Changchun Women’s Prison Sets up “Reform Division” Specifically to Inflict Harm on Falun Gong Practitioners

In order to streamline its continuous persecution of detained Falun Gong practitioners, officials from Changchun Women’s Prison in Jilin Province set up a “Reform [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] Division” specifically to carry out brainwashing and inflict psychological and physical harm on practitioners. Between 300 and 400 practitioners are still incarcerated in the prison. Below are details of the abuse to which practitioners are subjected.

Solitary Confinement

Many small rooms on the third and fifth floors are used as solitary confinement cells to hold determined and newly arrived practitioners who are forbidden to have any contact with the outside world. Four to five criminal inmates are assigned to watch each practitioner. All women need permission from these monitors for everything they do, including using the toilet. There are also so-called helpers who bombard the practitioners with warped theories daily.

Physical Harm

When brainwashing fails to do its job, prison officials resort to a variety of corporal punishment. Below are some examples.

(1) Beating and Insulting

The monitors and helpers never hesitate to verbally abuse and beat practitioners who refuse to listen to them or refuse to watch videos and read books that defame Falun Gong. These perpetrators also insult practitioners frequently.

(2) Forcing Practitioners to Sit on a Small Stool for Long Periods

With this torture, the victim is forced to sit on a small stool from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Any slight move results in cursing and beating from the monitors. To make the practitioner suffer even more, sometimes monitors even have her sit on just one corner of the stool, with all her body weight placed on her two legs. If she slips onto the stone floor, she is not allowed to get up, but rather has to remain in that position for a long time. Some practitioners developed bloody blisters on their buttocks, and their underwear stuck to their bottoms.

(3) Making Practitioners Stand for Extended Periods

The victim has to stand from five in the morning to eleven at night. She is allowed no breaks, even for meals. Many practitioners had edema and swollen limbs as a result. When one practitioner reported this torture to a certain prison head inspecting her cell, she was met with retaliation. The head ordered her to stand two more hours that day.

(4) Having Practitioners Remain in Falun Gong Exercise Positions for Prolonged Periods

Sometimes the monitors use the Falun Gong exercises as a means to make practitioners suffer. One monitor even said, “Don’t you want to practise the exercises? I’ll allow you to do one move and tire you to death!” The abuse manifests in many different ways. Sometimes the victim is forced to hold her arms above her head from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. If she can’t help but lower her arms during the day, she has to make up the lost time at night, and is sometimes not allowed to sleep at all. Other times the monitors order the practitioner to double-cross her legs and then tie the legs from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. They additionally make her life hard by waking her up at the top of every hour, ordering her to meditate, essentially rendering her sleepless.

(5) Stepping on Practitioners’ Stomachs

One monitor named Pang Shuyan was extremely cruel. She called herself “Demon Pang” and once threatened one practitioner saying, “If you still refuse to reform, I’ll let you experience what it feels like when I step on your stomach with both of my feet and watch fluid shoot out of your nose and mouth.” Apparently she did that to other practitioners in the past. She also beat practitioners with a leather whip, pre-soaked in water. She even bragged about her brutality, “I’ve never gone easy on any practitioner I monitored. I’ll make you shudder just at the very sight of me!”

(6) Putting Practitioners through Various Kinds of Bed Tortures

Even the bed is utilized as a tool to mistreat practitioners. Below are some examples of the various kinds of bed tortures.

In one torture the victim is forced to lie on her back, with both legs straightened and both arms raised. She has to keep her arms up until bedtime at 11:00 p.m. If her posture does not satisfy the monitors, they curse and beat her while sometimes even kicking her arms hard. If the practitioner moves her head, no matter how slightly, they make her shake her head as a punishment. If she dozes off, they force her to lift her arms up for an even longer time, sometimes depriving her of sleep for an entire night.

More brutal treatments follow if the practitioner still holds firm to her belief after having endured the above torture. She is now ordered to lie on her stomach, with her hands held behind her back and her head lifted up. If she has trouble raising her head, the monitors simply tie her head to the wood slat of the top bunk bed. If this still doesn't make her succumb, they order her to stretch her arms all the way back, to reach and hold her feet. If she refuses to follow orders, they will “help” her grab her feet. One monitor will sit on her knees and shake her body, while another jumps on her back and yanks her head backward. The practitioner feels excruciating pain in her neck and back.

They also beat her on the face until it becomes swollen. To stop her from screaming, they gag and keep torturing her like this until her hands eventually meet her feet. She is released from the torture at bed-time, but often can’t straighten her legs right away. The monitors, however, don’t hesitate to step on her knees to straighten her legs. To make her suffer even more, they take away all bedding and have her sleep without any covers.

The victim has to remain on the bed during the entire torture while the monitors feed her meals and use a pot to catch her waste. They often curse her for the inconvenience to themselves, and sometimes do not even offer the pot. Once a practitioner had to hold for 36 hours without emptying her bladder, and the monitors even gagged her with a urine-soaked towel.

These prolonged periods of bed tortures often cause the victim to develop illness symptoms, but the monitors claim she is just faking, and intensify the torture. If she complains one arm is hurting, they will tie up, stretch, twist or yank that arm, saying, “I am massaging your arm.”

Many practitioners were reduced to a skeletal state after undergoing the bed tortures. The monitors once tied up a woman in her sixties in bed for three straight months, even during her sleep. When she moved her hands or arms, the monitors tightened the ropes as a response. They said, “If you refuse to reform, you have to remain in bed, even if you die right here. This is hell, and not even a fly can get out.”

(7) Stretching Torture

With this torture, the victim’s limbs are immobilized in a spread eagle position, tied to the four top ends of the bedposts. The entire body remains suspended in air. A variation of this torture calls for the use of two beds at the same time. The victim’s arms are stretched, to be tied up to one bed while her feet are secured to another bed. When the two beds are pulled apart, the victim immediately feels unbearable pain in her arms.

The victim’s arms and legs often become swollen and turn black and blue during the torture. When she is about to collapse, the monitors untie the ropes and give her a brief break. But once she feels better, they tie her up again. They repeat the process, over and over, to make her suffer and weaken her willpower.

(8) Deliberately Postponing Getting Medical Care for Sick Practitioners

One practitioner was made to suffer the bed tortures for an extended period of time, during which she was also beaten frequently. She became extremely weak and had to gather all her strength to simply relieve herself. One day while trying to use a portable potty, her legs shook so uncontrollably that her bottom fell hard into the potty, splashing human waste that was already in it on herself. The monitors claimed she was faking being sick and kept humiliating her. She was eventually sent to a hospital but never made it back. Other practitioners just like her died due to long delays in receiving medical care.

Another practitioner sustained fractures in her hands after being tied up for too long. She is still being held in the prison.

Practitioners sickened by tortures have to make repeated requests before the prison finally agrees to send them to a hospital. The monitors often check them into ICUs and order doctors to perform unnecessary examinations and procedures. These perpetrators enjoy seeing practitioners incur huge amounts of medical expenses. As soon as the practitioners get discharged, and even before they fully recover, the monitors take them back to the third or fifth floor of the prison, for continued persecution.

(9) Conniving with Monitors’ Brutal Treatment of Practitioners

One practitioner was beaten so badly that she bled from her mouth and nose. When she eventually had an opportunity to report the monitors’ brutality to the prison head she was shocked to hear his reply, “Prison is this country’s apparatus for the purpose of carrying out violence. Once you are here, all you do is learn to be obedient.” When a monitor reported another practitioner’s situation to team head Zhang he said, “This woman deserves beating. I’d say teach her a good lesson!” That monitor returned, repeating those words to her with great pride.

The monitors also take joy in squandering and misusing practitioners’ money and abusing personal belongings. When the victim vomits due to torture, they use her quilt to catch the vomit and then toss the bed cover away. They also intentionally forbid her from using the toilet. She has no choice but to relieve herself in bed. They then use her money to buy new bedding for her. They don't allow her to wash herself, and when her clothes smell they force her to take them off and buy new ones.

When the victim becomes too weak, the monitors force her to order a special dish every day. If she refuses, they don't hesitate to order for her, using her own money saying, “You need more nutrition, especially calcium. We ordered these dishes for you so you can become stronger.” When she does get better, they continue torturing her.

Intensifying Brainwashing of Practitioners that Succumb against their Will

Some practitioners can't stand the brutal torture and give up their belief against their will. They are then sent to the fourth floor to go through intensified and systematic brainwashing. There, monitors and helpers keep track of their every move. They are forced to watch videos and read books slandering Falun Gong. They have to criticize Falun Gong in their assignments. They are banned from talking to each other, and even a casual chat about a dream would be interpreted as indication of not thorough enough "reformation." Such practitioners are punished or even sent back to the third or fifth floor for corporal punishment.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/8/4/244901.html