(Clearwisdom.net) Since the persecution began on July 20, 1999, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in Qinlong County, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province. The police department in Qinglong County exhausts a lot of manpower and resources to spy on and persecute practitioners, arresting them, searching their homes, extorting money from them, and incarcerating them in detention centers, labor camps and jails.

Methods of torture:

1. Forced to Lie on Ice

It is very cold in the winter in Qinglong County. In the yard of the county prison, several hundred practitioners have been forced to lie on their stomachs on the ice without clothes. The ice melts under their bodies, forming watery pockets in the surface of the ice. The water in the pockets is about an inch deep. The bodies freeze and turn blue. This torture has gone on for five winters. If there is no snow, they pour water in a shady place to make a patch of four-inch-thick ice and force practitioners to lie on it.

2. Wearing heavy shackles on the hands and feet

The police department ordered 100 more sets of handcuffs and shackles once the persecution began. The extra heavy foot shackles (over 20 pounds) are reserved for practitioners. Practitioners' hands and feet are sometimes locked together, so they cannot stand up. Even in this painful position, the policemen still force them to walk in the yard.

3. Squatting

Policemen force practitioners to squat for long periods of time, which is a very painful punishment. If practitioners cannot keep the position, they are whipped.

4. Lashing

Policemen often force practitioners to take off all their clothes, except for their underwear. Then they order the criminal inmates to lash practitioners until they pass out. Practitioners are shackled again when they regain consciousness.

5. Cruel force-feeding

To protest the persecution, some women practitioners started a hunger strike. The policemen ordered the doctors to force-feed them. Prison doctor Wang Jingfu inserted tubes into practitioners' noses, mouths, or rectums, to humiliate them while torturing them. This cruel force-feeding is the method he often uses to torture practitioners.

There are also countless other tortures.

Exposing the policemen who have persecuted Falun Gong practitioners

Many practitioners have been arrested and jailed in the detention center. Their sentences were indefinite, and they would not be released unless their family paid a "fine." To rescue them, some practitioners' family members had to borrow money. The policemen pocketed a lot of money from these illegal fines.

The deputy chief of the county police department, Zhang Xi claimed in public several times: "There is no law protecting Falun Gong practitioners. It is not a problem to beat Falun Gong practitioners to death. We will bury them if they die." He also said, "If Falun Gong practitioners are beaten to death, then it will be counted as suicide. And the testimony from other Falun Gong practitioners won't count." "The law doesn't apply to Falun Gong practitioners. This is the order from a higher level of government." "Nobody cares about the appeals for Falun Gong. I will give you time to appeal, if you think you are capable." Zhang Xi has ordered the officers to torture practitioners many times.

He not only ordered policemen and criminal inmates to beat practitioners with instruments of torture, but he also beat them himself. He beat practitioners with anything handy. Once he beat a practitioner with a shovel. He beat him so hard that the handle of the shovel broke. The practitioner was badly wounded, and blood soaked his shirt. Since he was dying, Zhang Xi stopped and ordered someone to take the practitioner to the hospital. (The pictures taken by the hospital are evidence.)

The chief of the detention center, Wang Jin, has tortured more than a thousand practitioners. He often beats, curses, and tortures practitioners by various means. Even the policemen in the detention center cannot bear to watch the brutal torture he applies to Falun Gong practitioners. He often curses while he is beating practitioners and repeats the orders from Zhang Xi (mentioned above).

Police officer Liu Lijun not only beats practitioners but also humiliates them for amusement. He forces them to jump like rabbit or move like turtle, and if one refuses, he will beat him. He forces practitioners to fan him when he lies on the couch. He forces practitioners to carry him on a chair when he goes to bathroom. Whenever he is in a foul mood, he tortures or curses practitioners.

Prison doctor Wang Jingfu often uses the worst torture methods on practitioners. He doesn't care about practitioners' lives and violently force-feeds them, resulting in broken teeth and badly injured throats. He invented the "force-feeding through the rectum" torture to insult practitioners. Once,when he was unable to insert the tube into a female practitioner's nose or mouth, he told five male criminals to insert the tube into her rectum.

Cases of persecution against practitioners from Qinglong County

Ms. Wang Sufen from Mutoucheng Town was stripped of her pants by policemen and beaten with a leather whip, plastic pipes and police batons for more than 30 minutes. The police, headed by deputy chief Zhang Xi, did not stop beating her until she passed out.

Ms. Du Yinqin, in her 50s, is from Shahe Village, Badaohe Town. Six policemen beat her to the ground and she was writhing in pain. While they were beating her, Zhang Xi asked, "Are you still going to say 'Dafa is good'? We will keep beating you if you still say it." They did not stop until she passed out. They handcuffed her hands and feet together after she woke up. Ms. Du has been arrested and tortured many times. Once she was beaten so badly that pieces of her flesh stuck to the whip.

Ms. Li Guishu, from Tumenzi Town, was forced to sit in a big water pit in the heavy rain for an entire day. They did not even allow her to change into dry clothes afterwards.

Mr. Hu, from Wangchang Village, Badaohe Town, was taken to a women's jail cell by Wang Jin. Wang Jin took off Mr. Hu's pants and lashed him, which made his buttocks swollen and bruised.

Ms. Wang Lixin, in her 30s, is from Badaohe Village, Badaohe Town. She was illegally arrested and detained. Zhang Xi and Wang Jin cursed her and forced her to squat for one hour. They whipped her when she was unable keep the position.

Mr. Zhang Qingshu, in his 30s, is from Dingzhangzi Village, Louzhangzi Town. He was arrested several times. Zhang Xi and Wang Jin put him in handcuffs, which seriously damaged one of his wrists. The scar on his wrist is still visible. They mocked him, saying, "You said that your Master is good. Why doesn't he come to rescue you then?" Later that day, the handcuffs suddenly opened on their own. The policemen were shocked. They found that the spring in the handcuffs was gone. They had to replace them with another pair. Due to the illegal arrest of Zhang Qingshu, his five-year-old and 11-year-old children and two 70-year-old parents were left with no one to take care of or provide for them.

Ms. Zhang, 40 years old, is from Nianzigou Town. Wang Jin ordered policemen to take off her pants and beat her against a chair until her flesh was broken. When she put on her pants after the beating, her pants were soaked with blood and her skin and underwear were stuck together. There was also an egg-sized bump on her head.

Wang Jin whipped Ms. Liu Yuxia and other 17 practitioners. Wang Jin forced them to lie on their stomachs on the ice for 30 minutes. Afterwards they were confined to a cold room for three days, without any food or water. They were only allowed to wear thin clothes, and their bodies were covered with frostbite wounds.

Feng Guirong and Feng Guiling are sisters. On one of the coldest days of winter, they were hung from an iron pole in the yard for 45 minutes. The policemen could not bear the cold even while wearing heavy coats, but the practitioners were only wearing thin clothes. Their hands were swollen and numb from freezing. After they were taken down, they were handcuffed. Feng Guiling's hands were covered with festering frostbite wounds. The largest wound was the size of an egg.

At least four Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in Qinglong County detention center

Mr. Hu Hexiang, 60 years old, was from Badaohe Town. He had been jailed many times and tortured many times. Once he went on a hunger strike for five days to protest his illegal arrest. Tubes were in his nose and his hands were handcuffed behind his back, so he had to sleep on his side. He needed help to turn over in bed and when going to the bathroom. The last time he was in jail, the policemen fed him slow poison that doesn't kill people instantly, but gradually, so that when people die after being released, the police do not have to bear any responsibility. After Mr. Hu was released, he died on January 28, 2002. His family members tried to appeal many times, but they were accused of lying. The police are afraid that his family will sue again, so they are trying everything possible to stop them. The problem is still unresolved.

Mr. Song Youchun and his wife and daughter from Tumenzi Town were arrested from home for no reason. They were jailed in the detention center and tortured. After a few days, his wife and daughter were released. Policemen told them that Mr. Song would not be released unless they paid a fine, but they were too poor to pay it. Fourteen days later, on December 15, 2003, Mr. Song was tortured to death in the detention center. Fellow practitioners and his family tried to sue the policemen, but they were only given 40 thousand yuan as compensation.

Qinglong County Police Department fabricated evidence to frame a Falun Gong practitioner and sentence him

Mr. Liu Huimin, 30 year old, is from Xiaoyingzi town, Qinglong County. He was in the military in Zhangjiakou City. The leaders in the army tried to convince him to renounce Falun Gong, but after he clarified the truth, the leaders changed their attitude, and appreciated his high level character. They didn't dare to keep him in the army, so they arranged a job for him in a hotel in Qinglong County, where he was appreciated by his supervisors and co-workers.

He wrote to the county government and police department, clarifying the truth to them and asking them to stop persecuting Falun Gong. He was accused of going against Jiang Zemin. He lost his job and was jailed in a small cell in a detention center. Two months later, they had a trial. In the court, Mr. Liu answered all of the questions righteously. But the county fabricated "evidence" and submitted it to the higher-level court in Shijiazhuang City. Mr. Liu was then sentenced to four years in prison. It has been two years. His wife Pan Suyun, also a practitioner, has never heard anything from her husband. She asked the local police station to give her permission to visit him, but instead the police beat her badly, which made her face swollen. They also arrested Liu Huimin's brother, Liu Huizhong, and jailed them both in the detention center. Such a happy family was destroyed, and three children were left home alone.

Before 2001, 819 practitioners were forced to undergo brainwashing by the county police department. Three practitioners have been forced to become homeless to avoid persecution. The police have taken in 734 thousand yuan in illegal fines, for most of which, they didn't issue a receipt. The crimes that policemen in Qinglong County have committed against Falun Gong practitioners cannot be described with words.