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Falun Gong Practitioner Lu Songming Is Subjected to Torture in Chishan Prison

August 13, 2004 |  

(Clearwisdom.net) FaLun Gong practitioner Mr. Lu Songming was illegally detained in Chishan Prison, Yuanjiang City, Hunan Province for refusing to renounce FaLun Dafa. Around November in 2002, he was transferred from the "Education Section" or brainwashing center to the 5th Ward. Mr. Lu is a graduate from the history department of Hunan Normal University and is a middle school teacher in a school affiliated with Xiangtan Engine Manufacturer.

On the second day of his arrival at the 5th Ward, while he was writing down a paragraph of Master's article on a piece of paper, police officer Luo Lie saw it and ordered prisoners to snatch the paper from him. Lu chased Luo Lie to the sports field, demanding that he return the piece of paper. Luo Lie handed the piece of paper to another police officer, He Yong. When Lu Songming walked up to ask that the piece of paper with Master's words be returned, He Yong falsely accused him and called out, "He is attacking the police! He is attacking the police! Get him!" Prisoners Geng Tao, Li Biao and others seized him and threw him onto the ground to beat him. He Yong called his superior Li Feiwen to come. Li Feiwen viciously said, "Why don't you just go and die? You have come here to cause us trouble. Now, how dare you to attack the police!"

Li Feiwen instructed He Yong, "Use some torture devices on him." Quickly, the head of No. 2 Section named Hu Qingyuan arrived. He Yong reported the situation and dragged Lu Songming onto his metal bed. Lu Songming was forced to lie down on the bed, face up, with both hands stretched above his head toward the headboard Each bed had a tubular headboard with three vertical metal bars in the middle. If one was handcuffed to the headboard around one metal bar, one still could move or turn over. He Yong, however, called prisoner Liu Zijiang and told him, "We have got the permission to handcuff him for seven days and seven nights. Handcuff him tightly! Make him behave well! It is all up to you. Here is the key for the handcuffs. Except for going to restroom and eating... Oh, just now he said he was going to go on hunger strike. Then except for going to restroom, he should be handcuffed at all times."

Prisoner Liu Zijiang immediately understood his intention. He made both of Lu Songming's hands go through the headboard of the bed with three metal bars in between. He exerted all his strength to pull Lu's hands together in order to lock the handcuffs. Finally, Lu was handcuffed tightly, with his arms forcibly stretched to form a circle over the top of his head and around the three metal bars. Before long, the extreme pain came and continued non-stop. His shoulders seemed to be torn apart. Practitioners Xiao Huisheng and Zeng Haiqi started a hunger strike together to protest the gross abuse against Lu. Through three practitioners' resistance and with the power of their righteous thoughts, finally the barbaric torture was stopped.

On January 10, 2003, three practitioners consisting of Lu Songming, Xiao Huisheng and Zeng Haiqi started a hunger strike to protest against having their heads shaved. On the third day of the hunger strike, prisoner Xiong Jiangang came with several other prisoners and they brought with them two bottles of thin rice porridge to conduct force-feeding. They grabbed Lu Songming and asked him, "Are you going to eat?" Lu answered, "Thanks, but no." He had hardly finished his words when Xiong Jiangang struck his head with a heavy blow from his fist. The attack was so violent that it made Lu Songming almost spin in a circle before falling to the ground. "Again, are you going to eat?" Lu shook his head. "Feed him!" Luo yelled. They came up on him together and pinned him down on the ground. They held his legs and arms and forcibly pushed the mouth of the bottle through his teeth. His front teeth became loosened upon impact. Chen Lin, a prisoner and a medical staff said quickly, "Hold his nose, otherwise the food could choke his windpipe..." Xiong Jiangang handed the bottle to Chen Lin, "You do it! I've never done this before."

Seeing Lu Songming still struggling, he sat down on Lu's stomach with all his weight, which made him vomit gastric fluid from his stomach. Prisoner Chen Lin called out, "Get up. Quick! You could kill him!" Xiong stood up with a smile and said, "You are against the government. The government asks me to straighten you out. I'm a prisoner and have no other choice. If you don't eat tomorrow, I will put a bamboo tube all the way down your throat and mess up your throat. How dare you still refuse to eat?"

Chen Lin continued with the force-feeding. Four hours later, Lu Songming went to the restroom and felt as if warm water was coming out of him. The prisoner in charge of monitoring him called out, "It's terrible. You are excreting blood. A lot of blood!" Lu Songming believed that Xiong Jiangang must have caused him some internal injury when he violently sat on his stomach. Later, Lu Songming told this to Xiao Ziqiang. Xiao immediately went to find staff member Chen Xionghui in the Education Section and said to him, "He Yong has been saying all along that because Lu Songming exposed him, he would ask Xiong Jiangang to make him suffer. Now, are you going to kill him through the hands of others?" Chen Xionghui hesitated for a while and then summoned Xiong Jiangang to come to see him. Since then, Xiong Jiangang never participated in force-feeding again.

On the seventh day of the hunger strike, at about 3:00 p.m., the prisoner on duty called, "Lu Songming, your family member came to see you. Prepare for the visit." Lu Songming walked weakly step by step toward the gate. He saw that police officer Luo Lie was on duty and that his phone started to ring. It seemed to be from Li Feiwen. The two talked for a little while in a low voice. Then Luo Lie said to Lu with a shrug, "Lu Songming, you see I have no other way. The higher authority does not allow you to have a visitor. You have asked for this by going on a hunger strike." Lu Songming protested, "Which prison rule says that one is not allowed family visits for going on hunger strike?" Luo Lie went silent and then said, "All right, I'll go to the administration section and see who has come to see you."

Half an hour later, Luo Lie came back with two packages of milk powder and said, "Your younger sister from the countryside came to see you. The officer in the administration section has talked to her. She left in tears..." Lu Songming, choking back tears, said, "Practitioners are all good people. Our hunger strike is against the government's persecution. For over a year now, you have seen how practitioners behave. Why treat good people in such a way? Our resistance to the persecution is to make you all wake up and not commit crimes any more; otherwise, the crimes of brutally persecuting practitioners are so serious that you could never pay them back."

To resist slave labor, Lu Songming, Xiao Huisheng and Zeng Haiqi went on another hunger strike and refused to work. The deputy head of the prison, Zi Wei, cunningly said, "Whether or not you are guilty, it's not my business. You can go to reason with the court. Since the court sent you here, you are criminals. According to "Prison Law," I have the right to rule you. Your refusing to work has violated "Prison Law." Lu Songming answered, "The fundamental essence and purpose of human law is to punish evil and promote goodness, and to uphold justice. The law itself did not sentence us nor find us guilty. It is the government that manipulates the courts to illegally put practitioners in jail. Article 13 of "Prison Law" states that you should abide by the Constitution and should execute the law with justice. However, you deliberately treat practitioners as criminals! You already violated the Constitution and the fundamental essence of the law. How can you be qualified to talk about law? You are just playing with the law."

He continued, "Let's back off ten thousand steps and just talk about "Prison Law" itself. You violated Article 71. Practitioners in all forced labor sections are coerced to work for 14 or 15 hours a day with excessive workloads. There are no weekends and only one day to rest every 20 or 30 days. We oppose the persecution in the form of forced labor. According to Article 58 of "Prison Law," that in the case of "disobedience" you can warn people, record any demerit or put someone in confinement. But look what you did! Hanging us and cuffing us for long periods of time and brutally beating us. Article 14 of "Prison Law" states clearly no torture, ill treatment, beating, or instigating beating. Zhang Peng in the 2nd unit, Chen Yang and Ma Junwen in the 3rd unit, Jia Zhefa and other practitioners all have been put into confinement. In the confinement compartments, though, you arranged to have vicious prisoners act as hatchet men. The practitioners were forced to stand straight against a wall for 14 to 18 hours each day. Numerous rats were intentionally allowed to proliferate there and they ate holes in the bed covers. In the summer, swarms of mosquitoes fly around in these cells. You deliberately forbid people to use repellent to get rid of them and you also forbid the installation of mosquito screens...." Zi Wei flew into a rage and called out, "Hang them up! Quick! ..."

When the hunger strike reached the sixth day, the practitioners' voices were so weak that only the inmates who dragged them could hear them. While they were hanging on the windows, inmate Xu Shenjun still kept beating these practitioners who had become very fragile already.

On the seventh day, inmate Chen Lin led two other inmates (all in medical profession) to force-feed the three practitioners. Inserting the very long rubber tube through the nose into the stomach caused the stomach to go into spasm, made them unable to breathe and their faces turned blue. A while later, one of them forgot to tightly pinch the tube, and the stomach pressure forced the liquid food out of the tube. The food shot as high as over half a meter and landed on the inmates. The other two inmates sighed and said, "That's it. Let's quit."

On the eighth day, the practitioners' voices became even weaker. Seeing Lu Songming's voice was the loudest, inmate Xiong Jiangang went to drag Lu by his feet. Lu's pants and shorts were soon pulled off. Lu's shirt was pulled up over his head, stripping Lu naked. Xiong laughed loudly. It was very cold. This happened just as all the male and female guards and staff members came in to work. Although the female guards and staff members all turned their faces away, no one came to stop Xiong.

After he dragged Lu to the 5th unit factory gate, Xiong was so tired that he almost could not catch his breath, so he stopped. Xiong suddenly kicked Lu fiercely on the right side of his body, in the liver area. Lu groaned painfully, feeling that all his internal organs were dislodged. The pain was unimaginable. His tongue twitched and curled inward, and he was unable to catch his breath. Xiong gave him a fierce look and then continued to drag him forward. Lu was dragged to the window area where he could be hung up. Before long, guard Wang Xianghui came to the office. Dafa practitioner Zeng Haiqi called him and he stopped. Zeng told him that Lu Songming's internal organs were injured. Wang just snorted coldly and then left without giving a response. In the afternoon, guard Li Feiwen was told about the situation. Li fiercely ordered to keep hanging Lu there. The three practitioners were hung there until the Spring Festival came, for a total of ten days.

At about 8:00 p.m. on May 5, 2003, service buses from different prison units came to the gate of the living quarters where the detainees stayed. Hired men from the special police force were already waiting there, headed by deputy head of the prison Zi Wei. Dafa practitioner Zeng Haiqi refused to line up, to call out his number or to squat. The thugs from the special police force tortured Zeng twice, but Zeng still refused to squat or to call out his number. The police took a long electric baton and started to shock Zeng, and the sparks from the powerful electric arc ricocheted off his body. Zeng immediately fell on the ground. The police used electric batons to continue shocking him on his head and body, as if they were welding something, with sparks flying everywhere. After ten minutes, Zi Wei ordered the police to bring more electric batons.

Just then, Lu Songming's unit arrived. Lu stood in the back, about sixty meters away. From the long distance, he saw the dazzling electric arcs. The inmates threatened, "That is Zeng Haiqi, and the next one will be you."

When he saw that the police kept shocking Zeng, he broke loose from the hands of the inmates who were trying to control him and rushed out of the line. He loudly yelled, "Stop torturing Dafa practitioners!" Zi Wei and his gang immediately rushed at Lu and started to use the high-voltage electric batons to shock him on his head. With a flash of electric sparks he fell down. His head landed on a sharp concrete slab protrusion and he lost consciousness. Since there was no street lamp, the police could not see the blood gushing from his head wound. They continued to shock him on both sides of his head. After shocking him for a while, a police saw that Lu had not moved at all and said, "He passed out."

When Lu regained consciousness he had no idea how long he had been passed out. He still refused to squat. "Immediately start a "criticizing and denouncing meeting" in the No.5 unit!" Zi Wei screamed Li Feiwen, who came immediately after he heard the orders. About one third of the inmates from No. 5 unit, over one hundred inmates, were there at the time. The inmates were ordered to sit down on the basketball court, and Zi Wei and his gang started to curse and scold them. Li Feiwen yelled loudly, "Bring them up to the stage and have them kneel down!" The two practitioners kept steadfastly standing there. When Li Feiwen nodded at the inmates, several inmates came out and knocked down the two practitioners. The practitioners' hands were twisted behind their backs and their heads were pushed down. Then several inmates stepped on the lower legs of the two practitioners, who could not move at all. After making some defamatory remarks about Dafa, Li and Zi said to the practitioners, "Those who dared to step forward to fight the Falun Gong followers will be 'rewarded' for their merit. I will sign and make announcements tomorrow. As far as how to handle the Falun Gong who have resisted the government's transformation effort..." When Zi Wei was talking to this point, Lu and Zeng kept sending forth righteous thoughts toward him. Zi suddenly changed his tone, "We will enforce the law in a civilized way, and hope the guards of the 5th unit will make more efforts in criticizing and educating the two persons. Meeting dismissed."

After Lu returned to his cell, he suddenly fell down on his back as he was taking off his clothes. The inmate beside him told him, "There is blood all over your head. The shirt on your back is soaked with blood. Get some help immediately." Lu felt that he had difficulties in speaking and balancing himself. He faltered and almost fell down. His mind was blank and he could not remember anything that had happened. He then sat down on his bed, against the wall, and started to do the meditation.

After Lu's head injury, he felt severely dizzy and he suffered from partial memory loss. He could not even remember Master's articles, which he had previously memorized well. He was a little anxious at first, but then said firmly, "I must pass this test."

While he was unable to remember Master's articles, he wrote letters to Zi Wei and Wang Xianghui to clarify the truth. One night he suddenly woke up and found that a force was pushing his head on the side and making his head turn to the front and then upward. He immediately understood that it was Master who was helping him. When he stood up and rubbed his eyes, he discovered that he was no longer dizzy, his mind was very clear and he could also remember Master's articles.

At the time this article was being sent out, the torture of Dafa practitioners was still going on in Chishan Prison.