Blind and Elderly, Ms. Bo Minghua is Subjected to Relentless Torture

By Bo Minghuan, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Huainan City, Anhui Province

(Clearwisdom.net) My daughter Hu Yu and I, Bo Minghua, were subjected to brutal torture because we practiced Falun Gong. Since September 28, 2002, when my daughter and I were thrown into jail for no justifiable reason, we were subjected to inhuman treatment. During one particular interrogation, the police put a pair of 42 pound shackles on me for refusing to wear a prison uniform. I could not move while wearing these shackles. The policemen had to order two inmates from another jail cell to drag me to the interrogation. After the interrogation, they dragged me back again. Bloody blisters appeared on my heels because of the shackles. At the time, I was already 55 years old and blind, but this did not prevent them from using such violence against me.

On June 20, 2003, the police falsely accused us and indicted us for fabricated crimes. We started a hunger strike to protest this injustice. On the third day of the hunger strike, the police dragged my daughter out of our jail cell. They force-fed her using the cruelest methods. Four male inmates held my daughter to the ground and pried her mouth open with a tool, which caused all her teeth to loosen. After the forced feeding, they placed shackles and handcuffs on her that were designed to force her into a twisted posture, and sent her back to the prison cell. She needed assistance just to be able to walk, as her feet were causing her much pain. She was no longer able to control her bladder and bowels. The next day, after her forced feeding, she was shackled and handcuffed to her bed and was not even able to move. This form of torture lasted a week.

One of the policemen responsible for the forced-feedings forced my daughter to persuade me to eat. At that time, my daughter's face was covered with a flour mixture and her hair was completely disheveled from the torture. My daughter cried as soon as she saw me. She said: "Mom, please eat. You are old and you cannot bear the torture." I swallowed my grief and answered: "You must be steadfast. We must resist with righteous thoughts." The vicious police took my daughter away when they realized that I could not be persuaded.

After a moment, the door opened again and the policemen dragged me out. I had already been on hunger strike for three days, and felt dizzy. I fell to the ground when I was dragged out of the prison cell. My arms and legs cramped and I lost consciousness. Despite my condition, the police still ordered four other inmates to drag me to the road which caused both of my legs to start bleeding. They left me on the concrete ground. I was beaten on my brow until it was bleeding. After I had barely recovered, several persons jumped on top of me to force-feed me. Four other inmates held me to the ground. They tried to open my mouth with a special tool, which caused my mouth to become numb and to lose all feeling. They tried to open my mouth for about two consecutive hours. When they took the tool from my mouth, my mouth would not close anymore, all my teeth had become loose, my gums were swollen, and I was spitting blood. In this condition, my tormentors lifted me up and dropped me to the concrete ground. At the same time, I heard one of them murmuring that it was just like lifting a dead pig. Another one replied that dead pigs are not afraid of being dipped into hot water. While mocking and abusing me in this way, they started to force-feed me again. My mouth was forced open as wide as possible. They dumped a mixture of flour into my mouth. I held my breath and did not swallow anything and so they pinched my nose. I resisted until my arms and legs were cramping again. At this point, they stopped. Having failed in their brutal torture, they dragged me back to the prison cell.

No matter how brutal the wicked policemen were, I did not give in, I resisted with righteous thoughts all the time. By this time, I had been tortured so badly that I hardly had any breath left. The next day four inmates dragged me to the prison clinic, to start me on an intravenous drip. Perhaps they feared that I might die in the prison cell and felt they had to do something. I refused to let them start the intravenous feeding. They pushed me down on the bed and shackled both of my feet to the bed frame; my two hands were tied in the other direction, as if they wanted to split my body apart. They brutally inserted the intravenous drip through my feet. When one bottle of the fluid was gone, my feet no longer appeared to belong to me. Two deep bloody marks from the shackles appeared on my ankles and feet and my legs became swollen. Four inmates carried me out of the clinic holding my arms and legs. When we passed a road, a policeman from the detention center said in a vicious tone: "Throw the old thing into the pond." They forced intravenous infusions on me consecutively for three days. When their methods of torture failed and they feared I might die, they dragged my daughter, another practitioner, and myself into a truck. Later, I learned that the truck was taking us to the Labor Reformation Hospital in the Bangbu Rubber Factory. After we arrived at the hospital, we continued our hunger strike, which we had already maintained for eleven days. When the hospital staff tried to persuade us to eat, we clarified the truth to them. At the beginning, they did not understand, and mocked us. Gradually, they came to understand, and changed their views and attitudes toward us.

We stayed in the hospital for ten days. During our last few days there, the different shifts of staff members who watched us, praised us and gave us a thumbs-up. I could feel that they respected us from their hearts.

On the twenty-first day of our hunger strike, two policemen came from the city and initiated the paperwork for our release. I refused to sign my name or be fingerprinted. I said, "I am innocent, why should I be fingerprinted? I request to be released unconditionally." When they saw that their attempts to get my signature had failed, they asked my family members to sign on my behalf. Thus, we were bailed out and allowed to go home. However, four days after our release, two persons from the city police bureau, accompanied by policemen from the local police station, came to our house unannounced. Pretending to be nice, they said: "We have come to see how well you have recovered." At that time, I was drinking noodle soup. Since my hunger strike, I had not eaten anything. Another policeman said, "You seem to have recovered very well." Then, they left in a hurry.

On the morning of July 17, it was raining. A group of policemen took us to the police station. Two police cars parked in front of the police station. They pushed my daughter and me into the police cars and took us back to the detention center. Four days after our return to the detention center, on July 21, seven practitioners including my daughter and me were brought to Tianjiaan District Court for a sham trial. At that time, my daughter and I had only one thought: we could not let the evil prevail, and we could not let the unlawful trial proceed. Since I was still very weak due to my hunger strike, I collapsed after sitting in the courtroom for a long time. Then, my daughter shouted, "End the trial! End the trial! Don't you have any human feelings left?" I woke up and thought it was time to stop the trial. In spite of my condition, they even asked me if I had any objections to the accusations. My daughter and I answered in unison: "Objection! We are innocent. We only did what Dafa practitioners should do." The police told us to stop talking and asked the other practitioners the same question. When the other practitioners also raised their objections, the police stopped them from talking as well. The police gave us no chance to speak. At that moment, my daughter and I shouted the words that were in our hearts: "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa! We are innocent! The Fa we study is the righteous Fa. The Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance we practice are not wrong. We strongly object to all accusations."

Many people had gathered in the court to watch, and the policemen quickly ended the trial. They asked us to sign our name and use our fingerprints to seal the court notes. We did not cooperate with them. The police could not do anything but drag us to the police car and bring us back to the detention center. When we got there, we continued our hunger strike. They force-fed my daughter again and one of her teeth was broken due to the force used in prying her teeth apart. However, my daughter never gave up. My daughter threw the tool used for keeping her mouth open into a drain when the police were not paying attention.

The next day, the police could not find the tool when they wanted to force-feed her again. The police then put her in shackles and handcuffs for several days. Later, they conducted a secret trial. Seven days after the trial, staff members from the district court came to read the sentence to us. I was sentenced to nine years, and my daughter to seven. The staff asked us if we wanted to appeal. I said: "Appeal? Did you ever give us a chance to speak in the first place? This is merely your staged show. We will never accept the accusations you forced on us." Later, I thought, I must appeal. This will be another chance to expose the evil and clarify the truth. Less than a week after the appeal, the court released the verdict maintaining the original sentences. Three days after the final verdict, the police sent us to Su County Prison. Since I am blind, the prison refused to admit me and the police had to take me back to the detention center. The police did not want to admit their failure and took me to the hospital to check on my eyes. The tests showed that I had completely lost sight in both eyes but the police insisted that I could see.

A few days later, the police sent me to Su County Prison and I was rejected again. When I returned to the detention center, I continued my hunger strike. The police bound me to a bed; my hands and feet were shackled tightly to a plank. Then, they started to pry my mouth open and force-feed me. I stayed bound to the plank for eight days. I was again tortured so brutally that I had barely a single breath left. After the first eight days, I was kept in shackles for another eight days. Now I am very weak and have to be assisted even when I use the bathroom. At my age and being completely blind, I wonder what kind of crime I would be able to commit? I was tortured so brutally and I appeal to international human rights organizations to uphold justice for me.

(This article was written on my behalf because I am blind.)

Bo Minghua
Practitioner from Huainan City, Anhui Province
Huainan Detention Center

March 2004

Note: Personal data about Ms. Bo Minghua

Ms. Bo Mighua is 55 years old, and lived at Building No. 3, Bihaixincun, Faji District, Huainan City, Anhui Province. Her home phone number is 86-554-4972499. She and her daughter were brutally tortured and sentenced to long prison terms for practicing Falun Gong. Police tried to send her to the Suzhou Prison three times, but each time she was rejected because of her blindness. Staff at the Huainan City "610 Office" did no want to accept this and prepared a special report for the provincial leaders asking them to intervene with Suzhou Prison, so they would make an exception and admit Bo Minghua. Our sources report that Bo Minghua will be sent to prison. Currently, she is being detained in the First Detention Center in Huainan City.

Directors of the detention center: Zhang Xingzhu and Jiang Chuangdi.
Assistant director: Yu Xuewen.
Teaching Assistant: Tao Huayong.
Prison guards who participate in the torture of female practitioners: Wang Baozhi and Liu Yang.

Telephone number of the city detention center: 86-554-6644132, Zip code: 232001, Address: The First Detention Center of Huainan Cituy, Chentong Road, Tianjianan District, Huainan City, Anhui Province.

March 28, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/3/29/71158.html

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