Torture Methods
Over a hundred torture methods have been used in detention centers, forced-labor camps, prisons, mental hospitals, and brainwashing centers to force Falun Gong practitioners into renouncing their belief. WOIPFG has collected substantial evidence from eyewitnesses and testimonies from victims. Some of the documented torture methods are presented on the following pages.
Merciless Beating
The following items have been used for beating Falun Gong practitioners: wooden clubs, pieces of aluminum alloy, steel and iron bars, iron rods, whips made of twisted copper wire, bamboo sticks, rubber sticks, wolf-teeth sticks, electric batons, rubber tubes, wooden planks, steel wire locks, rattan, electric wire whips and rope whips. When rubber sticks are used, the injuries are not visible but internal organs can be damaged.
Electric Shock
Electric batons carrying high voltages are used to shock practitioners’ sensitive areas and private parts such as the inside of the mouth, the top of the head, front of the chest, breasts, genitals, buttocks, thighs, the bottoms of the feet, etc. Several electric batons are used simultaneously on different body parts such as the top of the head and the anus, or to shock a person until the flesh is severely burned. Practitioners have said that the smell of burning flesh is everywhere.
Policemen are known to wire a practitioner’s ten fingers, immerse them in water, connect them with telephone wire, and then electrocute the practitioner by turning on the hand-operated telephone.
Burning
Boiling water is poured on the body and salt is applied to the wounds. Practitioners have also been burned with cigarettes, lighters, fire, irons, and hot iron bars. Kilns have also been used to burn practitioners.
Freezing
Practitioners are forced to stand in the snow, causing severe frostbite.
Guns
The photos below show practitioners shot and wounded by police.
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse of female practitioners is very common, especially young teenage girls. Women are beaten, raped, gang raped, and thrown into male prison cells. Objects are often forced into women’s vaginas, such as electric shock batons, mop poles, and hot pepper. Shoe brushes, toothbrushes, and iron hooks have been used to damage female practitioners’ genital areas. Police use electric batons to shock breasts and nipples, and other sensitive areas. They also use cigarettes to burn the practitioners in these areas.
Dead Person’s Bed ( a.k.a. Fixed Bed or Stretching Bed)
This kind of bed has fixed molds made of steel bars mounted on the bed. Instead of pulling the victim’s four limbs outward in their natural direction, police pull the limbs in irregular directions to twist the body beyond its limits. Then they put wooden sticks, basins, and bottles beneath the victim, and finally they stretch the body so much that it is completely lifted and not touching the bed. The victim’s joints are pulled to the point of splitting, and the person suffers from enormous pain. This is one of the most vicious methods used on practitioners.
This kind of torture uses iron chain to lock a practitioner’s four limbs separately and pull them in four different directions until the whole body rises without touching the bed. It can last for a few hours to a few days or even longer. At the same time, someone uses a rubber hammer to strike each joint all over the body until it breaks and turns completely black and blue. The victim’s ankles, wrists, and every joint are pulled apart, muscles split, and even finger nails are pulled out. This torture is far beyond a man’s capacity to endure. If tortured this way for a long time, the victim’s four limbs will be totally disabled. Once the victim is tied on this bed, he is left there even when he needs to use toilet. The policemen continue to torture him in this position.
Restrictive Clothes
Practitioners are force to wear restrictive clothes so that they can be tied up with their arms back. The clothes are specially designed and the sleeves are about 10 inches longer than the wearer’s arms. There are belts on the sleeves. After the clothing is put on the practitioners, their arms are dragged to the back and tied crossed, and then pulled over the head to the front of the chest and tied together with both legs. They are then hung on the iron bars of windows without touching the ground. Earpieces are put into the practitioners’ ears to force them to hear the continuous propaganda slandering Falun Gong, and their mouths are filled with rags. Once this torture begins, a person’s both arms are disabled immediately as bones and ligaments break in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Those who were tortured this way a long time would die from the severe pain, with all their back bones broken into pieces. Four practitioners from the Shibali He women’s labor camp in Henan Province died after being tortured this way.
Sitting Torture
Practitioners are forced to sit on a tiny board, on iron chairs, on triangle iron bars and on Tiger Benches (a kind of severe torture method.) The person is forced to sit on the bench with his knees tightly tied to the bench. Hard objects, usually bricks, are inserted under the feet, which cause immense pain.
Standing Torture
Practitioners are punished by being forced to stand for a long time. They are made to stand with the head down to the lowest point, while their hands are pulled up to the highest point in the back. Thus the body shape looks like a plane. They are also made to stand in a tiny room and even stand upside down.
Handcuffs
Practitioners are handcuffed in ways to make them suffer as much as possible. They are handcuffed in back, handcuffed individually, or handcuffed together. In the position “Su Qin Carrying a Sword on the Back,” victim’s hands are handcuffed with one arm back and over the shoulder and the other against the lower back. Two people are often handcuffed or shackled together. They are also tied to the dead person’s bed, hung up on window or door frames, and forced to wear heavy shackles on their feet.
Solitary Compartment
The dimensions of the cage are less than a person’s height, so one can neither stand up nor lie down. Except for a small barred door, all openings are tightly sealed. No light comes in. Practitioners are at times locked up for 120 days.
Tying the Ropes
“Hanging up once” means the rope is tied one time. As a severe punishment, the rope is tied twice at the most for criminals who try to escape from detention centers. But the police tie Falun Gong practitioners eight or nine times.
Suffocation
When police inflict corporal punishment while trying to force Falun Dafa practitioners into “confessing,” they often push a practitioner’s head into water many times, or use a plastic bag to suffocate the person. Because this is so easy to do, police use this method often.
Di Lao
This is an iron torturing tool used to cuff one’s hands and feet in a cross position. With both hands and feet locked together, one can hardly move. When this device is used for a few days, this person’s hands and feet start to fester, as the person is unable to move or sit. Some practitioners were forced to wear this rusted device and made to walk fast. As a result, their feet were constantly cut by the sharp metal pieces on the device.
Water Jail
Practitioners are thrown naked into a tiny cage filled with dirty water. Many have died this way.
Paraded Through the Streets
Practitioners are insulted and humiliated by being forced to parade through the streets with large signs hung around their necks.
Forced Feeding
Practitioners are force-fed with highly concentrated salt water, sticky corn syrup, pepper juice and water, ethyl alcohol, drugs, water with urine and feces, etc.
Nailed to the Floor
Practitioners have been pierced through their feet. A type of nail is then passed through the foot and attached to an iron ring fixed to the floor in a confined compartment so the victim cannot move.
Pierced Fingers
Practitioners’ fingertips are pierced with pins and bamboo nails, which are also hammered under the fingernails. In many cases, torturers pull out the practitioners’ fingernails from the root.
Direct Killing
Practitioners are burned, dragged, strangled, and pushed to their death from buildings or cars. Pregnant women have died during forced abortions. Some practitioners have even been cremated while still alive.
Attacked and Bitten
Police command guard dogs to attack Falun Gong practitioners. Poisonous snakes and scorpions are also used to torture practitioners.
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
Tel：1-347-448-5790；Fax：1-347-402-1444；
Mail Address：P.O. Box 84， New york, NY 10116
Website： http://www.upholdjustice.org/, http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/
