The Persecution of Practitioners in Gansu Jiuquan Prison

Chen Xueheng and Luo Xiaohu, heads of the Gansu Province Legal and Political Committee, and Zhang Xingzhong, head of Lanzhou City Legal and Political Committee, gave orders to the guards in Jiuquan Prison to torture Falun Gong practitioners physically and mentally.

The guards forced and encouraged convicts to take turns torturing practitioners by depriving them of sleep for long periods of time, shocking them with electric batons, hanging them up while in handcuffs, making them do manual labor, locking them in solitary confinement, verbally abusing them, pressuring them to write guarantee statements to give up the practice, and forcing them to watch programmes that slandered Falun Gong.

Mr. He Lizhong from Wuhan was arrested and taken to the No. 4 Ward early this year. He was incarcerated in a solitary cell. Initially, three convicts were sent to torture him. Later, six convicts tortured him non-stop for over a month. Subsequently, guards transferred him to the No. 2 Ward and forced him to do manual labour. Shortly afterward, he was again put into solitary confinement and closely watched. Everyday, he had to undergo drill training in the morning from 7 a.m. until noon, as well as in the afternoon from 2 to 6 p.m. At night, instead of sleeping, he had to stand in the cell to “examine his thoughts.”

During his detention in 2009, Mr. Zhang Dengchun was imprisoned in the No. 4 Ward the entire time. Everyday he was locked in a cell and forced by the convicts to watch taped programmes and read books that slander Falun Gong. This brainwashing lasted for about two years. Even after he was diagnosed with serious illnesses such as heart problems and high blood pressure, he was still tortured. He was later transferred to the second strict management team. By then, he had lost control of his bowels and was sent to a hospital outside the prison for treatment. Afterwards, he was allowed medical parole.

In 2002, Mr. Jin Jilin from Yuzhong, Lanzhou was sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was secretly taken to the No. 4 Ward of Jiuquan Prison in 2009 and detained in a small cell. Four convicts watched him. He was tortured in many different ways by the guards and convicts, including not being allowed to sleep or sit, being punched and handcuffed behind his back, and being forced to watch programmes defaming Falun Gong, which were played repeatedly.

Practitioner Mr. Li Yuhai from the No. 404 Mine in Gansu Province was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment in 2002. He was initially in the No. 3 Ward and was later transferred to the No. 4 Ward after he developed symptoms of mental instability.

In December 2005, Jiuquan Prison officials sent steadfast practitioners detained in different wards to the No 6. Ward to be tortured more brutally, as the following descriptions attest.

(1) Practitioners were forced to lean over the back of a pig with both hands hugging the animal's body and handcuffed beneath its stomach. The pig dashed around in fear and the practitioners were unable to straighten their back and had to lean on the animal's body, their feet had to keep moving or else they would fall into the pig pen.

(2) Practitioners were hung up and their heads covered with cloth soaked in water, making breathing difficult.

(3) Practitioners were forced to “study” till 2-3 a.m. in the morning. The guards would then appear in the cell and force a dozen inmates, exhausted from a whole day's labour and desperately in need of sleep, to clean up the room. Consequently these inmates vented their anger on practitioners and brutally beat them.

(4) Sleep deprivation. Twenty practitioners were split up into groups of two, each group forced to read books and watch shows slandering Falun Gong for two hours. This went on for several days. Finally, someone was instructed to pull up the practitioners' eyelids so that they were forced to stay awake. The guards shouted, “We have all the time in the world, as well as people eager to torture you to death.”

Contact information for the perpetrators:

Jiuquan Prison:

Ji Peirong, head guard: +86-937-2611108
No. 1 Ward: +86-937-2663188; No. 2 Ward: +86-937-2611158; No. 3 Ward: +86-937-5912472; No. 4 Ward: +86-13993706006; No. 6 Ward: +86-937-2632690

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/10/12/247780.html