(Minghui.org) Located in a northwestern suburb of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province Women's Prison, also known as Shenyang Women's Prison, is a branch of Dabei Prison, the name for the prison complex of Liaoning Province's five independent prisons.
About one-tenth of its detainees are Falun Gong practitioners, all of whom were illegally sentenced for their belief. Hundreds have been tortured, and it's one of China's most notorious prisons for abuse leading to death.Force-feeding is one of the most brutal forms of torture used on Falun Gong practitioners there. Many have lost their lives or become disabled or mentally disordered as a result of such abuse.
The prison has special beds equipped with wheels for mobility. These were specifically designed to be used in force-feeding practitioners. The following is an account of brutal force-feeding suffered by Ms. Liu Yanjun.
Torture reenactment: Force-feeding
Ms. Liu Yanjun's Account
Ms. Liu was transferred to Liaoning Women's Prison on October 11, 2001. She was held down on the bed by guards and inmates to prevent her from doing the Falun Gong exercises.
Ms. Liu went on a hunger strike in protest. She was taken to the prison hospital and tied in a spread-eagle position to the special bed for force-feeding. A strap was fastened across her chest so that she could not move.
Several officers immobilized her head, and the head of the prison hospital, Wang Nina, in her 50s, inserted a meter-long plastic tube 5 mm in diameter into her nostril, down her throat, and into her stomach.
She then connected a thick syringe to the tubing and forced corn porridge into Ms. Liu's stomach. She was force-fed once or twice a day, 3000 ml of corn porridge each time. It was excruciatingly painful. Ms. Liu was tortured this way for eight days, until she agreed to eat.
In December 2002, Ms. Liu was released on medical parole.
On May 13, 2004, the prison colluded with the police to arrested Ms. Liu again. She became paralyzed from her waist down as a result of abuse.
Ms. Liu went on a hunger strike again to protest being incarcerated and was carried to the prison hospital on May 19 for force-feeding.
She was tied to the special bed, force-fed corn porridge, and given intravenous injections. She threw up everything forced into her stomach.
Guard Jia Yingchun ordered inmate Ren Guanglei (female, in her 20s, detained for stealing) to pour her vomit back into her mouth, and at the same time force-fed her with concentrated salt water. Ms. Liu kept throwing up.
Ten days later, they untied her and started abusing her with harmful drugs and injections. When Ms. Liu was brought back to her cell three months later, she was severely emaciated, could not eat anything, and kept slipping into unconsciousness.
On November 10, 2004, Ms. Liu was once again carried to the hospital for force-feeding. She was tied to the bed spread-eagled. Her hands and feet became swollen.
Guards pulled out her hair in clumps, and her scalp swelled up. Her throat was injured by the plastic tubing and was bleeding. The tubing also injured her stomach, causing her unbearable pain.
She was force-fed once or twice a day, each time with 3000 ml of corn porridge. They left the tube in her stomach, making it difficult for her to swallow and breathe. The tubing was changed once a week. By the time it was pulled out, it had turned black.
Complications from Force-Feeding
Sometimes practitioners were force-fed for a few days, and sometimes for a few weeks or a few months, even for half a year.
The practitioners were tied to these beds for long periods of time, but the guards refused to allow anyone to help them when they needed to use the restroom. As a result, they developed urinary tract infections. They could not urinate and their abdomens swelled up. Wang Nina still ordered inmates to force-feed them and give them intravenous injections.
When a victim was so swollen she could not breathe, the inmates went to ask a doctor for help. The doctor refused to do anything, so they went to see hospital head Wang Nina. Wang blamed them and told them the prison had a death quota. She told the inmates that they had to feed the practitioner 3000 ml of corn porridge each time, otherwise they would be “dealt with.”
Sympathetic Inmates
Inmates who had learned the facts about Falun Gong couldn't bear to see practitioners suffer this way, and they often shed tears. Later, they thought of a way to help practitioners.
When the guards came, they pretended to do their duties; after the guards left, they poured the corn porridge into a spittoon and flushed it down the toilet. They knew that practitioners could easily die from being force-fed this way.
Miserable Conditions
Inmate Zhang Yuanyuan kept a list of practitioners who had died from force-feeding in the hospital. Whenever a new practitioner was carried into the hospital for force-feeding, she would tell her, “They won't let you go home even if you go on a hunger strike. If you don't eat, they'll force-feed you, and no body cares if you die.
"I can show you a list of those who've died, so you'll know how many have lost their lives.”
Practitioners were not allowed to change clothes or wash themselves and not allowed to use the toilet, even during their menstrual periods. They were soaked in their own wastes.
Ms. Liu Pintong and Other Practitioners Force-Fed
Many practitioners were brutally force-fed in 2004, including Ms. Liu Mei, Ms. Liu Yanjun, Ms. Liu Meirong, Ms. Zhang Juxian, Ms. Han Xuejun, and Ms. Li Ling. Ms. Zhang and Ms. Li died as a result of such torture. Ms. Han became disabled. Another practitioner, a Ms. Huang, used to be a performer in the Shenyang military performance troupe. She became mentally disordered due to the abuse.
Ms. Liu Pintong is another practitioner still being severely mistreated. When her relative came to see her in hospital in October, 2014, she was severely emaciated and too weak to talk. Her limbs were tied so tightly to the bed that they were badly swollen.
The guards refused to release her on medical bail, saying that she refused to write the application or sign documents.
The guards told her elder sister that they videotaped her being treated in the hospital. They said, “The tapes are evidence that we provided medical care for her. If she dies, it's not our problem. It will be treated as 'natural death.' The doctor said she has a kidney problem, and we could use that diagnosis as the cause of death later on.”
Ms. Liu Pintong is still in prison and in critical condition.
