(Clearwisdom.net) Harbin City Falun Dafa practitioner Song Anyu, a young man who was clarifying the facts about Dafa in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested while at a fellow practitioner's house. The police brutally tortured him. They repeatedly struck his broken leg and forced his mother to listen to his screams from the brutal beating. While Song was detained in Qiqihar City's No.1 Detention Center, the metal wire that was used to fix his broken leg bone stuck out. Song asked the detention center and the court to allow the doctors to remove the metal wire, but his request was turned down. In April 2003, he was given a sentence of 14 years and sent to Qiqihar City Tailai Prison. It was reported that those "outstanding" police officers, including Chen Zhicai from Harbin City Railroad Police Department and others, who had participated in torturing Song Anyu and another practitioner, Wang Jinfan (Wang was sentenced to 10 years in Harbin City Female Prison), were given monetary rewards ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 Yuan.*
From March to the end of June 2003, under the disguise of "Striking Criminals Hard," the authorities in Qiqihar City heavily escalated the persecution of Dafa practitioners and their families. Under the incentive plan that a police officer would be awarded with 200 Yuan for each Dafa practitioner arrested, elderly Dafa practitioners in their 60's to70's and even children were arrested. Most of them were persecuted with severe tortures such as the "big hang up"* and the "tiger bench"**. Some practitioners were shocked with electric batons, or force-fed with "hot pepper water and mustard powder"***. One female Dafa practitioner was force-fed with huge amounts of liquor while she was being tortured in the "big hang up" position. During this round of persecution, the police from Qiqihar City Tiefeng District Police Department and Longsha Police Department Anshunlu Police Station were the most vicious, doing their utmost to brutally torture Dafa practitioners.
On April 28, 2003, Sun Bairong, the director of Qiqihar City Tiefeng Police Department, Feng Lei, a former director of the No.1 Detention Center, Hou Jianwei, the associate director of Jianhua District Police Department, and some others were arrested by Heilongjiang Province Special Criminal Investigation Team for organized crime activities.
*
There are two forms in this torture: (a) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (b) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. One feels extreme pain as the body is stretched.**
Practitioners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force themá to remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioners' lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse (see illustration on <http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html>)***
Hot pepper water and mustard powder is stuffed down the throat of the practitioners, severely burning them.September 21, 2003
