By a Dafa Practitioner in China

November 7, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net) Liaoning Province Female Prison, also known as Dabei Fifth Prison, is detaining over 200 Dafa practitioners. Because of the tight information blockade, it is difficult for outsiders to know its dark secrets.

All of the Dafa practitioners detained here, especially those strongly committed to Dafa, have experienced torture. The first is called "life and death." To torture practitioners, the prison used Tiger Bench*, Dead Person Bed**, needles on fingertips, hands nipped by nail clippers, boiling water and other forms of torture. For those practitioners who are able to overcome these tortures, the prison guards would hang them in the air and hit them with metal bars. Some practitioners suffered neck injuries, and some suffered from internal injuries.

After the "life and death" tortures, Dafa practitioners go through a torment called "hell's gate." The guards try to force Dafa practitioners to curse Master and compel them to abandon Dafa. For those who refuse to do so, several police officers will forcefully hold and guide the practitioner's hand to sign a document denouncing Dafa. If someone still refuses, they tie the practitioner with rope and glue sticky notes with swear words against Master all over his body, and keep him awake for 24 hours. Several people would point their fingers at the practitioner and verbally attack Master.

For a long time, the practitioners had no access to Dafa books and articles. They also have to endure brainwashing. Contact among practitioners is banned. Every day, practitioners are tortured so severely that their lives are in imminent danger.

*Tiger Bench

In this torture method, practitioners 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. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force themáto remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioners' lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse.

**Death Board or Death Bed

The "death board" (or "death bed") is a particularly hideous torture device. It is an iron or wood board with handcuffs and shackles to lock the victims' four limbs in a stretched position. A victim is usually confined to a death board for a minimum of seven days. As movement is completely restricted, the confinement of a victim on the death bed leads to painful muscular atrophy. In severe cases, the victim even loses control of bladder and bowel movements. The excretion of stool and urine is directly on the iron bed, resulting in an unsanitary condition. To save themselves the trouble of cleaning, the torturers usually strip the victim down to a T-shirt or even naked, adding to the humiliation. Since the victim is not released from the board for many days, torture on the death board is usually coupled with the torture of forced-feeding.