(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Shi Chunde, from Gongtun Village of Beigang Town in the Longgang District of Huludao City, Liaoning Province, persisted in practicing Falun Gong. On June 25, 2000, Li Chunhua and others from the Zhuanggang Police Station of Longgang District arrested Mr. Shi and put him in a labor camp. In Huludao City's Labor Camp, Mr. Shi suffered inhuman tortures. On February 27, 2001, he was transferred to the Chaoyang City Labor Camp for further persecution. Mr. Shi suffered severe disability as a result of torture. He has lost feeling in his lower body, and he feels severe pain all over the rest of his body.
In Chaoyang City's Labor Camp, Shi Chunde was forced to sit on a metal stool specially designed for physical punishment. This stool is very low, and the metal that makes up the seat is ridged, with some areas that are raised and other areas that are depressed. The weather was cold then, and sitting on this kind of metal stool for 20 minutes was intolerably painful. If the sitting time is more than half an hour, one one's lower body becomes numb. Shi Chunde was forced to sit on the metal stool for more than 14 hours a day, and sometimes he was deprived of sleep for long periods of time. This was how they tried to force him to give up practicing Falun Gong.
After being forced to suffer this kind of physical punishment for more than two weeks, Shi Chunde felt numb, with increasing pain in his entire lower body, and he never totally recovered. Soon after that, he developed lower back pain, leg pain, joint pain, and dizziness, and he could hardly walk. Sometimes he could not walk at all and had to be carried on someone's back or on a stretcher, especially when he went up or down stairs. Because of these symptoms, Shi Chunde was sent to Chaoyang City's Second Hospital for an examination. They discovered that he showed evidence of many serious ailments including a herniated disc, rheumatism, arthritis, and hypertension. The police were afraid that Mr. Shi might become paralyzed in the camp, so they released him in June of 2001.
Shi Chunde is still haunted by pain in many different places in his body. From the time he wakes up, he is in pain all day long. He has lost the ability to do any labor. It is difficult for him to walk, and sometimes he cannot maintain his balance and falls. His mother is now over 80 years old and in poor health. His wife is always sick. She should have been treated and taken more rest, but she has to do farming jobs and the housework. The illegal persecution of Shi Chunde during the past years have hurt his mother and wife very much, both mentally and physically. They are now fearful whenever they hear the noise of a car, because it might be a police car. When he was in detention, Mr. Shi's mother cried the whole time for her son to come home.
At about 8:00 p.m. on December 9, 2003, Liu Shijun, Zhao Lianshuang, Liu Xingcheng and others, about eight or nine persons from the National Guard Brigade of the Lianshan District Police Department, suddenly broke into Shi Chunde's house. They showed him a so-called "search warrant" that had no official seal on it and forcibly searched his house. Then they took out a "subpoena warrant" without an official seal (actually just a piece of blank paper) and asked him to sign it. Shi Chunde refused. They took him to the Lianshan District Police Department. After asking him several questions, they sent him to the detention center that very night. Later, they illegally sentenced him to three years of forced labor education.
On July 16, 2004, Shi Chunde started a hunger strike to protest the camp's persecution. They tortured him with force-feeding. The guards accelerated the persecution of practitioners who went on a hunger strike. They would not allow those practitioners to be released on bail for medical treatment, claiming that if they died it served them right.
At about 5:50 p.m. on August 16, 2004, the guards went into the small cells that were used to hold practitioners on hunger strike and tried to force them to sit on a board. The hunger strikers were too weak and could not do it. The guards carried them out and shocked them with electric batons. Shi Chunde and Du Jin were also beaten. During the evening roll call, the guards ordered them to yell out their numbers. If anyone refused to do this, he would be slapped twice on the face. Since August 16, the criminal inmates have also accelerated the persecution of the practitioners. These inmates always beat and kick practitioners, hitting them with a stick about one meter long made from a mop handle.