Ever since the Chinese government began its crackdown on Falun Gong, reports of the outrages committed by the government, against Falun Gong practitioners, have circulated almost daily, via the Internet. These atrocities are so horrific that they are beyond this writer's imagination. The Chinese Government still subjects their own citizens to a variety of unbearable tortures. Even though it has been twenty years since the Chinese government reformed and opened to the West, signed the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and our civilization has entered the 21st Century. The writer wishes this wasn't true. These blood-curdling and appalling tortures should only exist in the past; they should only belong to a primitive and uncivilized age, or to descriptions found in works of fiction. Yet, they are literally happening today. In order to let more people know the truth about the depth of this cruel persecution, the writer carefully interviewed several Falun Gong practitioners, and wrote this report based upon their stories.
A practitioner was imprisoned and the prison guard told the twelve prison inmates, "If he starts to practice his exercises, beat him up, or you won't be allowed to have any visitors." This practitioner persisted in practicing and meditating, therefore incurring the wrath of the twelve inmates who grabbed him and beat him up. One inmate suggested, "Let's rearrange his face!" Another inmate said, "Let's give him a panda face!" Taking turns, the twelve inmates began to slap his face. When the inmates' own hands were sore, the practitioner's face was swollen, like a panda bear's face, with black and blue marks all over it. Since the slapping couldn't harm certain places on his face, such as the corners of his nose, the corners of his eyes, and his earlobes. One inmate then suggested, "Let's flick at the places we can't hit." Thus, one after another, the inmates flicked at these sensitive spots with their fingers. When the inmates' fingers were sore, not one place on this practitioner's face remained unbruised. The practitioner remained extremely calm and peaceful. He didn't resist the inmates, and never complained. He even told them the principles of Falun Gong. After a few days, all of the inmates were moved by the practitioner's exceptional behavior. They realized that Falun Gong practitioners were truly good people, and they could no longer bring themselves to hit him.
In the basements of some detention centers there exist dungeons, where there is a particular form of punishment; the name of which is unknown. Practitioners were stripped bare, and then their hands and feet were chained to a wall in a spread-eagle position. Below the wall was a cesspit. If the person had to go the bathroom, he would just have to do it there. Normally, prisoners can only take this torture for two hours. Huge beads of sweat would appear on their bodies, and they would pass out. This is a secretive method used to punish dangerous prisoners, which outsiders don't even know exists. Many practitioners were chained there for two days and nights. An ordinary prisoner, if chained for this long, would certainly die. Only practitioners could survive this torture. When released from the shackles, they would already be unconscious, their entire bodies swollen. Their hands and feet became so swollen that the shackles were no longer visible.
There is another method of torture, the name of which I do not know. It was described once in "The Red Rock," a novel published in the 1940s. At that time, if female Communists remained determined after being tortured by various means, the secret agents would press their heads all the way down into a bucket containing human excrement. They then shook the bucket to create a stronger stench that would penetrate the lungs of those women, forcing them to vomit violently and repeatedly until they threw up bile and their insides roiled like the sea during a hurricane. In the majority of cases, this cruel treatment broke the spirit of those women.
Today, this form of torture is being used against Falun Gong practitioners at prisons in China. The captured practitioners are told to write a statement of repentance promising not to practice Falun Gong anymore and repeat derogatory statements about Master Li. The prison guards treat practitioners differently. If they write the statement, they will be released after two weeks of detention. For determined and unyielding practitioners or for those who continue to practice Falun Gong exercises in jail, the prison guards have used different forms of torture in addition to beatings. Likewise if these methods did not work, they would pick up practitioners by their feet and force their heads into a jar of prisoners' excrement. The jar containing feces, looks like a wine jar, and has an opening slightly bigger than a human head. When a practitioner's head was forced into such a jar, another prison guard shook the jar hard so that the revolting odor would overwhelm the senses of the practitioners. As they shook the jar the guards asked the practitioners whether or not they would continue to practice Falun Gong. The practitioners answered, "Yes," with determination. The prison guard then shook the jar more vigorously while repeating the question over and over again. They would not give up until the practitioner finally vomited bile and fainted.
The Seventh Division Criminal Investigation Department Detention Center at the Beijing Police Bureau incarcerates several hundred prisoners who have been sentenced to death. There are about 40 cells, each about 7 meters in length and 2.5 meters in width. The bed consists of a wooden platform about .33 meters above the floor. It can hold 12 people sleeping closely next to each other. Along the platform there are normally six people sleeping on the floor. They have to sleep on their sides in three rows to fit within the small space. One square meter of space remains for a toilet and a washroom. Human waste flows directly to the outside through a tunnel.
This detention center has imprisoned group after group of Falun Gong practitioners. The four practitioners given very severe sentences in Beijing are also jailed there. Those prisoners who remain unsentenced hope to settle their cases soon so that they can be transferred to prisons. Prisons, by comparison, have relatively more room to move around. There are more female practitioners at the detention center than males. They are very strong and determined. Every one of them was handcuffed with their hands behind their back. Their feet were also cuffed. This method of cuffing a prisoner's hands and feet is called "sitting on an airplane." It is used to punish criminals who have committed serious crimes. Once in the handcuffs, the blood flow to the hands and arms is restricted, thus causing swelling. Each of the female practitioners jailed at the detention center had hands, arms and feet swollen like melons. The metal cuffs carved into their flesh. Their skin looked transparent from the swelling. If you touched the swollen skin it would break. The practitioners could not move around because both of their hands and feet were cuffed. Prison guards asked other prisoners to help them with daily necessities. They were reluctant at the beginning and complained a lot. After the practitioners told the prisoners about the principles of Falun Dafa, some of them embraced it and began to study the Fa. Practitioners bent themselves into awkward and sometimes painful positions while sitting to eat the prison meal of corn bread, so as not to inconvenience others to feed them. They did not even eat the soup. Their selfless behavior moved even the prisoners.
Such vicious persecution was also applied to foreign practitioners. An Australian Falun Gong practitioner was secretly kidnapped as soon as he arrived in China. He was imprisoned at the Seventh Division Criminal Investigation Department. Over there, the fiendish cell guards took turns interrogating him for seven consecutive days and nights. They shouted at him and deprived him of sleep, using this strategy to wear him down and destroy his spirit. The February weather in Beijing was icy cold. He was not allowed to have a blanket. The guards confiscated his own pants. The inmates stole his leather jacket. He was sitting in the cold for seven days and nights. As soon as he returned to his cell, he was called again for more interrogation. When he was sent back to the cell, the guards exchanged his pants with a pair of second hand, ill-fitting ones. His leather jacket had also disappeared. The police then took him directly to the airport and deported him. Upon arriving at the Australian Customs Control, the customs officer suspected him as being either an escaped criminal or a drug dealer. He looked filthy, wearing only one sweater, with ill-fitting pants, and carrying no luggage. He was asked many questions. Although he explained thoroughly for a long time, the customs officer still found it hard to believe and said, "It's better if we can do a body search." He replied, "No problem. You can even do a strip search. But please be quick, as my family is waiting for me outside." In this way, an Australian citizen went to China, was abused by the Chinese police, and returned in such a bad shape that he could be mistaken for an escaped criminal. What a shame for China! When he reported the abuses he experienced in China to Australia's Foreign Affairs Department, the Foreign Affairs officer said that in the past, such punishment was also administered in South Africa's notorious jails.
Recently there have been rumors that the Chinese government plans to build a large-scale detention center in the North Western region to deal with Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese government intends to use unconscionable methods of mass detention to deal with these harmless citizens who only want the freedom to practice the Falun Gong exercises. As the revealed facts of this horrific persecution indicates: those soulless individuals responsible are absolutely capable of implementing such a horrific plan that will irreparably damage the country and its people.
An Australia practitioner July, 2000
