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The Inhumane Torture Endured by Falun Dafa Practitioner Liao Yuanhua in Shayang Fanjiatai Prison, Hubei Province
(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Liao Yuanhua, 47, is from Wuxue City, Hubei
Province. He was secretary of the Disciplinary and Inspection Department of the
Agricultural Bureau, and began his Falun Dafa cultivation in 1998. The Communist
Party dismissed him after the persecution of Falun Gong was initiated by Chinese
dictator and former President Jiang Zemin and his regime on the July 20, 1999,
because of his refusal to renounce the practice of Falun Dafa. In 2000, he went
to Beijing to peacefully appeal to the government for a stop to the unjustified
persecution, and was illegally sentenced to a four-year prison term. After being
detained in a detention center for a year, on June 1, 2001 he was sent to the
Shayang Fanjiataqi Prison in Hubei Province. When Liao Yuanhua was admitted to the prison initiation brigade, six
prisoners were ordered by prison guards to take turns torturing him throughout
the day and night, because he refused to cooperate with the jail guard. They
ordered him to stand still, and if he moved, they violently attacked him. He was
deprived of sleep, and if he fell asleep, they smashed his head against the
wall. Once, a guard by the name of Li ordered prisoners to torture Liao Yuanhua in
a storage room for over three hours. While poking him with a mop handle and
beating his head with a metal hanger, they kept asking, "Do you still say Falun
Gong is good?" Liao Yuanhua replied, "Falun Gong is good." Because Liao
persisted in saying "Falun Gong is good," the prisoners continued beating him. On August 3, 2001, a prison guard named Shi Heping entered the room holding a
pair of handcuffs in his hand. He also brought five new prisoners with him and
said to Liao, "You will be entering into a new stage of labor reform. These five
guys here are to keep you under tight surveillance. Come with us now." Liao was
taken to the Eighth Brigade (Brick and Tile Factory) labor field. They ordered
the criminal prisoners there to drag a load of bricks to a remote place, where
they then ordered Liao to stack the bricks in order. Liao couldn't touch the
bricks because they were far too hot to touch. Anyone who worked on the job
would need leather gloves to protect his hands from being burned. They wouldn't
give Liao any gloves, so he couldn't possibly do the work. Shi ordered the
prisoners to handcuff his hands behind his back and push him into a brick-baking
chamber. The temperature in the brick-baking chamber is extremely high during August.
One's feet will soon feel as though they are burning even while wearing shoes.
Yet, these criminals took off Liao's shoes and forced him to stand inside the
chamber. Liao started jumping up and down since his feet were burning under the
intense heat. Two criminals (one by the name of Du Shengke) stepped on Liao's
feet from both sides, causing him to squat down. They then packed red-hot bricks
under his buttocks to burn him (the scars remain to this day). As Liao was
unable to sustain any more torture, they dragged him outside. Shi Heping, who
gave the order for this, then asked Liao, "How was it? Are you now going to stop
your practice?" Liao replied, "Impossible!" and proceeded to tell those
criminals who were present, "You people are eye witnesses to the fact that I'm
being tortured to death!" Shi shouted, "Don't let him talk. Push him back into
the chamber!" This was repeated countless times until Liao fell unconscious
inside the chamber. To this day, the scars from the burns remain on Liao's feet,
buttocks, and right shoulder. Liao's body temperature had reached 41 degrees Celsius (106o F) when he
passed out. He remained unconscious even when they poured cold water on him. He
was then taken to a hospital. Even after sustaining such injuries, his hands
were still handcuffed to the frame of the bed and his injured feet were also
locked to the bed with foot shackles. The only way he could stay in bed was to
lie on his stomach, due to the severity of the burns on his buttocks. His body
was badly burned in so many places that he couldn't wear any clothes. During the
day, they forced him to watch the so-called reforming video by placing a TV just
a foot away from him. At night, they started a new round of torture. With the
excuse of cleaning his body, they took him outside in the hallway. For the
entire night he was suspended by foot shackles, so that he had to use only his
thighs to support his entire body. His burned feet were oozing pus and badly
swollen by the following morning. Sometimes, using the excuse that they were
going to "replace his medication," they sat on the foot shackles, which were
locked to the bed, to prevent him from being able to move his body. They then
continuously and forcibly rubbed the severely burned bottoms of his feet with a
broad, prickly leaf. It was so painful that he cried out in great anguish. To
prevent him from crying out, a guard pried open his mouth and stuffed in a piece
of towel that had human excrement on it. They sometimes stuffed a medicine
bottle into his anus, and then stood on his body until the bottle popped out.
Another method of torture used was to pour ethanol, which was used to treat his
wounds, into his mouth [Those who practice Falun Gong do not drink alcohol, so
this form of torture is not only physically damaging but also a form of
humiliation and psychological torture.] If they couldn't open his mouth, they
poured it through his nostrils. During hot days, they hooked a stool around his
neck and placed a burning incense stick by his face to cause burns. He was
forced to stand for long periods of time, even though his feet were still
severely injured from the prior torture. During winter, he was not allowed to
sleep, and if he fell asleep, they poured a bucket of cold water over him. They
locked his feet and hands together, suspended him in the air, and then pushed
him back and forth. They called this a "swing set." His hands and feet were
bleeding from the handcuffs cutting into the flesh. The scars on his wrists bore
witness to the brutality of such torture. Even after they had tortured him for
four months in the prison hospital, they still didn't succeed in forcing him to
renounce his beliefs. In November of 2001, Liao was sent back to prison once again. He was made to
stand for extended periods of time, subjected to sleep deprivation, and was
denied use the restroom. The Administration Brigade head Xiao Tianbo and
criminal Pan Guangfu told others, "Without my permission, he is not allowed to
use the restroom." Liao asked Xiao, "How often will you let me use the
restroom?" Xiao replied, "Whenever I come, I'll decide then." Once Liao asked to
use the restroom and was denied. Liao demanded loudly, "What kind of crime did I
commit by practicing Falun Gong. Why are you persecuting me like this?"
Immediately five or six criminals pushed him to the floor and started to
savagely beat him. Pan even smashed a small stool while striking him across the
back with it. At the end of March 2002, Xiao sent Liao to an isolated cell, since Liao
wouldn't admit that practicing Falun Gong was a crime. Xiao told Zou Xiong and
Pan Guangfu to physically torture Liao. The methods they used included: being
forced to stand all day, sleep deprivation, denial of food or providing only a
tiny amount of food, smearing the eyes with hot pepper paste, slapping the face
with a shoe, smashing his head against the wall, rounds of violent beatings,
etc. One day a jail guard named Zu asked Liao whether he would stop practicing
Falun Gong, but the negative answer remained the same. He then told the
criminals, "Beat him until he gives it up." The criminals removed Liao's pants,
and two criminals then took turns beating his buttocks. Meanwhile, several Dafa
practitioners were kept in isolated cells (Chen Peisheng and others). Criminals
on one side of the jail would yell to the criminals on the other side, "How come
we can't hear anything?" After only a short while screaming was heard from those
practitioners being detained on the other side, then the other side would yell,
"How come we can't hear anything coming from your side?" Then, the criminals on
that side started to rampantly assault Liao. The isolated cells now became a
common place for torturing those who practice Falun Gong. Liao's ears were
deformed as the result of the torture. A surgical procedure that was carried out
later was unable to correct the deformation. In July 2003, when Liao heard about the incident of fellow practitioner being
beaten severely in the isolated cell, he immediately started a hunger strike as
a form of protest, and requested that the prison guards stop the persecution.
During this time, Liao realized that participating in forced labor is actually
cooperating with the illegal persecution, so he refused to participate in the
so-called "labor reform," where practitioners were forced to produce colored
lights. On August 1, 2003, Liao was officially isolated. Three criminals were
monitoring him 24 hours a day. On September 26, 2003, Liao started a hunger
strike again, demanding the right to practice and study the teachings of Falun
Gong. Prison guards isolated Liao in a deserted hospital room. They then locked
both his hands and feet to the bed frame and inserted a feeding tube into his
stomach to force-feed him. After Liao had persisted on the hunger strike for 33
days, the guard finally allowed him the right to practice the Falun Gong
exercises, but that was it. Liao wouldn't accept this halfway offer. What he
wanted is a total stop to the persecution of all the practitioners. So Liao
continued the hunger strike. On October 28, he was transferred to the Shayang
Prison Hospital to undergo more forced-feeding. He was injected with some
unknown drugs while his hands and feet were tied to the bed frame. During the
last eight months of his imprisonment, Liao never gave up his request to
practice and study Dafa. On June 9, 2004, the local "610 Office" returned Liao
to his home. Their plan to break Liao's will at the provincial brainwashing
facility had completely failed. Liao survived four years of the most cruel and grueling persecution. The
brutal torture he went through included: being forced to stand on hot bricks
with his bare feet, being beaten with a metal hanger, having his mouth stuffed
with a towel that had been smeared with feces, having his four limbs being tied
together and being swung in the air like a swing set, having his eyes smeared
with hot pepper paste, having his head smashed against the wall, having alcohol
poured down his throat or nostrils, being locked in isolation, having his burns
rubbed with a prickly leaf, being denied the use of a restroom, being deprived
of sleep, being injected with unknown drugs, being brutally force fed, having a
stool smashed across his back, being forced to stand all day long, being stomped
on so as to force a bottle which was stuffed into his rectum to come out, and
having a lit incense stick placed next to his face. This upright officer and a compassionate person who practices Falun Dafa had
to endure such horrific torture just because he persisted in truthfulness and
didn't fear their threats or violence. Just because he went to Beijing to
peacefully and lawfully appeal to his government, he was forced out of his
party, imprisoned for four years, and subjected to over thirty unthinkable
tortures. It is said that the Discipline Committee and Procurator Bureau in
Wuxue City are prepared to suspend his working permit. Posting date: 9/11/2004 |