(Minghui.org) Chengdu Women’s Prison in Sichuan Province has imprisoned many Falun Gong practitioners since the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. From prison management to guards and inmates, they all work closely together to torture practitioners in an attempt to force them to renounce their faith.
Liao Qiongfang, chief of the prison’s Education Section, is in charge of persecuting practitioners in the prison. At each ward, one deputy warden and one guard are designated to “manage” practitioners. Felons such as murderers, drug addicts, drug dealers and robbers are chosen to oversee practitioners, with three teaming up to monitor one practitioner as a group. They are given the incentives of term reduction, which motivates them to torture the practitioners more harshly.
The guards often shock practitioners with electric batons. They and the inmates also brutally forced-feed practitioners who are on hunger strikes by inserting the tubes through their nostrils. The tubes have injured some practitioners and caused long-time bleeding. They beat the practitioners with rolled-up books, targeting parts of their bodies covered by clothes to avoid causing bruises that would be visible to others.
Long-term standing and squatting are common methods used to punish practitioners. Practitioners had to stand more than 16 hours a day, sometimes overnight. Some practitioners’ feet and legs were badly swollen as a result and they had difficulty wearing shoes or walking. Practitioners were also forced to squat for more than ten hours each time. Some practitioners passed out while squatting. The guards then poured cold water on them to wake them up and forced them to continue to squat. They were kicked if they did not hold the right posture.
Some practitioners were also punished by being locked up in solitary cells for many days, sometimes up to more than 30 days. They had to eat and relieve themselves inside the cells.
The guards and inmates also poured cold water on practitioners while pushing their head into the toilets. The practitioners’ clothes were soaked. The guards even used such torture during the winter time.
All practitioners were subjected to brainwashing. They were forced to watch videos that defamed Falun Gong. The prison wardens, guards, and inmates took turns ordering the practitioners to write repentance statements. Practitioners who refused to comply were beaten, scolded, deprived of sleep, denied meals, toilet paper, and menstruation pads, and not allowed to wash or change clothes.
Every practitioner must write five to eight thought reports each month, one of which must have contents of renouncing Falun Gong, throughout their prison term.
The perpetrators often stuffed dirty towels or socks into practitioners’ mouths when they tried to clarify the facts of Falun Gong or shouted “Falun Dafa is good.”
The prison officials used practitioners’ reverence to their Master to mentally torture them. When they carried practitioners on hunger strike to the prison hospital for force-feeding, they put the pictures of Falun Gong’s Master under their buttocks or feet. They even stripped down some practitioners and put pictures of Falun Gong’s Master between their thighs.
The prison officials knew that Falun Gong practitioners were disciplined to practice only one school of practice, so they forced practitioners to learn other practices, such as martial arts, Taiji, or yoga, and organized competitions in the prison. They then posted photos of these activities to publicize their achievements.
Every practitioner must go through a periodic medical checkup. If anyone’s blood pressure was slightly high, they were forced to take unknown drugs three times a day. Some practitioners gradually became dull and dazed, and eventually became mentally disordered.