Thursday, July 12, 2012

Brutal Persecution Suffered by Female Falun Gong Practitioners in China – Part 2: Force-Feeding


October 16, 2011 | Summary report by a Clearwisdom correspondent in China
(Clearwisdom.net) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses prisons, forced labor camps, hospitals, mental institutions, and brainwashing centers to detain Falun Gong practitioners for long periods of time. Brainwashing, forced labor, brutal forced-feeding, forced abortions, drug injections, sexual violence, and even the harvesting of organs from practitioners while they are still alive are methods included in the CCP’s attempt toward genocide of Falun Dafa practitioners. This report is compiled from Clearwisdom reports on the persecution of female Dafa practitioners. The following accounts, however, merely reveal the tip of the iceberg.
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Part 2 – Force-Feeding
Force-feeding is a medical practice usually meant for saving the lives of patients. But in today’s China, the CCP is using it as a torture method to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. As shown in many cases of persecution, forced-feeding is employed in labor camps as a violent or even deadly action to deliberately torture practitioners who stage hunger strikes. These hunger strikes are to protest the persecution. Force-feeding is used to cause practitioners tremendous suffering and is an attempt to force them to give up their belief or their protest.
Practitioners are not force-fed nutrients that help sustain life, but rather high-density liquids that cause great agony or even death when given. Liquids such as concentrated salt solutions, dense chili liquid, garlic juice, human urine, water mixed with feces, and even medicine that damages the nervous system are force-fed to practitioners. Force-feeding has caused some practitioners to die as they were suffocated and unable to breathe. Other practitioners died after their lungs were damaged from force-feeding.
To conduct forced-feeding, guards in prisons or labor camps firmly hold a practitioner’s limbs to the ground or tightly tie them to a bed. Then they hold the practitioner’s nose and force his/her mouth open. Some practitioners’ mouths are torn during this brutal process. Next, they use sharp metal equipment to pry practitioner’s clenched teeth open. Some practitioners’ gums are split, some loose teeth and their mouths become badly mutilated. Guards then take a tube, which may not necessarily be medical tubing, and repetitively push it in and pull it out of the practitioner through the nose or mouth. In the end, they finally succeed in inserting the tube and force-feed material into the practitioner’s body. Some practitioners are tortured to the death during this process.
Torture re-enactment: Force-feeding
Some guards tie practitioners’ limbs to beds for extended periods, which causes necrosis of muscles and nerves, eventually leading to paralysis. Some keep the tubes inserted in practitioners’ bodies for a long time. The feeding material is sometimes forced into practitioners’ lungs due to the rough handling, and this can easily cause lung failure or infection, leading to death.
1. Ms. Li Baojie, 34, from Panshan County, Panjin City, Liaoning Province
Ms. Li Baojie
Ms. Li Baojie and her husband were sentenced to two years of forced labor on August 19, 2004. In the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Li staged a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Guards directed inmates to take her into a dark room and abuse her there. As a result, she developed severe sickness symptoms. According to people who were watching her, Ms. Li had not been allowed to go downstairs or get any sunshine for three to four months, and she was tortured because she refused to renounce her belief. Because Ms. Li went on a protest hunger strike, a prison physician inserted a tube into her body and force-fed her. The tube was kept in her body after the force-feeding and the other end of the tube was tied to her hair. She was force-fed four times a day some days. Ms. Li was once tortured to the extent that her eyes could not tolerate light, nor clearly see anything, and she had to rely on the support of two other people in order to walk.
On April 7, 2005, guards held Ms. Li to the ground firmly. No part of her body – head, arms or legs – was able to move a bit. Her mouth was opened to the extreme by a piece of equipment. The guards constantly fed her with corn porridge through a funnel. Ms. Li started suffocating, and she was brought to Shenyang Hospital for emergency treatment. The next day, the forced labor camp authorities released her while she was still in critical condition. Ms. Li passed away in the car while being taken home – over ten kilometers from her home.
Parties involved in the persecution of Li Baojie include Zhang Chunguang, Li Mingdong, Li Mingyu, Liu Yong, Yan Siguang, Chen Jingmin, Li Jun, Wang Qi, Ma Jinshan, Zhang Jun, a female prison physician, and a male prison physician.
2. Ms. Zhao Yanxia, 62, from Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia
Ms. Zhao Yanxia was arrested and held in the Hongshan District Detention Center in Chifeng in 2001. On April 10, 2001, guards attempted to force practitioners to memorize the detention center regulations, but the Falun Gong practitioners refused. Deng Liyan, a female guard, then started shocking practitioners with an electric baton. The practitioners started a hunger strike to protest. Around April 17, the Hongshan Detention Center authorities mobilized about 100 male inmates to drag out all female practitioners. Each practitioner was held down to a chair in the hallway by several inmates. They held the practitioners’ arms, legs and head, pried their mouths open with chopsticks, held practitioner’s necks, and then forced-fed each practitioner with corn porridge.
Torture reenactment: Force-feeding
Qiu Xuedong, a team head in the detention center, yelled loudly, “Feed them! Feed them! Feed them!” Some inmates suggested that they stop force-feeding Ms. Zhao as her head had dropped down and she could no longer sit up. However, Qiu directed the inmates to continue force-feeding her. Ms. Zhao fell off from the chair. She was dragged to a corner and ignored. A practitioner walked over to her and constantly called her name, trying to wake her up, but the guards drove her away and claimed that Ms. Zhao was faking it.
Half an hour later, an inmate checked Ms. Zhao and found that her body was cold. The inmate believed that she was dead. Only then did the guards drive her to a hospital in hurry for so-called emergency treatment.
3. Ms. Zeng Xiane, 36, an employee at the Gujiagang Industrial and Commercial Bank in Shiyan City, Hubei Province.
Ms. Zeng Xiane went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on December 15, 2000 and was sent to a forced labor camp after coming back from Beijing. She suffered from tremendous torture in the Hubei Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse. Guards then tied her to a big wooden bed and inserted a long plastic tube, around 12 to 14 millimeters in diameter, deep into her body through her mouth. The tube was inserted and pulled out repeatedly, causing unbearable pain. Her organs were severely damaged and she was later tortured to the extent that she was almost dead.
Other Falun Gong practitioners held in the same cell as Ms. Zeng asked about Ms. Zeng’s situation. The guards had been blocking the news and wouldn’t directly answer their inquiries. Only after two weeks did the guards announce that Ms. Zeng had died from heart disease. They claimed that Ms. Zeng’s supervisor at her workplace had come to check, and that a juridical doctor had done an autopsy and confirmed that Ms. Zeng died from heart disease.
Ms. Zeng’s husband went to the hospital on August 3, 2001 after being informed that his wife had died. Ms. Zeng’s body was brought out from a freezer. Her clothes were all new and her head was severely swollen. Her fists were clenched tightly and her body was soft. Ms. Zeng’s husband requested to have her clothes changed again and to check her body as well. His request was denied. Ms. Zeng’s young brother brought a doctor and requested to have an examination, which was also denied. Taking photos of Ms. Zeng’s body was not allowed, and bringing Ms. Zeng’s body back to Shiyan was denied too. The family was not allowed to stay nearby when Ms. Zeng’s body was cremated. After coming back to Shiyan, the family was informed that they were prohibited from holding a memorial service for Ms. Zeng or to disclose information about the incident.
A witness overheard a conversation between guards over their cell phones. The guard on the other end asked, “How are you doing over there?” The guard on this end answered, “We are still working on him. This old guy is really stubborn.” The guard on the other end shouted in hurry, “Stop quickly. We’ve already beat Zeng Xiane to death. We are going to exceed our quota if you don’t stop.” (Note: Forced labor camp regulations stipulate that the number of deaths cannot exceed a certain amount. Exceeding the quota means that more people are dying in a forced labor camp than the stipulated limit.)
4. Ms. Zhang Dezhen, 38, from Xiezhuang, Jiuzhai Township, Mengyin County, college graduate, a teacher at Jiuzhai High School in Mengyin, Shandong Province.
Ms. Zhang Dezhen
On September 19, 2002, Ms. Zhang Dezhen was once again arrested by officers from the Criminal Police Group of the Mengyin County Police Department and detained in the Mengyin County Detention Center. She went on a hunger strike to protest, and was force-fed in the Mengyin County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital multiple times. On January 31, 2003, Chinese New Year’s Eve, she died after being injected with a drug.
On January 31, 2003, Ms. Zhang Dezhen, Ms. Zhang Guifeng, Ms. Wang Xiangying and another practitioner were put in a police vehicle, taken to the Mengyin County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and placed in a room on the first floor. Guards and doctors collaborated in persecuting them. Ms. Zhang Dezhen had already passed out on the way. No rescue effort was made for her, but all four practitioners were injected with an unknown drug. When only half the amount of the drug was injected, they began feeling hot, and had dry mouths, pain throughout their bodies, and weakness in their legs. The doctors then deliberately put hot water bottles under their arms.
Ms. Wang Xiangying asked doctor Wang Chun Xiao and Detention Center head Sun Kehai, “Exactly what kind of drug are you using on us?” Sun did not answer, but instead said, “Isn’t this good?” Ms. Wang Xiangying said, “Please send Ms. Zhang Dezhen home immediately.” The guards ignored her and stayed in the room for a long time. During this period, Ms. Zhang Guifeng pulled out the needle. Four or five guards then held her down and pushed the needle into her again. Ms. Zhang Dezhen’s situation was getting worse and worse. Despite her condition, they still completed the injection of a whole vial of a drug into her body. A group of guards were watching the process.
As the next day was Chinese New Year, and the guards wanted to go home early. Ms. Zhang Dezhen was still alive at that point. Guards collaborated to stage a show in front of Ms. Wang Xiangying and Ms. Zhang Guifeng. They put Ms. Zhang Dezhen on a gurney. Then the doctors hung four intravenous injection bottles at the four corners of the bed, and spoke to each other about how they were going to “rescue” her. Then one of the doctors gave her a shot of an unknown drug, after which Ms. Zhang went completely still. A guard standing on the side said quietly, “Another one has ended.” Ms. Zhang Dezhen was then pushed out on the gurney.
5. Ms. Zheng Yuling, 57, former employee at the Chibi City Commercial Bureau of Hubei Province
Ms. Zheng Yuling
Ms. Zheng Yuling was sentenced to four years in prion. Because of her perseverance in her belief, she was tortured with methods including being forced to stand for extended periods, beatings, forced labor, being deprived of sleep, denial of restroom use, being suspended by handcuffs, force-feeding and held in an isolated cell. On the evening of August 6, 2009, she was arrested for posting up information about arrested practitioners in the Chibi Police Department’s dorm building. She was sentenced to two years of forced labor and was sent to the Hubei Provincial Women’s Forced Labor Camp on August 25, 2009, where she was persecuted to death on the afternoon of September 28, 2009
Guards in the forced labor camp said, “Zheng Yuling started a hunger strike on September 9, and she died at noon on September 28.” Ms. Zheng’s husband said, “There were 19 days between the time my wife started a hunger strike and when she died. Why didn’t you give me any notice?” No guard responded. When Ms. Zheng’s husband arrived at the labor camp on September 29, he noted that Ms. Zheng Yuling’s face had make-up and her clothes had been changed. Her nose was deformed and her hands were covered with needle holes. Ms. Zheng’s body was cremated in Wuhan City on September 30, 2009 and her casket was taken to Chibi Crematory by agents from the Hubei 610 Office and the forced labor camp. Ms. Zheng’s family was not allowed to hold a memorial service at home or bury her ashes at her old home in the countryside. They forced her family to cancel the reservation at a restaurant for guests coming to mourn Ms. Zheng, and forced the family to keep her ashes in the crematory.
6. Ms. Liu Xiaoling, 37, from Wuzhan Township, Zhaodong City, Heilongjiang Province
Ms. Liu Xiaoling
Ms. Liu Xiaoling was arrested on February 4, 2000 for doing the Falun Gong exercises outdoors with three other practitioners. Ms. Liu was subsequently incarcerated in Cell 15 in the Zhaodong Detention Center. During the period from May 8 to May 11, she and four other practitioners requested multiple times to talk to detention center authorities about some issues. Their requests were ignored. The five practitioners went on a hunger strike on May 11 and demanded their unconditional release. Detention center head Wu Guozhi force-fed the practitioners with fermented bean curd soup and strong brine. Ms. Liu died on May 15. During the autopsy, one of her lungs was found to be filled with salt grains and fermented bean curd pieces.
7. Ms. Zhang Hong, 31, single, previously lived in Dongli District, Harbin City, worked as a nurse at Harbin No. 4 Hospital
Ms. Zhang Hong
Ms. Zhang Hong was sent to forced labor camps twice. On May 8, 2004, she was arrested by two officers from the Dongfeng Police Station in Daowai District, Harbin and taken to the No. 2 Detention Center where she was denied admission. On July 22, she was sent to the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp where she, along with other practitioners, refused to write the “Three Statements” (Guarantee Statement, Repentance Statement, Dissociation Statement) on her first day. As a means of punishment, the guards forced them to squat for an extended period and denied them meals. Ms. Zhang Hong’s arms were handcuffed to a bed.
The next day, the guards claimed that Ms. Zhang had heart disease, which was not true, and gave Ms. Zhang an injection. They held her down to a bare wooden bed, raised her arms, cuffed her arms to the headboard, tied her feet to the foot of the bed, and injected her with an unidentified drug which caused her to lose control of her bladder. Moldy corn porridge mixed with large amounts of salt was used in force-feeding. The male head guard ordered no water for Ms. Zhang and deprived her of using the restroom. Her feet swelled and became purple-black after she was forced to stand for an extended period. She was also thrown into a men’s cell and kicked by male inmates, and put into underground solitary confinement for three days.
On the morning of July 31, Ms. Zhang Hong shouted, “I don’t want to die, I want to go home, I live in the Dongli District …” She was trying to tell people that the guards were killing her. They sent her to the No. 211 Military Hospital the same afternoon and notified her family at around 3:00 p.m. that Ms. Zhang had died from kidney failure caused by a heart attack. Her family found that her eyes remained wide open, her mouth was bloody and wide open, her pants were filled with filth and her weight had been reduced to about 35 kilograms (77 lbs). Against her family’s wishes, Ms. Zhang’s body was cremated on August 26, under the surveillance of over 40 police officers.
8. Ms. Song Bing, 37, from Shulan City, Jilin Province, graduate of Changchun Institute of Posts and Telecoms, an employee at the Shulan City Telecommunication Bureau.
At around 7:00 p.m. on November 27, 2003, officer Guo Wei led a group to storm into Ms. Song Bing and her sister’s home. They grabbed Ms. Song Bing’s hair, twisted her arms behind her back, and gagged her. They sealed the sisters’ mouths with tape, covered their heads with cloth, handcuffed them, and then took then to the Nanshan Detention Center of Shulan.
The next afternoon, Wang Tingbai, Li Jiazhe and Xiao Yong from the Shulan Police Department interrogated Ms. Song Bing. Li Jiazhe claimed that two other men standing beside him were thugs that he hired for 100 yuan. They threatened Ms. Song Bing saying, “Practicing Falun Gong is illegal.”
Ms. Song Bing reasoned with them, “The issue of Falun Gong belongs to the category of belief. What the law punishes are criminal actions instead of one’s thoughts. Thought isn’t a crim anywhere in the world.” Li Jiazhe winked at two thugs. One of them responded, “We are not going to discuss the law with you. If you don’t give us the answers that we ask for, we will continue to torture you tomorrow. We will torture you every day. What do you think about what happened to Kong Fanrong? Didn’t she die? Didn’t she die for nothing? If you don’t tell us what we want to hear, we are going to torture you to death just like what was done to Kong Fanrong.”
They then poured mustard oil into her windpipe through her nose, which caused her to feel an explosion of pain in her lungs. Ms. Song Bing coughed and vomited violently. Officers made up a statement about how they found 30,000 pieces of Falun Gong literature at Ms. Song’s home, and based on this fabricated fact, Ms. Song Bing was sentenced to 14 years in prison and her sister Ms. Song Yanqun to 12 years in prison.
On May 25, 2004, Ms. Song Bing and her sister Ms. Song Yanqun were both taken to Tiebei Prison in Changchun City. Ms. Song Bing was found to have tuberculosis, and was rejected by the prison. Her condition seriously worsened in July. She had a fever, cough, shortness of breath, no appetite, and partial heart failure. One day, she passed out three times. She lost control of her arms and legs. The jolt caused by moving her out from the cell made her pass out. Her health never recovered, and she died on July 30, 2009.
9. Cui Ningning, 46, lived at the No. 7 Compound, Jingqi Road, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, an employee at Henan Province Grains and Oils Import & Export Corp.
Ms. Cui Ningning went to Henan Agriculture University to visit an instructor there. She was illegally arrested by security guards when she was leaving the university. They said they found many Falun Gong VCDs on the campus, and that they believed that Cui Ningning distributed them. They conducted a body search on her and found no evidence. They looked her up in their computer database and identified her as someone who practiced Falun Gong. Officers from the Dongfenglu Police Station then took Ms. Cui to the Heizhuang Detention Center where she was force-fed and tortured until she was close to death. According to inmates in the detention center, four or five guards held Ms. Cui down for force-feeding. Her screams of pain were heard by almost everyone in the center. Blood spewed from her nose. She had been severely injured, and on the morning of July 17, her hands and feet started twitching involuntarily and she almost fainted twice. Ms. Cui continued the hunger strike and demanded an unconditional release. The guards ignored her condition. The detention center authorities released her on July 18, when she was dying, out of fear of being held responsible for her death. Ms. Cui passed away 11 days later.
(To be continued)
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