(Clearwisdom.net) August 17th report: the authorities at Hulan Prison in Heilongjiang Province brutally tortured 34 illegally detained Dafa practitioners. They made a rule: if the practitioners are not "reformed" in one season, the police officers and heads of the corresponding divisions who are responsible for brainwashing these practitioners will be fined more than 50 Yuan. They also claimed that if practitioners do not renounce their belief before the end of 2003, the heads and police officers would be assessed additional fines. So far, this method has not worked.
In early April 2003, a group of practitioners who had recently been given prison sentences were sent to the Hulan Prison. The prison authorities issued a deadline to each division to intensify the persecution and to force the practitioners to renounce their belief. They used rewards as well as punishment to reinforce the persecution.
The police and head prisoners conspired. They agreed if the prisoners were successful in getting a practitioner to renounce his or her belief, they would be given credits and the prisoners would receive sentence reductions. They also implied that the prisoners could use any means to achieve results with the practitioners. If the prisoners were not successful in obtaining renunciations from the practitioners, they were to receive punishment, including reduction in gained points. At the same time, to block the news of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners from spreading outside the prison, the division heads didn't allow other prisoners to talk to these practitioners. They prohibited these practitioners from entering the cafeteria, making phone calls, writing letters or buying necessities from the prison store. Furthermore, they also sent people to monitor the practitioners.
On April 10, a group of newly sentenced practitioners were sent here. That same evening they began a large-scale persecution against those practitioners. The mildest torture was forcing the practitioners to stand in the hallway facing the wall for a whole night to "repent." The next day the practitioners were still forced to work or continue to "repent." The person who was most severely tortured was practitioner Mr. Qian Houmin in Division No. 15, who was not allowed to sleep for seven days and seven nights.
Mr. Qian Houmin held a 20-day hunger strike to protest the persecution. He is currently hospitalized, and the details of his persecution are still unclear.
Another practitioner in Division No. 10 was unable to stand from physical exhaustion, so the prisoners tied him to a bed to torture him. Other newly arrived practitioners also received physical torture.
Practitioner Mr. Zhou Huajian in Group Two, Division No.2 was tortured so severely in the restroom he could not climb into bed. Mr. Zhang Fan in Division No. 13 was brutally beaten until his face became severely swollen.
Mr. Sun Hongquan in Group One, Division No. 2 was tortured most severely. (Please see Note 1 for more details).
Mr. Zhang Zhiguo in Division No. 11 went to talk to the police to protest this torture at the hands of the common prisoners, but the police reacted unexpectedly. Not only
did they forbid practitioners from ever going to the police in the future, they also said that the prisoners were free to do anything they wanted to the practitioners. This persecution caused tremendous physical and mental harm to the practitioners.
Mr. Zhang Xuewen from Hulan City held a hunger strike at the drilling group and was brutally tortured. He passed away around 6:00 a.m. on August 8th. (An article on the torture death of Zhang Xuewen was published on Minghui Net, Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net, on August 13th)
Hereby we thirty-four Dafa practitioners solemnly announce:
All of the "three statements" we were forced to write during the brutal persecution are completely void. From now on, we will walk determinedly on the path of Fa rectification and be worthy of Master's benevolent salvation!
Let us join hands in ending this persecution.
By 34 Dafa practitioners illegally detained at Hulan Prison
August 11th, 2003
Note 1: Details on the torture of practitioner Mr. Sun Hongquan, who was illegally detained at Group One, Division No.2 of Hulan Prison
On March 19, 2003, group head Qin ordered the prisoners not to talk to Dafa practitioners, and he used implication to force the prisoners to force Dafa practitioners to renounce their belief. When they finished working at 6:15 p.m., the head prisoner let others go back and rest, but he brutally beat Sun Hongquan three times in the restroom. He put a toothbrush handle in between Sun's fingers, and then he spun the handle while Sun's fist was forcibly closed, which caused great pain. He stuffed Sun's mouth with a towel, and four prisoners pushed Sun and pulled his arms backward. Sun passed out four times but the persecutors still violently banged his head against the wall while they kicked and hit him. This lasted until 1 a.m. When they grew tired, another three took their turn. They put a chair on Sun's legs while a person sat on the chair, the other two persecutors each stood on Sun's one hand. They soaked a whip in water and they took turn whipping him until 4 a.m. They brutally tortured Sun for a total of ten hours. Once, they didn't allow Sun to sleep for three days and three nights, and they didn't allow his family to visit him.
Division head: Qindian Junzhong
Group head: Li You
Instructor: Min Huiguang
2. On June 27, Fan Changjiang (the instructor of Group Three, Hulan Prison who is in charge of persecuting Dafa practitioners). He forced the practitioners to sit on small stools 2.5 in. wide and 5 in. long from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Dafa practitioner Mr. Wang Cheng held a hunger strike to protest the persecution, and on the third day of the hunger strike, instructor Fan ordered the prisoners to beat the practitioners. After the practitioners were beaten in the hallway, they were forced to stand there until 10 p.m. On the next day, two prisoners were sent to watch the practitioners' every move, and they wrote a report and turned it in to prison authorities. Right now, the police don't allow the practitioners to make phone calls and they don't allow family visits. When the practitioners' family members went to visit, the authorities lie and tell them the practitioners are well to deceive them.
