Facts of the Persecution

1. My name is Zhao Ruizhen. I am a 55-year-old female Dafa practitioner from Dongying City, Shandong Province. Since July 20, 1999, I was held under "security detention" several times - once at the Shengli Oilfield Detention Center in Dongying City; twice at Shengli Oilfield Telephone Station in Dongying City; twice at the Shengli Oilfield Brainwashing Program in Dongying City. I left my home for one year to avoid police harrassment. My phone was tapped.

2. Dafa practitioner Tian Baodong in Haicheng City, Liaoning Province was unconstitutionally detained and tortured numerous times. In the evening of April 17, 2002, he was abducted and sent to Haicheng City's Detention Center where he was forced to do slave labor from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Six months later he was sentenced to one year of forced labor and was sent to Anshan City's Forced Labor Camp. In 2003, he could no longer walk, and now he is on medical parole and cannot work.

3. Dafa practitioner Shuai Liangcheng from Yangwan Township, Suji District, Middle District in Leshan City, Sichuan Province is a clinically disabled retired soldier. Police officers abducted him at work around 8:00 a.m. on April 6, 2004.

4. Around 4:00 p.m. June 17, 2003, lawless police officers from the Dongji Police Department in Liaoyuan City broke into the home of Dafa practitioner Lu Chunyun, ransacked his home and took him to a detention center. They tortured him for nine days and held him for four months. On October 14, 2003, they sentenced him to two years of forced labor, in violation of the Chinese constitution.

5. Dafa practitioner Wang Qingxin from Fuyu County, Songyuan City, Jilin Province was persecuted until he was on the brink of death. He fainted many times and held two week of a hunger strike. The perpetrators exhausted all kinds of tortures on him. Wang Qingxin escaped in the evening of April 12, 2002. His Dafa practitioner wife Song Xiubo was abducted and taken to the police station. The perpetrators wanted to torture her but her old illness recurred, so they gave up. On April 24, 2004, the perpetrators tried to abduct Song Xiubo again and she left town. The only people left at home are Song Xiubo's parents who are in their 70's and seriously ill and the young parents' nine-year-old child.

6. Fifty-eight-year-old Dafa practitioner Zhou Zeyu from Jinshi City, Hunan Province went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa and was beaten by perpetrators from the "610 Office." In December 2000, the perpetrators from Jinshi City arrested more than 100 Falun Gong practitioners including Zhou Zeyu. They hung up Zhou Zeyu's elder sister Zhou Zeying (in her 60's) for five hours. They also arrested Zhou Zeyu's younger sister Zhou Zelan and her children several times and extorted over 10,000 Yuan from them. Zhou Zelan's husband passed away after being harassed by people from the "610 Office," the police station, the street committee and other government enforcers.

7. Sixty-two-year-old Dafa practitioner Lu Yongzhen from Jinshi City, Hunan Province went to Beijing to appeal and was detained many times. On April 2, 2001, she was sentenced to one year of forced labor in violation of the Chinese constitution. On June 11, 2003, Lu Yongzhen was again arrested and held at a detention center for two weeks; then she was sent to a custody center. On September 4, she was sent to the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou City, to be held for one-and-a-half years. The labor camp refused to take her, and the perpetrators took her back to the detention center where they held her for another six months.

8. Dafa practitioner Deng Chaogang from Qiyang City, Hunan Province went to a Dafa practice site assistants' meeting in Changsha City on June 19, 1999. He was arrested and detained for two days. In January 2000, he went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested on Chinese New Year's Eve. Six days later he escaped from a train. On March 16, Deng Chaogang was again arrested and held at the Qidong Detention Center for two months, during which time he was tortured with the Tiger Bench (1) and "Carrying a Sword behind the Back" (2). On January 1, 2001 he went to Tiananmen Square to unfurl pro-Dafa banners and was arrested. He was sent to the Dongcheng Detention Center in Beijing where he was tortured for four and a half months until all of his fingernails came off and one of his toes was disabled. He was then sent to the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp for one-and-a-half years of detention and released in June 2002. On August 22, 2003, he was arrested once more by police officers from Tianxin District Police Department in Changsha City when making truth clarification VCDs. The guards at the detention center didn't allow him to sleep. An illegal trial was held on April 8 and no verdict was reached. He is still being held at the detention center.

9. My name is Si Bing. I am a 47-year-old female Falun Gong practitioner. I am a doctor. Since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, I went to Beijing four times to appeal and was sent to the Xiaodao Forced Labor Camp in Guangzhou City where I was tortured. On February 23, 2004, the police abducted me from work and sent me to a brainwashing center in Guangzhou City.

10. Dafa practitioner Xu Jiayu from Fulaerji, Qiqihar City was abducted and detained many times. In May 2000, Xu Jiayu went to Tiananmen Square to validate Dafa and was sent to the Shuanghe Forced Labor Camp in Qiqihar City. She was unconditionally released between August and October 2001. In April 2002, a group of police broke into Xu Jiayu's home from her balcony. They abducted and tortured her with the "Big Hang Up" (3) for six days and nights. They scraped her feet with metal spikes until her feet were covered with blood. After four or five months of detention at the Fulaerji Detention Center, Xu Jiayu was secretly sentenced to prison and was sent to the Harbin Female Prison.

Dafa practitioner Wu Jiufa (in his 60's) had his home ransacked on January 17, 2000, by personnel from the police station. The next day he was sent to a detention center and held for two months. Then he was sent to a brainwashing program where the authorities there tried to force him to say things against Dafa and Master. The guards beat him with large wooden sticks and extorted over 5,000 Yuan from his family. In the past few years, the perpetrators constantly extorted money from his family, which made his family financially ruined.

Perpetrators and their crimes

Police officers in Qingyuan County, Liaoning Province beat Dafa practitioners:

In November 1999, officers from the Qingyuan County Police Department held all Dafa practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal at the Dashagou Custody Center in Qingyuan County, where the guards force-fed practitioners alcohol and poured alcohol over them, then beat and whipped them [Note: Dafa practitioners hold themselves to a high moral standard and do not drink or smoke]. Practitioner Ma Xiuwen was shocked with electric batons; 19-year-old female practitioner Zang Yuyun was whipped with a triangular whip until her whole body turned black and blue. Guards forced alcohol and cigarette smoke into the mouth of Fifty-year-old practitioner Zhang Chuangui. They also forced him to sit still balancing a container of alcohol on his head and subjected him to beatings while being handcuffed and shackled. The guards also rammed practitioner Teng Jixiang's head was against a wall; practitioners Jiang Defang, Gai Yongjie, Liang Shujuan, Zhang Guixiang and Qu Guizhen were brutally beaten. Practitioner Yu Xiaomei's collarbones were broken from the beating she received which injured her to the point she cannot perform daily necessities without assistance.

1. Tiger Bench: Practitioners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force them to remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioners' lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse
2. "Carrying the Sword Behind the Back": The practitioner's hands are tied behind his 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 together.
3. "Big Hang Up": There are two forms of this torture: (1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. One feels extreme pain as the body is pulled.