(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Du Yingguang, 34 years old, lived in Caigezhuang Village, Daliang Town, the former Shuangshu Township, Wuqing District in Tianjin City. Mr. Du had taught at the No. 4 Elementary School in Yangcun Town, Wuqing District in Tianjin City. Du Yingguang was ruthlessly tortured after the persecution began on July 20, 1999, several months after he began practicing Falun Gong. The following is a particularly telling event.

The staged Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident was broadcast on CCTV's Focal Point Interview program on the evening of January 30, 2002. Officers from the Shuangshu Township Police Station in Wuqing District, Tianjin City broke into Du Yingguang's home at around 8:00 p.m. and took many Dafa books, including Zhuan Falun, and Dafa audiocassettes. They took Du Yingguang to the Shuangshu Township Police Station.

Mr. Du was illegally detained in Cell No. 17 in the Wuqing District Detention Center at 4:00 p.m. the following day. Head inmate Chen attempted to coerce Du Yingguang to give up Dafa practice at around 7:00 p.m. and to write a guarantee statement to that effect, but Du Yingguang firmly refused. Chen led four large inmates to savagely beat him. The inmates jumped on Du Yingguang and beat and kicked him to the ground. Ten minutes later, the inmates yanked Du Yingguang up from the ground. One inmate held him while another kneed the outside of his thighs. After many hits with his knees, the inmate grew tired. Chen then hit Du Yingguang's legs with a long wooden bench while asking, "Now, will you still practice [Falun Gong]?" "Absolutely!" Du Yingguang said in a determined voice. Chen ordered all 14 people in the room to take turns beating him. Some slapped his face, some hit him in the mouth, and some chopped at his neck with the side of their hands. One hour later, Chen forced Du Yingguang to stand against the wall with his back bent at a 90-degree angle, his legs straight and the tip of his fingers touching his toes. He was forced to stay in this posture until 10:00 p.m., approximately 2 hours later. His body ached and he felt dizzy and disoriented.

Du Yingguang could not squat the next day when he went to the restroom. His legs were numb and unresponsive. Chen and others checked his injuries and discovered that his thighs were severely swollen, and he could barely remove his pants. He could not squat for three days when going to the restroom. In the next few days, they constantly screamed at and threatened him in order to try to make him give up his belief in Dafa, but they could not achieve their goal.

Officers from the Shuangshu Township Police Station picked Du Yingguang up in the afternoon of February 15, 2001, after 15 days of detention. Township Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee Secretary Yuan asked him whether or not he would sign a document to renounce Dafa. Du Yingguang told him no. Wan, head of Du Yingguang's work unit, officials from the Education Bureau and the police agents came to the police station at around 10:00 p.m. They took Du Yingguang to a militia training camp in Meichang Township, Wuqing District. They told Du Yingguang at 11:00 p.m., "We have a 'study class' [brainwashing session] here. The Education Bureau officials want you to study here and "reform"."

Approximately 60 different kinds of people made up this brainwashing session: government officials, police, security people, accompanying "educators" and cooks. About 40 Dafa practitioners were detained there at different times. Some practitioners were peasants, some had worked in companies, some were retired. The oldest was 60 years old. They were either tricked out of their homes and arrested or simply arrested and taken to the brainwashing center. Each practitioner is charged 1,500 yuan a month. His/her employer or the township government is forced to pay the fee. Du Yingguang eventually learned that his salary had been frozen, he had been sentenced to forced labor and that his employers had fired him.

Mr. Du Yingguang was held at the brainwashing center for two months. He was forced to repeatedly watch Dafa-slandering VCDs and TV programs and write his "understandings" of the slanderous programs. The officials attempted to coerce him to read Dafa-slandering books. He refused and was made to stand against a wall for six hours. He was also made to walk, run, and stand in military posture outside. He had to stand, sit, stand against a wall with the tips of his feet and nose touching the wall; his fingers had to point downwards and be straight along his pants, his body had to be straight and he could not close his eyes. Security people and police constantly patrolled the place and made the practitioners follow the "requirements." Some practitioners were forced to sit on small stools facing the wall with their hands on their knees; their upper bodies had to remain straight, eyes open and they were forbidden to sleep. At times, the practitioners were made to stand or sit against a wall until 3:00 a.m. and get up and do calisthenics in a group at 5:30 a.m. The practitioners lived by a chaotic meal schedule and received no more than one regular meal, divided throughout the day.

Police Department Monitoring Division Head He (surname) was in charge of the brainwashing center. The Monitoring Division is in charge of investigating illegal police conduct, such as the police beating inmates, but Division Head He himself beat the practitioners.

One evening, He took Du Yingguang to a room and attempted to coerce him to tear up Teacher's picture and renounce his belief. Du Yingguang firmly refused. He then slapped Du Yingguang's face many times, until blood dripped from his mouth, but Mr. Du still remained determined. He hit Du Yingguang's right shoulder repeatedly with a thumb-thick copper rod, tearing his shirt and causing his shoulder to swell up.

A few days later, police officer Cui hit Du Yingguang's hands and thighs with a copper rod, following Armed Division Head Chai's orders, which left purple marks on Du Yingguang's body. Division Head Chai came over to examine Du Yingguang during the beating. Seeing that Du Yingguang was still steadfast, he grabbed Du Yingguang's hair and beat him until he was tired.

Two months later, on April 15, 2001, Mr. Du Yingguang was sent to the Wuqing District Detention Center from the brainwashing center. He was sentenced to 18 months of forced labor that was later extended to two-and-a-half years. He was charged with "disrupting social order" for believing in Truth-Compassion-Tolerance.

Mr. Du was integrated into Class 8, Group 5 at the Shuangkou Labor Camp on May 18, 2001, along with five other practitioners. The head of the Administration Division assigned inmate He Wen as the head of Class 8. He Wen coerced Dafa practitioners to write guarantee statements, using all sorts of methods. Group Political Head Yang Zhiqiu and Group Head Lang Tao allowed him to do just about anything he wanted in order to carry out the persecution.

Lang Tao went to the group at midnight and saw six practitioners sitting on small stools. One practitioner said he was exhausted and hoped he could get some sleep, but Lang Tao refused to let him take a break. The practitioners sat there until 3:00 a.m. and were awakened at 5:30 a.m. That same day, the group officials tried to coerce each practitioner to write guarantee statements. The inmates beat the practitioners and the collaborators subjected the practitioners to brainwashing during the day. The practitioners were forced to sit on small stools all night long without sleep. The other five practitioners wrote guarantee statements, but Du Yingguang refused. Inmate Chen Xueyu from Class 2 used violence against Du Yingguang after receiving orders from Political Head Yang Zhiqiu. Chen Xueyu took Du Yingguang to a room and attempted to coerce him to read Dafa-slandering articles from a newspaper, but Du Yingguang refused. Chen Xueyu violently slapped his face and forced him to bend forward. He beat Du Yingguang for more than one hour and assigned someone to watch Mr. Du.

The persecutors did not let Du Yingguang sleep for ten days. They forced him to sit cross-legged on the floor while being watched by people who took turns tormenting him. They would hit him whenever he closed his eyes. Several days later, Du Yingguang dozed off. The people monitoring hit him to make him stay awake.

He Wen, head of Class 8, and Chen Xueyu, head of Class 2, couldn't "reform" Du Yingguang, so they didn't receive the associated monetary reward. They slapped Mr. Du's face and forbade him to use the restroom. They forced him to sit on the floor while kicking him and stomping on his legs, shouting, "We are giving you a Thai massage!" The person who abused Du Yingguang weighs 85 kg [187 lbs] and stomped all over Du Yingguang until his legs were covered with hard bumps and he could barely walk. His legs only began functioning normally over a month later.

Sun Kai, head of Class 5, also tortured Du Yingguang to earn a bonus. He forced Du Yingguang to sit underneath the bed so that he could neither straighten his back nor raise his head. His arms were sticking out of the bed frame. Persecutor Sun Kai grabbed Du Yingguang's forearm and hit it against the metal bed frame. He then dragged Du Yingguang out from underneath the bed. Several persecutors pinned Du Yingguang face-down on the floor. Sun Kai rolled a round wooden stick on Du Yingguang's legs, causing him severe pain.

On another occasion, Sun Kai forced Du Yingguang to sit cross-legged. He tied Du Yingguang's hands with a rope and then tied his neck to the rope, so his head had to almost touch his chest. He untied the rope two hours later. The inmates took Du Yingguang to another room where guard Zhao Changqing was present. The inmates talked and laughed with Zhao Changqing. Another persecutor, Chen Xueyu, forced Du Yingguang to remove his shirt. Chen then proceeded to hit his left arm many times with a wooden stick until purple marks appeared. The marks were still clearly visible after several months. Guard Zhao Changqing observed the inmates using violence and didn't do anything to stop it.

Mr. Du Yingguang felt cold, his head felt numb and was swollen, and he felt as if he could not think. He had blunted responses and his body was listless after 15 days of torture and sleep deprivation. The "accompanying educator" took his temperature and found he was running a high fever. The guards learned about it and finally let Du Yingguang sleep at night.

Several days later, inmate Chen Yuan and others went to torture Du Yingguang again. They told him to stand upright with his hands stretched out and his palms facing upwards. They put two lit cigarettes in Du Yingguang's palms and didn't remove the cigarettes until five minutes later. Soon, two large, fluid-filled blisters appeared on his palms. The inmates pierced the blisters with needles, and the flesh under the blisters ulcerated. Two large holes appeared on his palms, and his hands swelled severely. The inmates tried to take him to the labor camp clinic for treatment, but guard Yang Zhiqiu was afraid his atrocity would be exposed. He immediately stopped the inmates, saying, "It's just a little burn, it's not a big deal!" He told the inmates to take care of the wounds. Guard Du Yinxin saw that practitioner Du Yingguang's hands were swollen and painful. One day at 10:00 p.m. he suddenly told Du Yingguang to swat flies in the stairway. Du Yingguang's hands hurt terribly when he waved the flyswatter. He told guard Du Yinxin that his hands hurt so bad that he would not be able to swat flies. Guard Du Yinxin ordered him to continue swatting flies until around midnight. Mr. Du Yingguang's burns did not heal until one month later.

Guard Wei Wei violently pummeled Mr. Du Yingguang's cheeks with his fists in order to make him write guarantee statements. He kept this up until Mr. Du's face was terribly swollen and he could barely recognize himself in the mirror. Wei Wei told him to stand in front of a room several times. He took several steps back and suddenly ran up to Du Yingguang and kicked his chest, knocking Du Yingguang to the tile floor and bumping his head. The guards regarded beating Mr. Du Yingguang as a source of pleasure, only because Mr. Du practices Falun Gong.

The guards gathered Mr. Du Yingguang and some other practitioners to have a "study session." The practitioners were allowed to sleep for only three hours a night and were forced to sit on small stools and listen to audiotapes that slandered Dafa and Teacher. The practitioners were not allowed to take showers or change their clothes in the heat of summer. Their restroom access was restricted. The inmates frequently verbally and physically abused the practitioners. The so-called "study session" lasted one month. The practitioners were compelled to work daily from 5:30 a.m. until past midnight, while sitting on small stools. Sometimes they were forced to work until 3:00 a.m. and start work again at 5:30 a.m. The guards and inmates tortured Dafa practitioners until they were on the verge of a nervous breakdown or until they wrote the guarantee statements.

Guards Yang Zhiqiu and Tong Xiuhe ordered inmate Zhang Junqiang, who was assigned to persecute Dafa practitioners, to torture Mr. Du Yingguang. Zhang Junqiang and several other inmates stripped Du Yingguang of his coat, left him in sweatpants and shirt, and forced him to stand in a dark and cold room. They deprived him of sleep for several days. Zhang Junqiang ordered inmate Yu Weihua, who was assigned to watch Mr. Du Yingguang, to join him in torturing Mr. Du. They forced Mr. Du again to sit underneath a bed so he could not straighten his back or raise his head. Zhang Junqiang inserted a long wooden stick between Du Yingguang's back and the bed. Zhang Junqiang pressed the stick down on Du Yingguang's head and back, put Du Yingguang's hand on the floor and stomped on it. Zhang Yingguang also stabbed Du Yingguang's fingernail beds with a needle for a while.

Days of torture did not weaken Falun Dafa practitioner Du Yingguang's resolve. Guard Tong Xiuhe and others urged Zhang Junqiang to further persecute Du Yingguang. Zhang Junqiang repeatedly hit Du Yingguang's arms with a wooden stick until his left arm turned black and blue and he could barely lift his arm. Zhang Junqiang tied Du Yingguang to the stairs facing an open window for a long time. The freezing wind left Du Yingguang shivering. He developed a fever later that night. His lips cracked open and his chest felt like it was on fire. His temperature shot up to 39 ⁰C [102.2 ⁰F] the next day and remained so for several days. Zhang Junqiang still tortured him and forced him to stand. In the evening, the guards forced all Dafa practitioners to watch slanderous programs aired on the Focal Point Interview. Mr. Du Yingguang refused to watch it, knowing full well the abuses he might have to face for his refusal, but he wanted to help the inmates learn the truth. So, he shouted, "All of this is slander and lies! Please, don't believe any of it! Falun Dafa is good!" Immediately, the inmate assigned to monitor Du Yingguang covered Mr. Du's mouth, and the guards ordered the inmates to drag Du Yingguang back to a dark room and torture him.

Guards Yang Zhiqiu, Tong Xiuhe and Zhang Ruixiang shocked Du Yingguang with electric batons at the end of April 2002. The three guards ordered the inmates to monitor Du Yingguang and from mid-May on, prevent him from sleeping. Du Yingguang was forced to sit on a small stool at night and sometimes had to stay awake for a whole night. Some nights he slept for one hour, and other nights he did not sleep at all. The torture lasted for more than one month.

On July 19, 2002, guards Tong Xiuhe and others ordered inmates Zhang Junqiang, Sun Kai and Guo Fengzhi to beat Mr. Du Yingguang for a long time. They pinned him down with his face on the ground and poured water into his nose and punched his abdomen. They tortured him for several hours, until Du Yingguang lost consciousness, which finally marked an end to the six-month torture.

Du Yingguang could barely walk five feet to the restroom. He was quite weak and could not urinate. He lost consciousness in the restroom. The inmates brought him back. His abdomen was swollen and painful, and he felt as if a heavy object was pulling down on his waist. He groaned, and yet the guards told the inmates to make him work out. He suffered terrible pain with each step, and yet the inmates forced him to walk continuously, which inflicted tremendous strain on him. The guards took him to a hospital after one week, but they refused to tell him the diagnosis.

On their way back to the labor camp, the guards showed Du Yingguang the test results. Du Yingguang sat behind the guards and saw the result saying, "1. ascites; 2. swelling of the stomach and duodenum; 3. (abnormal condition of) pancreas..." The doctor prescribed some medications. The guards reluctantly bought some of them and ordered Du Yingguang's family to pay for the drugs. Du Yingguang often suffered from terrible stomach cramps, so severe that he could not straighten his back and he walked hunchbacked. One day, guard Tong Xiuhe said to inmate Xu Guangsheng, who was assigned to monitor Du Yingguang, "I'll reduce your sentence if you torture Du Yingguang to death." Mr. Du Yingguang happened to be nearby and overheard the conversation. When guard Tong Xiuhe realized that Du Yingguang had heard him, he struggled to maintain composure and repeated those words.

Inmate Xu Guangsheng admitted that the guards were encouraging him to kill Mr. Du Yingguang, but he was not willing to exchange Du Yingguang's life for a sentence reduction, so the plot failed.

As of February 2003, brainwashing sessions were held at all labor camps in Tianjin City where Dafa practitioners were. The guards again tortured Du Yingguang by shocking him with electric batons, tying him up and pouring cold water on him. Du Yingguang went on a hunger strike again to protest the persecution. Guards Tong Xiuhe and Du Yinxin ordered inmate Mu Dezhen to tie Du Yingguang to a bed in his sweatshirts and pants. They poured cold water on Du Yingguang and put his feet in a basin full of cold water. Guard Du Yinxin ordered some people to tie Du Yingguang to a wooden bed and again poured cold water over him. They also turned on a fan to the maximum speed and turned it toward Du Yingguang. It was very cold. Persecutor Du Xinyin said, "It's really cold, put a quilt on him." The inmate soaked a quilt in cold water and put it over Mr. Du, which made things worse. They tortured him like this for over three hours.

During this period, Division Head Fan came to inspect the torture. They didn't let Du Yingguang sleep at night. Guard Du Yinxin tied Du Yingguang in a chair and ordered the inmates to rub feces in Du Yingguang's mouth and nose. The inmates pinched Du Yingguang's nose so he had to open his mouth. The inmates immediately shoved feces into his mouth. Guard Fu Zhenshi also injected mustard water into Du Yingguang's nose with a syringe. They tortured him for more than 20 days. Mr. Du Yingguang persisted in Dafa practice and refused to write a guarantee statement. His sentence was extended by one year.

Jiang Zemin's henchmen have committed too many crimes against Dafa practitioners. Mr. Du Yingguang is only one of many practitioners who have suffered terribly from the persecution.