Numerous reports have emerged from China of police and labour camp authorities burning Falun Gong practitioners with cigarettes, car lighters, irons, and hot metal rods as a way to force them to give up their belief. Sometimes, hot irons are heated to be red-hot, then used to burn practitioners’ flesh or pierce their nipples. Many have reported being burned repeatedly with cigarettes, including on their faces, necks, and genitals.
Tan Tan Yongjie, 27, severely burned with hot irons by police
On June 2nd, 2001, while Tan Yongjie was being illegally held at the Luobo Labour Camp in Guangdong Province, three police officers tortured him.
First they beat him and tried to force him to write “repentance statements” denouncing Falun Gong. However, Mr Tan did not say a word.
Later, the guards tied him to a pillar. One guard heated up a rusted iron rod on an electric burner until the rod turned red, then pressed the rod against Mr. Tan’s legs in over a dozen places while asking: “Do you still want to practise Falun Gong?”
Mr Tan was seriously burned. His legs shook and he cried out loudly. He was in so much pain that he lost control of his bowel functions.
The guards then dragged him back to his small cell and locked him in. He could neither walk nor sleep because of the pain. Later, the guards ordered him to care for an orchard. They thought that with such wounds he would not be able to go very far, but he escaped.
He arrived in Hong Kong on June 10th and fled to the United States.
Burned alive by prison authorities
36-year-old Wang Huajun lived in Fengjiashan, Macheng City, Hubei Province. Police seized her on the morning of April 18th, 2001, because she was telling people about the persecution in Macheng. They beat her viciously until 11 o’clock that night.
On the verge of death, she was dragged outside of the city hall, drenched in petrol, and set ablaze. She burned to death at about 1 a.m.
Police told witnesses, such as one female street cleaner, that the woman had set herself on fire. A “suicide note” – miraculously uncharred by the flames – was found inches from her burnt body, along with her ID, which the police had confiscated months earlier.
