediately started to sweat profusely from the pain, and then lost consciousness. They put me down on the floor and used a teacup lid to push hard between my ribs, twisting and rubbing. Then they took electric batons and shocked me in the heart area, chest, penis and armpits. It was very painful and I was sweating. The agents removed all of my clothes except my underwear and pushed me into the freezing snow pile outdoors. Then they poured cold water on me. In the freezing cold, I was trembling and became numb. As a result, my arms could not move for more than 40 days thereafter.

Four limbs chained together at the Qiqihar First Detention Centre

Two days later, the agents sent me to the Qiqihar First Detention Centre. I had severe pain in my feet, my arms could not move, and my spine was severely injured due to the torture. Eleven months later, the police agents attempted to send me to the Harbin Prison, but I refused to have my picture taken. Then, the agents chained my hands together with my feet for 9 days. This chain was not removed until I was sent to Harbin Prison.

More abuse at the Harbin Prison and the death of Wang Dayuan

I was sent to the Harbin Prison in late January 2002. I was placed in solitary confinement for refusing to wear an inmate badge. Three months later, I was sent to the boiler room in Division 10. Guard Li Zhilong, together with inmates Chen Lijiang and Bai Jinglong, tortured me in many ways. They deprived me of sleep 24 hours a day and forced me to perform manual labour. Per instruction from Li Zhilong, inmate Zhou Saner beat me when nobody was around, breaking my ribs in the process. They prohibited me from talking with others or using the toilet. Zhou and Bai continued to beat me middle of the night and poked the area around my collar bone with a pen. This torture lasted six months.

Officials in Division 6 and Division 10 intensified the torture against practitioners starting on April 4th, 2004, in their attempt to force practitioners to abandon their belief. One night, they beat practitioner Wang Dayuan, who was detained in Division 6, to death.

Division 10 guard Liu Chunhai instructed more than 10 inmates to brutally torture me. They shoved me onto the floor face down, stretched my arms as far as they would go and bent my legs backward as far as they could. They repeated this torture many times. In addition, they hit my ankles with a hammer and suffocated me by wrapping plastic bags containing mustard oil around my head. My nostrils and lungs were burning with pain. They tortured me for three hours. My head was deformed, swollen and turned bluish. I lost feeling in my legs, and both of my arms became stiff and numb.

Officials secretly sent practitioners to various prisons to cover up the persecution

To conceal evidence of the persecution, including the death of Wang Dayuan, Harbin Prison officials secretly sent more than 60 detained practitioners on July 1st, 2004 to various other locations, such as the Mudanjiang Prison, the Tailai Prison and the Daqing Prison.

Many practitioners and I were sent to the Daqing Prison. It was a shocking scene once the police van stopped inside the Daqing Prison. All of the practitioners were limping out of the van and walking with much difficulty because of the injuries from torture.

I was detained in Section 5 of the Daqing Prison. Because of the severe injuries acquired at the Harbin Prison, plus the lack of sunlight, I developed anaemia and my four limbs felt numb. I joined other practitioners to oppose the persecution on August 28th, 2004, by refusing to wear the inmate uniforms, have my head shaved bald, or requesting time in the yard daily. Because of that, prison head Wang Yongxiang and guards dragged us to the drill ground and brutally beat us. As a result, I was unable to stand and needed assistance when walking. I was released on February 28th, 2009, and my family had to carry me home because I could not walk.

Right now, I am unable to take care of myself or go to work, thereby losing all income. Police agents still harass me from time to time. Many practitioners are still detained in various prisons, labour camps, and brainwashing centres. We are calling on human rights organisations to help these innocent people and to stop the CCP's brutal persecution.

Parties involved in the persecution:

Beidajie Police Station: 86-452-2552224
Yu Zhiqiang, former Beidajie Police Station head
Zhao Ping, Jianhua District 610 Office head: 86-452-2551254 (Office), 86-452-5965262 (Home), 86-13079629533 (Mobile)
Zhang Hong, 610 Office deputy head: 86-452-2551254

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/2/6/235930.html