Looking Back Ten Years -- Eyewitness Account of the Notorious "319 Incident" – Several Days of Particularly Brutal Persecution in Dalian Forced Labour Camp

Ten years ago, on March 19th, 2001, the officials and guards at the Dalian Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province initiated a brutal mass persecution of Falun Gong practitioners who were detained there. It was called the “319 Incident” by local practitioners. I was one of them. Afterwards, the incident was exposed to the international community and attracted a lot of attention. The Dalian Forced Labour Camp then pulled in their horns a little bit under international pressure.

The reason I am writing this article now is to provide additional exposure and to reveal the identities of some of the responsible officials who have so far been let off scot-free.

In March 2001, there were one to two hundred male Falun Gong practitioners and twice that many female practitioners detained in the Dalian Forced Labour Camp. Male and female practitioners were detained separately in two buildings. Afterwards, we found out that the same brutal persecution took place in both buildings.

After the staged self-immolation propaganda stunt in Tiananmen Square in early 2001¹, the Dalian Forced Labour Camp started to plan the “March 19th Incident.” They set up No. 8 Ward on March 12th, which was specifically used to detain and persecute practitioners. The persecution plan was carried out on the evening of March 18th. Guard Wang Jun led four monitoring inmates, including Yu Shiwei, to severely beat several practitioners. They put the practitioners in a separate room, threatened them, beat and verbally abused them in an attempt to force them to write a “Guarantee Letter” to give up their belief in Falun Gong. Practitioners were tortured very late into the night.

The following noon, March 19th, noisy shouting and the crackling sounds of electric batons came from a cell. The sounds became louder and louder, mixed with the screams of someone being brutally tortured. We later found out that the guard severely beat one practitioner, causing other practitioners to speak up in protest. Then, many guards and inmates quickly gathered. The persecution was thus carried out.

Head Qiao Wei and guards Wang Jun and Sun Jian led inmates Che Xin, Yu Shiwei, Jiao Bo, Liang Dahai, Zhou Wenguo and Sun Wei, and one by one, checked the cells where practitioners were held. Using electric batons and handcuffs, they picked practitioners at random and abused them with various tortures.

Guard Wang Jun led several inmates to take a practitioner named Wang away. After quite a while, he was carried back, his face distorted after beatings and his skin black and blue. His legs were badly injured, causing him to be unable to walk. Obviously the practitioner had been subjected to harsh tortures. However, although the practitioner was in very poor condition, Wang Jun still inserted the electric baton into his clothes. While shocking him, Wang Jun threatened, “Do you see this? This is the result of protesting the government!” Wang Jun and the monitoring inmates forced the practitioner down to kneel on the ground.

From noon to the following early morning, the building I stayed in resonated with the shouts of the guards, the crackling sounds of electric batons against flesh and the screams of torture. When the guards tried to force us to write guarantee letters, we wrote, “Falun Gong is innocent; Falun Gong is righteous. We’ll firmly practise Falun Gong to the end.”

On the third morning (March 20th), guard Qiao Wei broke into the cell again with several other guards and inmates. They wrote down three sentences that slandered Falun Gong on a blackboard and said, “Bend over! Whoever reads the words on the blackboard out loud can leave and stay in the side room.”

"Body Folding" is a torture that is often used by the guards to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The practitioner’s upper body and legs are forced to form a 90-degree angle; his legs are kept straight and his head points downward. His arms are raised high from behind his back to the maximum extent. Staying in this posture even a very short time leads to profuse sweating. Some practitioners refused to do it. Then the guards came up and dragged them out of the room. Some fell to the ground after staying in this posture for a while. Most practitioners held the posture, so as not to read the three sentences. The sweat dripped from my body, drop by drop, forming a puddle. The guards then brought out the electric batons to shock us. My hands were shocked numerous times. Meanwhile, the guards and monitors continued to curse and beat us.

One or two hours later, guard Wang Jun came back with several more inmates. They brought out some signs with the three sentences on them and hung them on each practitioner’s neck. I immediately refused and took the sign down. Several inmates then rushed towards me and carried me to another big room. Guard Wang Jun directed them, and Zhou Wenguo, Yu Shiwei and an unknown inmate severely beat me, causing many wounds on my body. Seeing that I would not go along with their demands, they handcuffed my hands behind my back, and hung me up on high poles, so that my tiptoes just barely touched the ground. Then they took turns beating me with wooden rods and soon the lower half of my body was covered in bloody purple and black welts. They kept on beating me until they were tired. Seeing that I still remained steadfast in my belief, they finally untied me and carried me to another room.

Many practitioners had been carried into that room. Some practitioners had their legs broken by the severe beating and electrical shocks. They couldn’t stand or move, they could only lie on the ground. Some practitioners’ faces and bodies were covered with wounds made by the electric batons. I was told that many of us had been taken to the “Torture Cell,” where guards and inmates persecuted us with all kinds of tortures. Some practitioners were stripped naked and subjected to prolonged electric shocking. The guards and inmates even wrote sentences slandering Falun Gong on practitioners’ bodies. Some practitioners were subjected to the Tiger Bench²; some were beaten black and blue. Some were hung up for a very long time. The weight of their bodies caused the handcuffs to cut deeply into their flesh, leaving them with permanent scars.

On the evening of March 21st, guards Sun Jian and Wang Jun returned with other inmates to again assist them. They took away several more practitioners and severely tortured them.

During the three-to-four-day persecution, the Dalian Forced Labour Camp used various kinds of brutal methods to torture Falun Gong practitioners. They sent many police officers, guards and inmates to participate in the persecution.

The same brutal persecution continued during the following several months. Every month, more practitioners were sent to the Dalian Forced Labour Camp and suffered the same tortures as those carried out during the “319 Incident.” Until early July 2001, many practitioners were severely injured and some died in the labour camp.

Note

1. The "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim.

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/3/20/37869.html