(Clearwisdom.net) The staff of the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison have been persecuting female Falun Gong practitioners around the clock, and the officers of the No. 8 block of the prison particularly persecute practitioners severely.

On the night of September 5, 2003, the No. 8 block police confiscated practitioners' Falun Gong literature: some practitioners then began openly practicing the exercises to protest. In retaliation, the police locked up Ms. Wang Juyan that night. On the following day, all of the practitioners practiced the exercises together. More than 30 criminals from the block then appeared with clubs, wooden boards, ropes and other tools, and they tied all the practitioners to the ends of beds, forcing them to sit on the floor with their legs straightened. The brigade chief, Zhang Chunhua, led the brutality by kicking practitioners in their faces and stepping on their bodies with high-heel shoes. Also, some criminals kicked and punched the practitioners repeatedly. Ms. Zhang Yanfang's two teeth were instantly shattered: many practitioners were rendered unconcious by the beatings, and some practitioners' faces even turned blue.

On September 8, after the practitioners had to sit on the floor for two days, the prison warden led more than 40 guards and criminals; they tricked some practitioners into going to an empty area. The guards and criminals then took electric batons, handcuffs, clubs, bamboo sticks, plastic tubes and bottles and formed a circle. They forced the practitioners to run inside this circle and beat them while they ran. Those who ran slowly received heavier beatings. No one was exempt, not even the elderly or injured. Staff from the health section waited on one side to inject drugs whenever a practitioner fell down, and then they sent the practitioners back to running. Six practitiones had high blood pressure, the highest reaching 220. They were forced to run after receiving drugs, again and again. Practitioners who could no longer run were forced to squat with both hands on their heads; they were tortured with electric batons, beaten and forced to "ride an airplane" (1). When they could bear no more of the torture, they were once again forced to run. The practitioners were repeatedly put through cycles of running and squatting. Many of them with injured muscles developed limps.

An Ling was seriously hurt and could not walk. A health section police officer found a long acupuncture needle and asked criminal Wang Fengchun to twist the needle into An Ling's legs and toes until it reached bone. This process was so painful that An Ling screamed desperately. Ma Shuhua, age 52, was already handicapped with neuritis. None the less, several criminals, running, pulled her along until she lost consciousness. The criminals then dragged her to the fifth floor of the male prisoner's building, accused her of faking unconciousness and beat her again. Afterwards, they dragged her downstairs to continue the physical torture. To keep from being beaten, Ms. Ma Shuhua struggled to stand up, but with every step she took, she felt as much pain as if she was stepping on broken glass. Even though they could see her distressed condition, they still did not spare her one bit, and they even stepped on her feet until they were bloody with ripped skin. Eleven days passed before she was even able to remove her socks.

During the day time, practitioners were continously beaten, tortured with electric batons and forced to squat and run. They were deprived of water and given an inadequate amount of food. Each person was given only half of the proper meal quantity, and a few practitioners only shared a single steamed bun. The practitioners were all exhausted due to the torment. Ms. Wang Xiulan, 67, was too thirsty. She asked a police officer, "Can I have some water? I am awfully thirsty." The policeman was not moved, and he even kicked away a dirty bottle that contained a small amount of water when Wang ran to pick it up. The cruelty worsened: those practitioners who refused to run were hung up, shackled to windows, shocked with electric batons, beaten, slapped and kicked. Prisoner Wang Fengchun even stabbed practitioners' vaginas with wooden sticks. One of Ms. Pu Yingshu's leg was not well, and she could not stand, so almost all her weight was put on her handcuffed wrists. The handcuffs cut deep into her flesh. She was repeatedly cuffed at her wounds, and the cuts opened widely.

At night, we were all locked up in a corridor. We were handcuffed behind the back, and we sat on the cold cement floor. The police did not allow us to sleep, wash ourselves or use the toilet, and even when someone had her menstrual period, she was not allowed to use a sanitary pad. Criminals Wang Fengchun, Zhu Yuhong, Li Guihong, Li Guixiang, Huang He, Wang Wei, Zhao Yan and others also invented many cruel tortures. In order to not let practitioners shut their eyes, they pricked practitioners' eyelids with toothpicks, injected water into their eyes with syringes, and pricked their insteps, arches and toes with needles. With blood congealing, their socks would stick to their feet. The inmates also struck the practitioners' faces, mouths, insteps and arches with wooden boards. Many people's mouths were swollen after the torture. The wicked people even laughed and remarked that our mouths looked like the mouths of pigs. Many practitioners' feet were too swollen to fit into their shoes, but they still had to run.

The police continued stepping on practitioners' feet, causing Ms. Shang Xiufang and Ms. Li Xiuru's toenails to fall off. Many other practitioners' toenails blackened and turned purple; the police stepped on practitioners' stiffened knees, inserted insoles and socks into practitioners' mouths, stripped off their pants, hit their buttocks, gave them strange haircuts, stepped on their vaginas and punched their chins. The police pinched hard on sensitive places such as the insides of thighs and armpits.

Practitioners were tortured by "carrying the cross." [Several people are tied to a horizontal board, while another board is placed upright in the middle. If one person moves, the others can not sit straight, and this torture is very painful.] The police also tortured practitioners with "striking the gong" [The police strike a gong violently near the practitioners ears to deafen practitioners]. One of Ms. Ni Shuzhi's ears became deaf, and many others developed tinnitus after being hit by hands and wooden boards. Wang Fengchun even hit 60-year-old Ms. Zhou Shuying in the face with a wooden board that had iron nails, and her face, with holes in it, festered. The police found a two-meter long bamboo pole to hit people; they could then hit everyone without having to move. They perversely enjoyed hitting practitioners' heads and faces. This bamboo pole eventually became the favorite tool used by police officer Gui Nana.

This sadistic torture lasted 11 days. The police forced us to run and squat, beating and hanging us in the daytime, and continuing the torment at night. We could not even blink our eyes. Thirst, hunger, pain, fatigue, drowsiness and dirtiness exhausted us, turning our minds cloudy and unclear. Ms. Wang Jianping and Ms. Wu Meiyan began babbling, and Ms. Xu Yongqin fainted. Ms. Wang Aihua and Ms. Zhang Yanfang suffered the most. Because the police found Teacher's articles in Ms. Wang Aihua's hands, she was taken by herself to the camp office for the first three days. She was tortured with the "Tying the Rope" method (2) and was forced to squat. She fainted and was force-fed with some drug, and then was tied and forced to squat again. She squatted from dawn to dusk for three days without any rest. Later, she was brought to run. Because her heart was palpitating from the torture, she could not run fast. When she was unable to run anymore, she was hung up on the window, beaten and shocked with electric batons. Police officer Section Chief Chen even shocked her breasts, making her heart condition even worse. At night, she was still hung up on the window, and they brutally tortured her. They beat her ceaselessly because she would not renounce her belief.

After midnight, Wang Wei and Zhu Yuhong brutally hit 58-years-old Ms. Zhou Chunzhi's lower back. As a result Zhou could not stand up. Zhu Yuhong then ordered Zhou Chunzhi to stand up, telling her that if she did not, she would beat Ms. Wang Aihua. Upon saying this, she started to hit Wang Aihua's face with a wooden board. She would hit Wang once and ask Zhou Chunzhi again to stand. Wang Aihua's face quickly became a swollen mess with many marks. Ms. Zhou Chunzhi could feel Wang's pain, and she tried to stand up again and again, even though every move caused her tremendous pain. At last, elderly Ms. Zhou kneeled with astonishing endurance. However, Zhu Yuhong handcuffed Zhou Chunzhi to a window and continued to beat Wang Aihua. Ms. Wang Aihua's face was so swollen that her eyes could not be seen.

They also started to torture Ms. Zhang Yanfang, Ms. Shang Xiufang and others. The police stripped off the pants of the three female practitioners and began hitting their buttocks, backs and necks with wooden boards and heavy shoes. Prisoner Li Guixiang pricked Ms. Wang Aihua's wounded face with a toothpick until the toothpick broke. She then "washed" Wang's face with concentrated salt water and also rubbed the salt water on other people's injuries. When morning came, they forced the practitioners to run again. Ms. Zhou Chunzhi could not walk, so she was dragged. The pants she wore were all tattered. Zhang Yanfang and Wang Aihua went to see the head of the prison to protest the persecution. Warden Cong told them, "If you transform [give up the practice of Falun Gong], I will take care of it." Ms. Zhang Yanfang had already suffered brutal torture for refusing to run for two days. By that day, Ms. Wang Aihua's face was distorted, and she was wounded all over her body. Ms. Zhang's hands were covered with blisters caused by the electric baton, but they wanted to start using a higher voltage baton. Afterwards, they locked up the practitioners in a confinement cell.

Eight female Falun Gong practitioners including Ding Yun, Zhang Shuzhe, Wang Hongjie, Liu Liping, Zhao Xin, Wu Yingxin, Tian Guiqing, and Tian Yushu have been punished separately. On the first day, the police cuffed their hands behind their backs and pulled the hands up as high as possible, making them sit on the floor, tied up, with legs straightened. Their mouths were forced to touch their knees, and their bodies formed a circle. It was extremely painful. Prisoner Wang Wei beat anyone who made the slightest movement. Everyone was soaked in sweat from the pain, but no one compromised a bit. This torture ended in an hour, by which time, Ms. Guan Yingxin was close to fainting and could not walk steadily.

On September 11, Ms. Liu Liping and Ms. Zhao Xin were forced to run. More than 20 police officers formed a circle holding electric batons, nightsticks and other torture tools. The practitioners were horribly tortured inside this circle. However, the two practitioners shouted, "Fellow practitioners, do not be resentful while enduring! Falun Dafa is Great!" Practitioners who were exhausted physically and mentally were awakened by their courage. A righteous power allowed them to lift up their hands and shout, "Falun Dafa is Great! Falun Dafa is righteous!" The shouts resounded through the skies and shocked all of the police and prisoners. The police then knocked down Liu Liping and Zhao Xin, and a group of people beat Ms. Liu Liping. Police officer Niu Tianxiang stepped on her face, and Wang Fengchun sat on her leg and beat her. A policewoman from the Defense Unit stepped on Ms. Liu's belly. Ms. Liu moved her body, and the policewoman fell. After she stood up, she madly hit Ms. Liu's head and body, but Liu would not stop shouting, "Falun Dafa is Great!" The police then inserted shoe pads into her mouth, sealed her mouth with tape, and pulled her to the corner of a wall. After she was brought back, Song Libo, who weighted more than 80 kgs (176 lbs), sat on the very thin Zhao Xin. Other practitioners were also pulled to the wall and were forced to squat while being tied up with the "Carrying a Sword in the Back" (3) method. They were brutally beaten and tortured with high voltage electric batons on their faces, bodies, necks and chests. Their hands became blue and purple from the "tying the ropes." But all this cruelty still could not stop the calls of the practitioners. Finally, the police locked Ms. Zhao and Ms. Liu in "small cells" (4).

After eleven days of torture, everyone's appearance was distorted, with many practitioners' faces swollen and bodies covered with bruises. They also became lame and suffered from the many injuries all over their bodies. All of the practitioners were disheveled, with their clothes down at their feet.

Two days later, everybody was brought to a prison cell and subjected to the "Sitting Board" torture method (5), and they had to walk in formation. If anyone's actions did not please the police, they were tortured with clubs, electric batons, punches and kicks. Jia Shuying did not cooperate and was brutally tortured many times. Police officer Xiao Lin kicked her ribs, causing her to be unable to breath deeply for more than a month. Ni Shuzhi, age 57, had hypertension and could not walk steadily, but she still was beaten almost everyday. Nearly 50-year-old Xie Xiuying's legs trembled from pain, but the police continued to have her stand on one foot. When she could not stand steadily, the police hit and shocked her leg. As a result, her legs developed many clots and became swollen to the point that she could not wear pants. Even the doctor wondered, "If this becomes too serious, we may need to amputate!" However, Zhang Chunhua did not allow Xie to reveal the truth. The prison even asked Xie to pay for her medical expenses. Xie could not afford the bills, so she was not hospitalized. She still has not recovered.

The police also forced us to stand in the rain, and all of the practitioners were soaking wet. The police asked everyone to shout slogans and sing. They asked us to shout "government is good." When no one obeyed, the police beat us. Later, because Wang Shuling and other practitionres refused to shout "government is good", Zhao Yan, grabbed them by the hair and rammed their heads against a bed frame. If the practitioners did not squat in the correct posture, fists and kicks would follow. Li Guihong kicked Shang Xiufang's throat, and she instantly fainted. This kind of torture did not conclude until mid-October.

Zhang Shuzhe, Ding Yu and others' feet became swollen from the torture, but Zhang did not make any noise and had no facial expression. Wang Fengchun touched her nose and thought she had fainted, so she did not dare to beat her again. On this day, the practitioners began a hunger strike to resist the persecution, and the strike lasted until November 2. For more than 50 days, they were cuffed behind the back, not allowed to wash themselves, and were force-fed through tubes. The tubes were changed and washed only once a week. Sometimes six people would be force-fed with half a kilogram of salt.

Zhang Shuzhe and Ding Yu were forced into stamping their fingerprints on pre-written wills.

Wang Juyan was locked up in a confinement cell, and she started a hunger strike right away to resist the persecution. They inserted plastic tubes into her while she sat on an iron chair for more tha 10 days; Liu Liping and Zhao Xin's clothes were stripped off until they were only left with tattered clothes, pants and bare feet. They were locked up in the confinement cell for more than 40 days, including the coldest days of September. Wounded, Wang Aihua and Zhang Yanfang were locked in a cold room in which water had leaked into, and every the plank was wet. They only had two meals of rice flour gruel per day. The bitter cold, hunger, pain and fatigue caused Wang Aihua to have a very high fever. Her heart rate and blood pressure became abnormal, and she was locked in a small cell (4) for more than 40 days.

The police utterly disregard laws when mistreating Falun Gong practitioners. Patrol chief Wang Yali and the head of the No. 8 prison area Zheng Jie declared publicly, "We are the law! We are the wicked police, and we are lawless!" The brigade leader Zhang Xiuli said, "This is a place where facts are distorted, and police officers can beat people." Then she said, "Who will know if nobody sees it?" The police even denied instigating criminals into beating practitioners with batons and handcuffs. Because a particular criminal did not make any effort to beat practitioners, police officer Niu Tianxiang squirted a half bottle of mineral water in her face and she was then slapped several times on the face.

The brigade leader Zhang Chunhua told the criminals, "If you torture anyone to death, it will be regarded merely as a natural death." They even rewarded the extremely wicked criminal Wang Fengchun with generous quantities of food. When force-feeding, Wang asked Song Libo, who had no medicial knowledge, to force-feed Jia Shuying, and Wang said, "Just repeatedly insert the tube. Let her die. Let her get stomach cancer." The newly appointed prison block head Zheng Jie watched quietly from the side.

Because Ms. Zhang Yuzhen refused to let the character for "PRISONER" be printed on her body, Wang Fengchun kicked her legs, and and she was crippled for three months. Ms. Zhang Shuqin, Ms. Pu Yingshu, Ms. Wang Hongjie, Ms. Ren Shuxian and others who refused to give up their belief in Falun Gong were hung up and handcuffed, with only their toes touching the ground, and their four limbs were pulled in different directions. The practitioners had to hold this position for up to 22 days. A prisoner taunted Ms. Zhang Shuqin by swinging her legs while she was hung up. Their arms were tightly tied and remained numb and immobile for more than a month afterwards.

Ms. Ren Shuxian was forced to jump out of the building from a high place. Her feet landed against the ground, fracturing her heel bone and her spine. Many people were locked up in the small cells many times, with the most frequent victim being confined five times in 10 months. Practitioners once again conducted a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Jia Shuying was regarded as the initiator of this strike, so Li Guihong and Zhu Yuhong tortured her.

In November, Falun Gong practitioners detained in the No. 5 prison block were pulled out to be frozen because they refused to wear their name tags, nor did they answer during roll call. A few of them were stripped of their cotton-padded jackets and forced to stand in the snow, wearing only very thin clothes. (It is said that their feet were buried under the snow). Some practitioners became injured due to freezing. Seven people still refused to compromise, and they were locked up in the small cells. They conducted a hunger strike. They were later released from the cells before the New Year holiday.

No. 2 prison block practitioners were also forced to run, frozen and tortured. Yu Xiulan was locked up in the small cell after being injured from torture and freezing. Falun Gong practitioners from other blocks, such as those from No. 1 and No. 7 blocks, also suffered various degrees of persecution. At the same time, practitioners in No. 8 block again conducted a hunger strike and practiced the exercises together to support practitioners in other blocks and to resist the persecution. Four people were then sent to the small cells. The police on duty, Cao Jingyun and Zhang Xiufang, stripped off all of the practitioners' clothes, except for their underwear and their hollow cotton-padded jackets, poured cold water on the practitioners and cuffed their hands. They also tied up Ding Yu and told her to stand in a bucket of cold water. The practitioners started a hunger strike in protest, and they were released from confinement before New Year's . The other practioners, more than 20 in total, were shackled for many days and nights. They sat on the floor and joined in a hunger strike for more than 10 days. Even today, the persecution has not ended.

A final note: Falun Gong practitioners in the No. 8 prison block area are still subjected to persecution. A few days ago, criminal Niu Guihong tied up Ms. Yan Huijuan and stuck her with an awl 200 to 300 times. She bled badly, and her wounds were almost too horrible to look at.

Office telephone number for Zheng Jie, the head of No. 8 prison area:

86-451-86684001, switchboard extension 3111

(1) "Ride an airplane:" a torture method. The victim's head is bent down until it cannot go any further, while the hands are pulled up to the highest point. The hips have to point up. One is forced to keep this position unchanged for a long time. In this position, a body has the shape of an airplane.

(2) Tying the Rope: The torture method "Tying the Rope" uses a finger-width hemp rope soaked in water. The persecutors set it on the Dafa practitioner's neck and tightly wrap it around the arms. To maximize the pain for the victim, they often strip the practitioner down to his or her underwear. Usually, at least three persecutors work together to apply this torture. When the rope reaches the wrists, it is tightened. They pull the practitioner's hands behind the back, both ends of the rope are inserted through the portion of the rope on the neck; then, two persecutors forcefully pull down both ends of the rope as hard as they can and tie it. Blood circulation is cut off and the victim will experience increased heart rate, excruciating pain in both arms, and within a few minutes, heavy sweating.

(3) "Carrying a Sword in the Back:" a cruel torture method. The practitioner's hands are tied behind his or her back with one hand over the shoulder and the other hand against the lower back. The police then apply a great deal of force to pull the two hands toward one another and handcuff the two hands.

(4) Being locked in a "small cell:" The detainee is locked up in a very small cell individually. The guards handcuff the practitioners on their back in a fixed position, in which the practitioners can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and is without sunlight. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served to a detainee locked up in a small cell. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.

(5) "Sitting Board:" Every day, practitioners are forced to put their hands on top of their laps, with backs straight and sitting on benches 18 hours per day. The police even limit practitioners' restroom use time. Because of the long time spent sitting on hard benches, practitioners' buttocks develop large, painful sores. Practitioners are not able to urinate normally because of the pain. The police do not allow practitioners to have fresh air or sunlight, and practitioners are locked up for so long, countless red scabies can grow on their bodies, which are incomparably itchy and painful.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/25/68437.html