A Former Victim Testifies that Mr. Gao Xian-min Might Die of Suffocation When Being Forced-fed with High-Density Salt Water

January 30, 2000 Minghui Net reported on December 31 of 1999 that eleven practitioners including Gao Xian-min were arrested when having a picnic in Tian-he Park of Guang-zhou City. They were later sent to Tian-he and Tang-xia detention centers for administrative or criminal detention. Practitioners were forced-fed with salt water after starting hunger strike. One female practitioner was forced-fed with 1,000g salt water, which was extremely cruel. Several days later, Gao Xian-min suddenly died. The police officers claimed that Gao Xian-min suddenly lost consciousness after several days of hunger strike and could not recover after the emergency treatment in hospital.

My first response to this news was that Mr. Gao died of suffocation when being force-fed with salt water. I then drafted a letter to the Amnesty International, hoping that they could investigate this case. Before I sent this letter out,. I saw the news posted on January 28, which confirmed my guess.

I was once detained in the Tian-he detention center and was forced-fed with salt water after two days of hunger strike. I could not bear to recall that horrible experience. I appeal to the human rights organizations to investigate the cause of Mr. Gao's death, and to bring the criminal authorities of Tian-he detention center to justice.

It is an extremely brutal act to force feed practitioners in hunger strike with high-density salt water. I was arrested at 1am of November 25,1999in a private apartment of Tian-he district of Guang-zhou City for no reason and was then sent to the Tian-he detention center. I protested the illegal detention by starting a hunger strike. After two days of hunger strike, an official in the detention center ordered four to five male criminals to force feed me with salt water. They pushed me down on the ground and put shackles on my feet. They squeezed my nose in order not to let me breath, then they fed me with salt with only a tiny bit of water added. I was almost suffocated to death. It was hard for me to describe that kind of extreme suffering. If that process continued for another one to two minutes, the result would be unimaginable. Although I was still strong after two days of hunger strike, I already felt the sense of death when being forced-fed. For a practitioner after several days of hunger strike, it was for sure that he could hardly bear that torture. Gao Xian-min's death was directly caused by the Tian-he detention center. It was the result of Chinese communist government's escalating persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners.

I appeal to international organizations and communities to investigate the murder of Gao Xian-min by Chinese communist police authorities. I would like to testify the brutal tortures in Tian-he detention center against Falun Gong practitioners.

Reference: My Trip to China -- Days with Falun Dafa Practitioners in China