I Witnessed and Experienced Excruciating Abuse at Chinese Communist Party's Detention Center and Prison

By Tian Lei

(Clearwisdom.net) On September 21, 2002, I was in Luohe City, Yancheng County, Henan Province handing out Falun Dafa truth-clarifying materials. I was arrested at a village in Wanjin Township by agents from the Wanjin Police Station. They brutally beat me on the site. My mouth bled and two of my front teeth are still loose. My face and eyes were black and blue. That night they handcuffed me onto a metal bed for the entire night. In the morning I was forbidden to eat. That morning I was sent to the Yancheng County Police Department. They applied the handcuffs so tight that they cut into my wrists. The purple circles remaining on my wrists hurt for several days.

After the police interrogation I was delivered to the Yancheng County Detention Center and detained for ten months. While there, for speaking out a fellow Dafa practitioner's name the abusers beat me with their fists, and kicked me and slapped me on the face whenever they interrogated me. The detention center food was less than sub-standard and in insufficient amounts. We were served watery porridge in the morning, but were prevented from finishing it because if we drank too much of it, we had to use the restroom too often. At noon we had one bowl of noodle soup. The evening meal consisted of two small pieces of steamed bread, a tiny dab of boiled vegetables and a bowl of noodle soup. I have been incarcerated in three cells successively. The young criminals there who didn't have a family member visiting often fainted from starvation while walking or standing. When we called detention center doctor Zhang to check, he took a perfunctory glance and ordered one portion of sugared water and two steamed pieces of bread. Only several of the rich inmates or those who had connections had the privilege of sleeping on a wooden frame. The majority had to rest on the damp concrete floor.

The center staff would bring tools and materials to the cell and the day's work would start right away after morning cleanup. This would last until noon. Those slow to work lost their restroom privileges. If they had to go they would be beaten upon their return. There was not enough time at lunch - just enough for a bowl of noodles ¡V and we had to work until dark. Those who could not complete the quota would be beaten by the cell head. They used high-heeled shoes to hit one's buttocks, or slapped practitioners' faces. They used all of their strength and counted the number of hits. To cap things off, they would withhold the evening's steamed bread.

If someone in the cell reported to the guard that a certain person had not finished her task, the police would get that person out the next day and beat her buttocks black and blue. If you were found to be careless and made mistakes, Doctor Zhang, who was responsible for production, would use a foot-long transmission belt to beat your face or the hand that is not used for working.

Our task was to pressure tin foil. That is putting the tin foil that was opened by others on a piece of grass yellow paper, pressure them together with the mill. The minimum quota for each person was 600 sheets. If one could not finish this number one would be fined. If the quality was not up to standard the work had to be redone. One would also be beaten and deprived of supper. After several days of orientation each person must finish 1,000 sheets per day.

If one practiced Falun Gong or recited the scriptures, the cell head would report to a guard who arrived to beat you. One day when I just started meditation, a guard surnamed Su came over and stomped on me several times. He ordered the cell head and others to keep an eye on me at all times.

They locked the cell at night. No matter how many people were detained in the cell, there was only one toilet in each cell, and we were forbidden to use this for bowel movements. If someone was sick or had to use it, they had to request permission from the cell head and be fined 20 yuan. I was fined twice. Several times the cell head refused permission and several persons were compelled to relieve themselves in their clothing.

When a trial was held, the judge didn't wait for Dafa practitioners' relatives to arrive. The so-called judicial representative read the case and pretended to ask your opinions. If one had something to say they didn't care and dismissed you with few words. Several days later a judge ordered me to stretch my hand through a door. He pressed my hand on the sentencing letter for fingerprinting. Then he handed me that paper and said that I had interfered with execution of the law and that I was sentenced to three years in prison.

While I was in detention my family members made many requests to visit me, but the permission was denied. Only ten days before I was sent to the Zhengzhou Prison were they permitted to meet with me one time.

I was "illegally detained" in that detention center for ten months, until July 10, 2003. I was then transferred to the Zhengzhou Prison. The prison guards first threatened me by saying that if I would not "reform" there was no hope of getting out, even when the term expired. When the term had expired, they ordered local police station agents to take me to a brainwashing class and then to a labor camp.

When I had just entered this prison, a guard found some glib criminals to talk with me all day long. They attacked Dafa and Master. They also gathered all Dafa practitioners together to watch fake TV news and programs that slandered Dafa and Master. If the practitioners were still not "reformed" they started using some vicious means and excruciatingly painful methods to torture them. At the same time they blocked any persecution news releases.

The guards separated all practitioners and forbade contact between us. Each practitioner was teamed up with three to four other criminals to form a "mutual supervising team." The guards found a "clamp" person and told them that this was their opportunity for term reduction. No matter what means they used to "reform" practitioners, they would get credit for it. Consequently they followed practitioners during the day and slept in the same room with practitioners in the evening. Sometimes even buying meals, fetching water, washing clothes and going to the prison canteen were done as a "team." They told someone else to delegate in fear of contact with other practitioners and of practitioners exchanging things. For example, Cui Qingquan in the fifth ward district had been placed under strict management for one week after being found sending out Master's poems to other practitioners in other wards.

The guards used all manner of inhuman tactics to torture practitioners who were firm in their cultivation practice. For example, Lu Yumin from the fifth ward resisted "reform" all the times and firmly practiced Dafa. He was eventually transferred to the 13^th ward (special "reform" and Falun Gong-persecution section). He suffered all kinds of excruciatingly cruel abuse there. We met in front of the hospital one day. I saw him using one hand to hold the other one. We asked why. He replied, "Because I refused to 'reform' they burned my hand with a lighter." The guard who was taking us to the hospital deterred us from further talk. Considering this, we got some information about the brutal persecution he had suffered.

Because Sun Haojie (said to be from Zhengzhou) in the fifth ward refused to be "reformed," the police let several criminals torture him in the name of practicing three postures (sitting posture, squat posture, and standing posture). The sitting posture means one sits immobile on a stool. One must sit straight for several hours. This punishment can make the skin on the buttocks come off, particularly during the summer. Several days later the wound may be a running sore, have turned red and be extremely sensitive to touch. The squat posture means one has to bend both legs, with the knees turned outward and toes touching the floor. It looks like sitting, but one cannot sit down. This would last a long time. It made your legs swell and pain prevents one from standing up. The standing posture consists of standing and facing a wall. Someone monitors you. This would last several hours. It felt like standing on fire, and was very uncomfortable.

"No reform, no sleep." This was the prevailing method of practitioner abuse in all wards. They deprived practitioners of sleep for several days, sometimes more than ten days. Specific criminals took turns monitoring practitioners. If one closed one's eyes they woke you up with a beating. Fellow practitioner Mei Shengxin, who originally came from the eleventh ward, refused to be "reformed," no matter what methods the guards used to torture him. He was deprived of sleep for nine days. He became dizzy and blind, hit the fish tank and lost consciousness. When the fish tank broke, he cut his head and bled. The cut required several stitches. The guard made sure later that no word of these events would be leaked to the outside. Some people were told to say he accidentally hit the fish tank. The criminal detained with Mei Shengxin told me that Xiao Mei had suffered so much.

Falun Gong practitioner Gao Yupeng was held in the 12th ward. The guards there let the head of criminals use all kinds of excruciating tactics to achieve a "reform." Because Gao Yupeng persisted in Dafa practice, some criminals made him squat in the restroom and put excrement into his mouth, and other gross abuses. They used all manner of shameful and dirty tricks.

Another practitioner told me that criminal Zhang Bin was the head of the criminals. To reduce his term and make contributions, he cooperated with the guards and did many evil things. He was once accompanied by several criminals and took the practitioners who refused to reform to a small room on the second floor and closed the door. We don't know what methods they used, but the practitioners' miserable shouts could be heard in the courtyard. Sometimes these criminals beat and kick practitioners without reason, simply for the purpose of having their terms reduced.

Zhang Bin is said to have persecuted many practitioners. This prison ward is the education ward. To "reform" Falun Gong practitioners, they used all possible methods to earn many credits. Ward head Feng Xiaohui was elected to be the "provincial level model worker."

They committed this abuse secretly. Even criminals in the same ward didn't know anything about it. All I have written is true, and some is from my own experience. Some I witnessed, and some are experiences of fellow practitioners and what criminals told me. Because the prison was strictly censored, unless you are the party involved, it is extremely difficult to investigate which guards incite which criminals to implement various methods of persecution. However, all victims' names are accurate, and they might still be imprisoned.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/10/10/139810.html

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