(Clearwisdom.net) Guard Li Yongsheng of the so-called "Education Department" in Jilin Province Prison used inmates who had been seduced with the promise of reducing their prison terms to torture Falun Gong practitioners. The aim of the torture was to force practitioners to undergo so-called "transformation" in order to have them give up their practice of Falun Gong.
The cruelest forms of torture include placing practitioners on a stretching bed, placing a big bottle of boiling water on a practitioner's belly, and suffocating them with a plastic bag. In addition, the tortured practitioners were not allowed to use the restroom and had to relieve themselves in bed, causing their rear ends to fester.
Practitioner Mr. Zhang Beiqi is currently in Jilin Province Prison. With a compassionate heart, Mr. Zhang wrote the prison warden a letter asking him to stop persecuting practitioners and to prosecute guard Li Yongsheng's actions. The contents of his letter are as follows.
1. The Unbearable Pain of the "Stretching Bed"
On July 28, 2006, I was hauled to a "stretching bed" in a strictly controlled area by inmates Xu Zhigang, Wang Chen, Jiang Xun, and others. In this area, I was inhumanely tortured by having my arms and legs stretched so that my whole body was raised up and above the bed. My entire body was completely numb, including my backbone and lower back, and all my joints were dislocated--the horrifying pain was unimaginable. I could only endure this for about 20 minutes before going into shock. When inmates Xu Zhigang (who had put a rubber ball in my mouth so I couldn't scream) and others noticed that my heart and pulse seemed to have stopped, they stopped stretching me and pushed a few pills down my throat. They notified chief guard Liu Tiejun about my situation. At 7:00 p.m. I was rushed to the hospital on an inmate's back for treatment.
At 6:00 a.m. the next morning, the chief guard instructed an inmate to carry me back from the hospital to the same area where I had been tortured. Again they pushed me onto a stretching bed where my limbs were tightly constrained. Xu Zhigang wasn't willing to take responsibility for what might happen to me, so I didn't get stretched this time. However, I had another shock at around 9:00 p.m., so the inmates loosened up my limbs and pinched my philtrum to force-feed me a few pills. It took almost two hours for me to regain consciousness.
On the third day at about 6:00 a.m., my limbs were again held and fixed on the stretching bed, causing me another shock for the third time in the evening. This kind of back-and-forth cruel persecution went on for 20 days, and I was in severe pain and numb from the neck down. I also felt needle-stabbing pain throughout my nervous system. My lower back was also seriously injured.
For two years I've written letters to the prison warden many times, exposing the serious nature of the problem, and yet I haven't received any response from him. It is even harder to see him in person. I could be lying in bed moaning and suffering and nobody seemed to care about me!
2. Using a Big Bottle of Boiling Water to Burn Someone's Stomach and Covering Someone's Head with a Plastic Bag
On June 30, 2006, practitioner Mr. Sun Qian was arrested for reading Falun Dafa articles. He was detained and persecuted in a strictly controlled area that had stretching beds. I wrote letters to the prison warden about this serious issue.
From 2002 to 2005, practitioners were persecuted in various ways. In particular, Li Yongsheng of the so-called "Education Department" in Jilin Prison has been using inmates to do illegal things--torturing practitioners in the name of educational "transformation" to try to force us to give up our cultivation practice using such tactics as the stretching beds.
No practitioner detained in Jilin Prison escaped the stretching bed, which involved lying with their limbs immobilized for a long time in small cell.
Practitioner Mr. Diao Shujun was transferred from the 4th to the 7th prison district in Jilin Prison. On July 8, 2003, Li Yongsheng was again using inmates to torture Mr. Diao without allowing Diao to talk to anyone in order to create an atmosphere of terror to achieve forceful "transformation." In August 2003, as a result of intense torture, Mr. Diao developed tuberculosis and was vomiting blood. Even in these circumstances, the chief guard of the prison still forced him to do hard labor. When Mr. Diao refused to cooperate, he was hauled off by inmates to the strictly controlled area, where he was asked, "Do you agree to 'transform' or not? If not, you'll be stretched again, you know how it is." Li Yongsheng of the "Education Department" instigated inmates to torture practitioners with the inducement of prison term reduction. This vicious person harassed the inmates, saying, "You guys didn't apply enough force with the stretching bed. You need to do it harder to get a good result for you to be qualified for term reduction."
One form of torture involved tying Mr. Diao's limbs to a bed board in a small cell and placing a six-pound plastic bottle full of boiling water on his belly. It burned his stomach, leaving swollen bubbles and pus. He wasn't able to scream because his mouth was stuffed with rags. The scars still remain on his belly.
The second form of torture was to cover his head with a plastic bag so that he couldn't breathe and his face turned purple before they took off the bag. They repeated this torture again and again.
The third form of torture was inflicted on Mr. Diao while his limbs were tied to a bed and he was unable to move. The inmates humiliated and tortured him. An inmate was supposed to hold a urinal for him to urinate. As soon as Mr. Diao started to urinate, the inmate removed the urinal so that he soaked the bed. His bottom became infected with sores. When he had a bowel movement, a plastic wash-basin was placed under his bottom and his lower body was raised with a piece of foam. If he was constipated, a laxative was used, giving him diarrhea. This went on for almost a month, and Diao Shijun went on a hunger strike to protest this endless torture, bringing him to the brink of death. So he was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment because vicious Li Yongsheng was afraid of being held responsible for a death. Several scars still remain clearly visible on Mr. Diao's body.
Practitioner Mr. Tan Qiucheng suffered the same kind of persecution. In March 2003, Li Yongsheng arrived in the strictly control area and told Xu Zhigang, Ding Zhaosong (already released from prison), and Gao Guilin (already released from prison) to get the stretching bed ready. Within minutes, Mr. Tan was hauled in by a few inmates and pushed down on the stretching bed. When he was stretched to the limit, he bit his tongue so hard it bled. This made Xu Zhigang and the others stop stretching him. What they did to Mr. Tan has left him with mental and physical scars, perhaps for the rest of his life.
These are only a few examples of what took place in Jilin Prison with the participation of Li Yongsheng of the so-called "Education Department." The list of practitioners who have been persecuted could go on and on.
A well-known case in 2003 was that of practitioner Mr. Liu Chengjun, who was persecuted to death. At that time, practitioners around the world, international human rights organizations, and the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) were investigating and reporting how Mr. Liu was persecuted to death. Currently, we are investigating all those who took part in the persecution.
According to incomplete statistics, from 2002 to 2005, Jilin Prison had as many as 100 Dafa practitioners in detention, many of whom were injured or disabled, and died. Li Yongsheng is one of the notorious guards under investigation. And prison warden Li Qiang is also one of the responsible persons. Inmates Xu Zhigang and others have also been identified as torturers. When the time is ripe, all those who took part in persecuting Dafa practitioners will be tried in public.