Facts of the Persecution Against Falun Gong Practitioners at Taihang Prison in Hebei Province

By a Falun Gong practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

At the time of publishing this article (March 6, 2004), Taihang Prison in Hebei Province detains approximately thirty illegally-sentenced Falun Gong practitioners.

The Captain of the Second Brigade at Taihang Prison, Ma Huiran, will stop at nothing to force all of the incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners to renounce Falun Gong, and escalates the torture against determined Falun Gong practitioners to reach their goal. Goaded on by their desire for earlier release, some prison inmates participate willingly in the torture against Falun Gong practitioners to "gain points" on their performance records. Prisoners with most points on their performance records at the end of each performance appraisal are released early. Each time the torture facts are exposed, the staff at Taihang Prison shift the guilt to the participating prison inmates, and claim ignorance of the prisoners' doings.

When the 2004 Chinese New Year was approaching, nineteen Falun Gong practitioners at Taihang Prison started a group hunger strike to protest the illegal detention and the unreasonable treatment. In response to the joint protest, the staff at Taihang Prison cooped up each practitioner in a separate cell, denying them any contact with the outside world and any meetings with their families on visiting day. In these single cells, the disciplinary staff secretly tortures Falun Gong practitioners physically and emotionally. The disciplinary staff tortures practitioners with a punitive force-feeding in a closed room behind curtains, to hide the torture from any witnesses. They also combine the tortures of "Death Board." [See Figure 4 in "Illustrations of Torture Methods Used in Chinese Detention Centers and Forced Labor Camps, Part 1" for "Death Board" illustration.] The prison police deliberately slow down the force-feeding infusion flow in order to prolong the Death Board torture. They also insert urinary catheters so that they can deny practitioners use of the toilet, and keep them on "Death Board" around the clock. It is extreme psychological and physical torture to be tied to the "Death Board," absolutely still, for a long time. This is the approach used by disciplinary staffs to make practitioners surrender and give up their hunger strike protest. These prison police will stop at nothing to torture determined Falun Gong practitioners. Below are a few cases of torture illustrating the cruelty.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Liu Jinying is placed in the Third Platoon of the Second Brigade. She was transferred to Taihang Prison from Shijiazhuang Prison in Hebei Province. Ms. Liu was a perfectly sane person when she first arrived at Taihang Prison. A police officer named Zhou and several collaborators [former Falun Gong practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong due to brainwashing and torture, and now help torture Falun Gong practitioners in exchange for the reduction of prison terms] forced Ms. Liu to write the Four Statements [practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their belief ] although we do not know the specific torture methods they used. After signing the Four Statements, Ms. Liu was tormented with grief, regret, and shame, and ultimately had a mental collapse. She is no longer clear-headed and appears to have lost certain cognitive functions.

Lan Qizhi is a very determined Falun Gong practitioner and has been kept under the Intensive Training Unit. [The "Intensive Training Unit" is a prison within a prison. It is a special kind of solitary confinement. The person sent to the "Intensive Training Unit" is forced to stand for over ten hours daily in a room of 3 to 4 square meters in size.] Lan is kept in the Intensive Training Unit around the clock and is not allowed to leave the cell to eat or use the toilet. The disciplinary staff curses and beats Lan at will. They insult Lan and treat Lan in a condescending manner. Lan is deprived of sleep, not allowed to shower, and forced to stand facing the wall for long time periods.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Chen Yanyu refuses to give in to the torture or renounce Falun Gong. During Ms. Chen's hunger strike, Captain Ma Huiran tempted two prison inmates, Ms. Ding Shujuan and Ms. Bian Cuiqin, with the reward of adding points to their performance records, and goaded them into beating and cursing Ms. Chen. Ding Shujuan once caused severe injury to Ms. Chen's neck when she choked Ms. Chen violently. Ding Shujuan and Bian Cuiqin even wrote words slandering Teacher Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong all over Ms. Chen's body. Ms. Chen refused to let these words remain on her body, so she picked up a thermos bottle and poured the hot water over her head, causing severe burns on her head, face and body. After the incident was exposed to the public Ms. Chen Yanyu was transferred out of Taihang Prison. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

Prison inmates Ms. Ding Shujuan and Ms. Bian Cuiqin naively believed Captain Ma Huiran's promise of rewards, and actively helped torture Falun Gong practitioners. They never expected that after the tortures were exposed to the public Ma Huiran would shift the responsibility to them. Ma Huiran said, "I don't know what you are talking about. [I have never encouraged you to torture Falun Gong practitioners by offering you any addition to your points on the performance record.]" It was only then that they realized they had been deceived and used. Because the tortures had a negative effect on Taihang Prison's reputation, the promised rewards never materialized. Bian Cuiqin became enraged and refused to do any chores required of the prison inmates. Captain Ma Huiran knew of Bian's strike, but chose to overlook it because of guilt. Because of the swift retribution, they are now realizing the law of cause and effect.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Lu Fengling joined the group hunger strike that started before the 2004 Chinese New Year. She ended up being cooped up separately in the visiting room, where she was forced to stand for an extended period of time, subjected to beating, cursing, and other types of condescending abuse, and denied of sleep for four days and nights continuously. Ms. Lu was also subject to the "Death Board" torture in the name of "glucose infusion." She was administered five bottles of intravenous solutions for forty consecutive hours, which should have taken no more than one day. During the forty hours, she was tied to the "Death Board" on the floor, unable to move even an inch. It was a very painful torture. The guards would leave the practitioner in this torture for a very long time and try to make you surrender your will and give up your hunger strike. Ms. Lu Fengling is now under close watch by Ms. Cao Zhongfen and other disciplinary staff around the clock in a separate room. She is not allowed to leave the room at all, and is completely isolated from the world outside the room. She is denied any family visitation.

Many prison inmates witnessed Falun Gong practitioners' compassion, kindness, and righteousness, and thus understood that Falun Dafa was good. In fact, prison inmate Ms. Dou Yongzhi often praised that Falun Dafa was good. After the prison police heard her saying Falun Dafa was good and reported to Captain Ma Huiran, Ma ordered other prison inmates to slap her face violently and kick her down to the floor. Later Ma locked Ms. Dou Yongzhi in the cell alone with another prison inmate that became mentally deranged due to brutal beatings. The cell was filthy and filled with stench. Before the 2004 Chinese New Year, Ms. Dou courageously stepped out and joined Falun Gong practitioners' group hunger strike to protest the unreasonable treatment.

These are only a few cases that we know of among numerous torture cases.

The leading participant of the persecution in Taihang Prison:

Ms. Ma Huiran and Yan (gender unspecified)

Phone: 86-312-7169617

Address: P.O. Box 04-202, Taihang Prison, Baoding, Hebei Province, Zip code 072150

Note:

There is poor management in the Taihang Prison, and corruption prevails. A lot of time and effort is spent covering the stealing and corruption from the supervisors' inspections. The staff at Taihang Prison beat and curse prison inmates at will while extorting money from them. There is never enough food in the daily meals, and the food is less than nutritional. During the Chinese New Year, the staff sells food items to prison inmates at high prices, making large profits. Moreover, they do not reveal the selling prices to the buyers at the time of selling. Instead, they announced the prices later, after the buyers have already consumed the purchased items. The prices were so incredibly high that even Captain Ma felt embarrassed.

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Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/3/6/69302.html

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