(Minghui.org) Many practitioners have been subjected to various forms of torture since the Chinese Communist Party launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999.
Both Gongzhuling Prison and the now defunct Chaoyanggou Labor Camp in Jilin Province used one particular torture to make practitioners suffer even more – rubbing salt into open wounds. This method was used repeatedly on wounds that were about to heal. Practitioners were also shocked with electric batons on their wounds and anus area.
How Guards at Gongzhuling Prison Torture Practitioners
Division 9 in Gongzhuling Prison is used to detain Falun Gong practitioners. When Mr. Chu Guiyan was held in the No. 1 Team (for newcomers), the instructor tied him to the death bed for six days starting on February 5, 2020.
Torture re-enactment: Death bed
Mr. Nie Zhongpo, an employee of the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources in Siping City, was sent to a cell in Division 8 and deprived of sleep for five days. During that time, the guards sprayed pepper water into his eyes and ordered him to write guarantee statements to renounce his faith. He was locked in a solitary confinement room for three months and forced to sit on a slat measuring seven or eight centimeters wide, causing his bottom to fester. He would be beaten if he moved. He remained firm in his faith after he was let out of solitary confinement. He was then held in the solitary confinement room for more than ten days.
The prison has a strict management team used to persecute practitioners who have just arrived at the prison or are steadfast in their faith. Every meal consists of one to two mouthfuls of corn porridge. The rice and noodles used are already spoiled, or have aged.
Practitioners are subjected to many torture methods, including sitting on a small tool, shocked with electric batons, tied up, forced to wear a straitjacket, and tied to a death bed. They are also deprived of sleep for a long time. Mr. Nie and Mr. Zhang Jinsheng were deprived of sleep for three months. Mr. Guo Yanxiang and Mr. Chu were subjected to strict management many times.
As the guards were afraid that the persecution would be exposed, they locked up the practitioners who were steadfast in their faith when the higher-ups inspected the prison. When practitioners called home, they were forced to tell their families that the prison treated them well, otherwise they would be tortured.
Mr. Yu Chunbo started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. He quit his bad habits and bad temper, and his family became harmonious. He also recovered from many of his illnesses, including stomach problems, kidney problems, and hemorrhoids.
Mr. Yu had a booming mushroom business and many farmers wanted to join him. Unfortunately, he was arrested, detained, and tortured many times after the persecution started, resulting in huge financial losses. Mr. Yu and his wife later ran a breakfast stand to support their daughter attending a high school.
Mr. Yu was arrested on November 12, 2020 and sentenced to 3.5 years at the Gongzhuling Prison around December 2021. He was ordered to write guarantee statements to renounce his faith, and was tortured for many days at the guards’ office, as he refused to comply.
Guards and inmates slapped Mr. Yu in the face 90 times on February 24, 2022, shocked him in the anus with an electric baton, and struck his thighs, calves, back, and buttocks with steel rulers. They then rubbed salt into the wounds, before resuming the beating, and followed by the salt massage again. The torture lasted two hours.
Torture re-enactment: Shocked with electric batons
The perpetrators brought Mr. Yu back to the guards’ office on the second and third day. They scraped off the scabs with the steel rulers, and then repeated the beating, salt massage, and electric shocks. The torture lasted two hours on both days.
On the fifth day, the guards tortured Mr. Yu again. After he had a heart attack during the electric shocking, the guards gave him some quick-acting heart medication they had prepared.
After that, Mr. Yu was forced to stand for at least 15 hours every day and given very little food for each meal. He was severely malnourished and had gastric perforation. He was then hospitalized for 27 days.
Mr. Yu was taken to a local hospital for emergency treatment on April 18, 2022. The authorities blocked his family from visiting him, citing the pandemic as an excuse. His deeply concerned family applied to the Gongzhuling Prison to release him on medical parole but to no avail. Mr. Yu continued to be detained and subjected to brainwashing sessions by the inmates.
Mr. Yu’s brother, Mr. Yu Chunhai, was tortured for upholding his faith. In April 2001, Mr. Yu Chunhai was transferred to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City. He was subjected to various tortures, including starvation, forced labor work for long hours, brutal beatings, sleep deprivation, and brainwashing.
On one occasion, a drug addict violently beat him more than twenty times with a bedboard that was more than one yard long and about eight inches wide. His buttocks were wounded, with strips of flesh ripped off of them. The inmates who beat him said without hesitation, “The guards wanted us to beat him, and the head of the labor camp wanted us to do this, and the people of the Judicial Department wanted us to beat him.”
Mr. Yu Chunhai finally returned home in early May 2001. His family spent over 10,000 yuan trying to treat him during the next three years but to no avail. He died on March 10, 2007, at the age of 32. He was survived by his wife and two young children aged 2 and 8.
Torture Methods Used in Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp
Pouring salt into open wounds was also used at the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp, since 2004.
The Chinese communist regime issued instructions from 2000 to April 2002 to forcibly transform Falun Gong practitioners. The authorities at Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp requested a 95 percent and above transformation rate. To force the practitioners to write guarantee statements, the authorities violently beat them until their faces were bruised and their skulls deformed. Some practitioners were so severely beaten that they could not walk down stairs for meals, and a practitioner was beaten to death.
Mr. Jiao Shoutong refused to write guarantee statements and was beaten by guard Wang Tao from the No. 1 Team in the No. 6 Division, using electric batons, batons, bamboo sticks, metal wires, and other items. His face was swollen and disfigured, and he was covered with bruises. When his wounds were about to stop bleeding the next day, the guards beat him again, causing all the cuts to re-open and blood to drip down his face.
Mr. Ma Shengbo was stripped of his clothes in the middle of the snowy freezing winter. The guards opened the doors and windows, and poured freezing water onto his body. Soon afterwards, his entire body started shivering uncontrollably. He then started to have cramps and he curled up on the ground. Finally, he lost consciousness.
The guards said, “Write it! [the guarantee statement]! Will you?!” Getting no response, they beat him with a bamboo club. They did not beat him with the flat side of the stick, but with the edge of the club. As a result, Mr. Ma’s naked body was cut open with many wounds and he was bleeding severely. The guards also ordered prisoners to spread salt into the wounds on his body, and poured a chili pepper and water mixture into his mouth. Whenever Mr. Ma lost consciousness, they beat him until he regained consciousness. In addition, they dragged Mr. Ma up by the legs and dragged him back and forth on the ground.
Mr. Chen Mingxian, who was about 62 years old, was a school principal. He was detained in the 2nd subdivision of Division 6. Guard Wang beat him brutally. His back became severely swollen. Wang hit Mr. Chen with a plastic stool so hard that the stool broke and Mr. Chen’s head bled. His face and mouth were so swollen one could hardly recognize him. Mr. Chen had difficulty eating as a result.
Two other practitioners, Mr. Zheng Yongping and Mr. Zhang Quanfu, were persecuted to death in Division 6.
An inmate poured boiling water on Mr. Zhang’s hands. When he was extremely exhausted and could not walk downstairs for lunch, the division head Li Zhongbo asked two inmates to carry him to the cafeteria. Only when Mr. Zhang was on the verge of death, was he finally sent to the hospital. He passed away in less than a day after being taken to the hospital.
Another practitioner, Mr. Fu Decai, was beaten until his body became bloody and two bamboo clubs broke.
Mr. Hu Shiming was 54 years old. After stripping off his clothes, the police guards poured cold water over his body, then poured boiling water. As a result, his entire back was scalded and blistered. The guards also used 30,000-volt electric batons to shock his genitals. Even the inmates there said the guards were very vicious.
Torture illustration: Beatings
Mr. Yu Chunbo, who was also held in the labor camp, was beaten by five guards with batons for a day. His entire body was dark purple with bruises. He was unable to move around after the torture.
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