[Minghui Net] From June through August 2000, 11 practitioners who had been arrested in Beijing while appealing for justice for Falun Dafa were returned to authorities in the City of Shouguang, close to their hometowns in Shandong Province. They were then forcibly confined to the Beiluo Mental Hospital where they suffered various inhumane tortures for 64 consecutive days. The names of the practitioners follow:

From the Town of Luo Cheng:

Ge Lanfeng, female, about 40 years old;

Li Jianmei, female, about 40 years old;

Xu Jinhui, female, about 30 years old;

Liang Shuqing, female, 35 years old;

Ning Xiuying, female, 32 years old;

Fu Lianhua, female, 38 years old;

Li Yichang, Li Yiming, male, 35 years old.

From the Village of Wang Wang:

Yi Dexiu, female, 51 years old;

Liu Hairong, female, 25 years old, daughter of Yi Dexiu, a graduate student.

From the Village of Wen Jia:

Sang Xiulian, female, 42 years old.

All except Liu Hairong, who lived near her graduate school, were local residents. All of them were healthy, showing no signs of any mental problems.

These 11 practitioners were locked up with mental patients, without seeing the light of day for 64 days. They endured numerous mental and physical tortures everyday while in the hospital. Doctors and nurses forsook their basic human nature and conscience when 'treating' the practitioners. Although they knew that the practitioners were healthy, they tied them down and injected them with harmful drugs three times a day. They used the excuse of "following orders from higher authorities" to justify such barbarous treatment. Practitioners were injected with shots of Thorazine* and other drugs that are supposed to be used for patients showing psychotic behavior. When practitioners refused to cooperate with them, the vicious doctors and nurses tortured them by forcing tubes up their noses and prying their mouths open with chopsticks, causing many practitioners to bleed from the mouth.

After the injections, practitioners fell into a state of semi-consciousness and unawareness of their actions, standing up and falling down again and again. Healthy people were treated like the truly insane. Some practitioners asked the doctors, "Why not send us to prison instead of locking up us here?" They replied truthfully, "You are in prison here!" This short reply completely showed their true faces-- brutal, ferocious and inhuman. Five or six days later, officials from their hometowns came to "visit" the practitioners. Thereafter, the drug dosage obviously increased, possibly because of an order from the "visitors".

Even in such a harsh environment, the practitioners did not forget to improve their Xinxing and continue to cultivate themselves. They recited poems from Hong Yin and "Lunyu" together. Reflecting the miraculous power of Falun Dafa, the drugs lost their effect on the practitioners several days later, strengthening their determination to continue their practice and study of Falun Dafa.

After torturing the practitioners for 64 days, authorities from the Bailuo Mental Hospital extorted 3,000 Yuan (Chinese currency, about six months salary for an average worker in urban China) from each practitioner in exchange for their release. In addition, practitioner Sang Xiulian was forced to pay 21,000 Yuan to the local government for various fabricated reasons. Li Jianmei was sent to labor camp. Liu Hairong was expelled from her university.

From practitioners in China

March 18, 2001

* The psychotropic drug Thorazine (also known as Aminazin, Chlorpromazine, Largactil, Thorazine or Wintermin) is a strong tranquilizer that used in the treatment of psychiatric patients. Thorazine in particular can have powerful side effects, such as tardive dyskinesia (a serious, irreversible neurological disorder), tardive dementia (a global deterioration of her mind and mental faculties caused by the drugs), general dulling of awareness, emotional numbing, and cognitive dysfunction. Symptoms of tardive dyskinesia involve uncontrollable movement of various body parts, including the body trunk, legs, arms, fingers, mouth, lips, or tongue.

According to Amnesty International's medical advice, these drugs are not in themselves sinister. There are specific disorders for which they are prescribed, but they should be administered by qualified doctors, and their use monitored. In the light of cases of torture and ill-treatment of Falun Gong practitioners, and in the absence of evidence that they suffer from any psychiatric disorder, it is evident that the administration of such drugs are a punitive measure. In other words, Falun Gong practitioners have been inappropriately administered psychotropic drugs in order to punish them for their spiritual belief in Falun Gong.