Thursday, August 8, 2013

Brutality of the Communist Regime Exposed by Anti-torture Exhibits Held Overseas

The truth is, throughout the past 14 years the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has led the guards in prisons, labor camps, and detention centers to use all kinds of torture methods on practitioners, and these crimes cannot be denied or expunged. The images and re-enactments of these tortures, carried out on Falun Gong practitioners, are nowhere near the true extent of the torment inflicted.

July 24, 2013 | By a practitioner from Chongqing, China
(Minghui.org) Recent reports by Chinese Communist regime-controlled media in China claim that illustrations which show reenactments of torture methods used on Falun Gong practitioners are fabricated.
While I was detained, I personally experienced and witnessed practitioners being brutally tortured. I also saw guards being rewarded based on the number of practitioners they “transformed.” The way they tortured and abused this innocent group of people clearly shows that there is no boundary they would not cross to obtain money or personal advancement.
The torture methods used on practitioners includes intense beatings, having their hands cuffed behind their backs, solitary confinement, being baked under the scorching sun, made to stand in military posture for long hours, having their mouths, noses, and ears taped with adhesive tape, hung up by handcuffs for hours with only their toes touching the ground, not allowed to use the toilet, as well as many other forms of torture. Practitioners who refused to be “transformed” were injected with unknown drugs, force-fed until they suffocated, and other forms of torture. Many practitioners have died or become disabled as a result of torture.
The truth is, throughout the past 14 years the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has led the guards in prisons, labor camps, and detention centers to use all kinds of torture methods on practitioners, and these crimes cannot be denied or expunged. The images and re-enactments of these tortures, carried out on Falun Gong practitioners, are nowhere near the true extent of the torment inflicted.

Ms. Zhou Chengyu Dies as a Result of Being Force Fed Drugs

Ms. Zhou Chengyu
Ms. Zhou Chengyu was arrested and sentenced to two years of forced labor in Chongqing Women’s Forced Labor Camp in February 2001. She was 55 years old at the time. Ms. Zhou was cruelly abused by female guard Yang Ming as well as other guards. Her entire body became covered in wounds as a result of the torture, yet Yang Ming claimed that Ms. Zhou had contracted scabies. Yang Ming tried to make Ms. Zhou apply and take medication, but she refused to comply. Yang Ming then ordered convicts to force-feed her with drugs, and consequently Ms. Zhou’s stomach and head became swollen. She had difficulty breathing and when she asked the guards what medication she was forced to take, they refused to tell her.
Yang Ming dragged Ms. Zhou to the hospital several days later, on the night of September 28, 2001. She struggled and grabbed the bed railings with her hands, shouting, “I don’t want to go to the hospital!” Prison inmates Liu Chengling and Wang Suxiao picked Ms. Zhou up and carried her down from the fourth to the first floor, and many people heard her pitiable screams.
She never came back. It was later confirmed that she was persecuted to death that night. Her body was taken to the 324 Hospital that night. Attempting to cover up the truth about how she died, the labor camp officials claimed that she passed away from illness. They covered up the truth with lies.

Ms. Xu Zhen Tortured to Death

Guards Luo Chunmei and Wang Zhitao locked Ms. Xu Zhen in a cell alone around August 2000. They shackled her hands to the bed, and beat and reprimanded her. They also fed her three times a day with huge doses of medication which is normally used on mentally ill patients. However, Ms. Xu was perfectly lucid and healthy. As a result of the medication, she became disoriented, and suffered a mental collapse. Her eyes became dull. Her workplace was notified to come and take her home. When her colleagues saw the extent to which she had been tortured, they said, “She was healthy when she was taken to the labor camp. Now she is disoriented. She has no family except for a young son. There is no one who can take care of her. We cannot take her home.” It was reported that she was subsequently sent to a mental institution.
Torture re-enactment: Brutally force-fed with drugs
Ms. Xu was sentenced to four years of imprisonment by a Xihu District Court in Hangzhou in 2006 and was incarcerated in Zhejiang Province Women’s Prison. She was arrested again in September 2011 and taken to Chongqing Women’s Forced Labor Camp, where she was subjected to a variety of tortures. At the labor camp, her mouth was taped for long periods of time to stop her from making any sounds. She died from the persecution in October 2011.

Ms. Wang Jiqin Tortured to Death

Ms. Wang Jiqin
In July 2000, when she was only 29 years old, Ms. Wang Jiqin was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in Chongqing Women’s Labor Camp. She was tortured and force-fed drugs several times until she collapsed. She was in great pain when she was dragged back into the prison cell, and said with great difficulty, “My son is still little, I cannot die.”
When Ms. Wang was tortured to the brink of the death, guard Yang Ming still refused to release her. In the end the labor camp head gave an order to send her home to die. She passed away on September 23, 2002 after returning home.

Ms. Luo Deqing Sexually Abused

Ms. Luo Deqing was detained and persecuted at Chongqing Women’s Forced Labor Camp from 2001 to 2003. She was only in her twenties. Guards had several convicts strip off her clothes, pry her thighs open, and sexually abuse her by sticking their fingers into her vagina. All the practitioners detained in the cell went on a hunger strike to protest against this sexual harassment. However, none of the convicts were punished.

Ms. Qiu Cuixiang Nearly Tortured to Death

Ms. Qiu Cuixiang was abducted and taken to Chongqing Women’s Forced Labor Camp in 2000. She was in her fifties at the time. She was released in November 2000. She was arrested again and imprisoned in the same labor camp in late 2002.
Torture re-enactment: Handcuffed behind the back
Guard Yang Ming put Ms. Qiu into a solitary confinement cell as punishment for not wearing the prison uniform. Her hands were cuffed behind her back and she was force-fed with drugs. Her fingers and toes became severely bruised from the torture, and she was on the verge of death. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Hongquan, who is a doctor from Yuzhou University in Chongqing, told guard Yang Ming that Ms. Qiu’s life was in danger, as there was insufficient blood supply to her heart. However Yang Ming did not stop abusing Ms. Qiu, and also began torturing Zhang Hongquan.

True Extent of Brutality is Far From that Portrayed in Torture Re-enactment Displays

The accounts of persecution described above are based on what I have seen and heard. Words cannot adequately describe the atmosphere of terror or the extent of the atrocities taking place in the CCP’s forced labor camps and prisons. Thanks to the anti-torture exhibits held by overseas practitioners, the atrocities carried out by the Communist regime are being exposed. Compared to the true extent of the atrocities in China, these exhibits show merely the tip of the iceberg. The extent of the brutality I experienced and saw during my detention at Chongqing Women’s Labor Camp far surpasses what is portrayed in the torture illustrations.
I would also like to point out that when practitioners in China take photos showing the torture methods used on them, it is not to seek justice for only themselves. Every day, innocent Chinese citizens are being sent to prisons, labor camps, detention centers, and brainwashing centers by the Chinese Communist regime. They are made to do slave labor, and tortured. Exposing this inhumane treatment using direct means is the first step in stopping such practices. It’s also an effective way to protect the personal safety of citizens. The practitioners who take photos showing the torture used on other practitioners are exercising their right to freedom of speech as well as upholding the fundamental personal safety of all Chinese citizens.