Sexual assault of Falun Gong practitioners in prisons and labour camps

24-04-2005 Sexual assault

The inhuman and sadistic nature of the persecution is exemplified in the sexual abuse suffered by Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of Chinese authorities. The forms of sexual torture include rape, molestation, shocking genitals with electric batons, raping Falun Gong practitioners with foreign objects (including toilet brushes and batons), shoving hot peppers into vaginas, pinching genitals or nipples even to the point of tearing them off, kicking genitals, piercing nipples with hot irons, stripping practitioners naked and beating them, forcefully administering drugs that cause menstruation to cease, and more. The victims of such sexual abuse include young, unmarried women and seniors.

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“There has been sexual torture, including stripping 18 women of their clothes and forcing them into the jail cells of male criminal offenders to be gang-raped. Some women have been subjected to forced, late-term abortions. [The policemen] have ripped off our clothes in public and shocked us with electric batons. Iron wire has been used to pierce our nipples. They have sexually violated our bodies using aubergines, toothbrushes, and plastic water bottles. In one Female Labour Camp located in Jilin Province, the police inserted hot pepper powder into women’s vaginas in order to force them to give up their belief and practice of Falun Dafa. They have forced electric stun batons into female practitioners’ vaginas to torture and shock them ...”

Excerpt from a letter from female Falun Gong practitioners in China

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Genitals shocked with electric batons for several hours

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On June 4th, 2001, Ms Li Yinping was visiting a fellow practitioner’s home in Majia Village of Shouguang City, Weifang region (Shandong Province) when police from the Shouguang Police Station arrested her and all other Falun Gong practitioners who were there. They were all detained at the Sunji Police station, although no legitimate criminal charges were brought against them.

On the afternoon of June 6th, 2001, Ms Li, along with the other detained Falun Gong practitioners, requested unconditional release. The policemen dragged Ms Li into the hallway and beat her with a rubber baton.

After drinking alcohol, five to six policemen began another round of torture. They slapped her face, twisted one of her arms behind her back, grabbed her hair and pulled her head back, hit her all over her body with rubber batons, and shocked her with electric batons. The policemen stripped Ms Li of all of her clothing to inflict more pain by beating her unprotected skin. After beating her, the policemen chained her to an “iron chair”.

After taking a break, later on in the evening, the director of the detention centre, Team Leader Wang, and other guards took turns shocking her genitals with electric batons. Her whole body was shaking, and had turned dark purple and black. She suffered severe pain, and lost consciousness several times. Each time, the guards revived her by pouring cold water on her so they could shock her again. One of the officers threatened to rape and kill her.

They continued to shock her with the batons even after she began spitting up blood. This torture lasted for several hours. Ms Li was left chained to the iron chair, and she kept vomiting all night.

By early the next morning, June 7th, 2001, Ms Li had lost consciousness and her pulse was faint. She died later that day (source).

Stripped naked and gang-raped by male inmates

“In October 2000, prison guards in the Masanjia Prison in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, allegedly stripped 18 female Falun Dafa practitioners and put them into cells containing male convicted criminals. It is reported that Luo Gan, a high-ranking Communist Party official, was aware of the incident. ... It is reported that since October 1999, more than 1,500 Falun Dafa practitioners have been detained in the Masanjia Re-education Labour Camp in Liaoning Province. Practitioners are reportedly forced to denounce Falun Dafa. People who refuse to do so are allegedly subjected to physical abuse, shocked with electric batons, detained in solitary confinement and assigned intensive labour. The electric batons are used to shock the breasts and genitals of the female practitioners.”

source: Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; UN document number E/CN.4/2001/73/Add.1

Young woman suffers mental breakdown following untold torture and rape

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Thirty-two-year-old Ms Zhu Xia cries, laughs, and often bangs on doors and windows madly. She soils her clothing uncontrollably, and has frequent hallucinations, tossing and turning restlessly amidst unseen enemies.

At night, Zhu often throws her arms around her head defensively, screaming, “Are you going to rape me?” She has removed her blankets to sleep in the cotton fibres of her mattress and often curses “those terrible men”, muttering she “can’t take it anymore”. This is not the young woman her family members described as “healthy and vibrant” before the police took her away because she practises Falun Gong.

Like hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – of others in China, Zhu was detained by Chinese authorities and sent to brainwashing classes in order to force her to renounce Falun Gong. She was held at the Pi County Brainwashing Centre in Xinjin County, Sichuan Province.

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On April 2nd, 2004, Pi Country authorities released Zhu. According to her family, Zhu’s mental and physical well-being was devastated, and she suffered a complete mental breakdown. Zhu is no longer able to take care of herself, and is under the care of her mother.

The exact details of what Zhu went through in the Pi Country Brainwashing Centre are unknown, although family members say her mental state and behaviour leave little doubt she suffered untold torture and was repeatedly raped.

At the Dalian Forced Labour Camp, numerous reports say women detainees have been hung spread-eagle from the ceiling as sticks and pepper oil are shoved into their vaginas – a torture technique known as “hip-splitting”. The men are stripped naked and shocked with electric batons shortly after being doused with water to intensify the electric currents. ( Full report of this torture case)

Men stripped naked and shocked with cattle prods; women tied spread-eagle, raped with mops and toilet brushes

Since 1999, terror and violence have permeated the Dalian Forced Labour Camp, as authorities implement orders to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners.

Mr Chu Hui was tortured with beatings and cattle prod shocks from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next morning. The torturers used the cattle prods all over his body, including inserting them into his anus. Mr Chu passed out several times during the torture.

Mr Liu Yonglai was stripped of his clothes, gagged with a cloth, and thrown to the ground while officers shocked him with 4-5 cattle prods. They doused him with water to intensify the electric currents, and especially targeted sensitive areas of the body, such as the genitalia, neck, mouth, etc.. The smell of burning flesh filled the room and both sides of Mr Liu’s mouth sustained tear wounds.

Women have also suffered savage forms of sexual assault as labour camp authorities sought to “re-educate” them.

60-year-old Ms Fu Shuying was tied up spread-eagle, while a torturer violently inserted a long rod into her vagina, causing severe inflammations and infections.

27-year-old Ms Chen Hui and 30-year-old Ms Sun Yan were also tied up in a spread-eagle position as torturers repeatedly thrust long rods into their vaginas, causing bleeding.

Three other women had chilli pepper sauce shoved into their vaginas, causing extreme pain, while in three other cases toilet and shoe brushes were used, causing severe vaginal bleeding.

According to witnesses, the torturers frequently tell the practitioners “we represent the government in transforming you” or “it means nothing if you die here.”

Hundreds of reports from Falun Gong practitioners in China quote police and labour camp officials as saying they are under orders that “no method is too extreme” to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs, and those who are killed amidst the torture “should be reported as suicides”.

Prison guard rapes 28-year-old university student

On the evening of May 13th, 2003, Ms Wei Xingyan, a graduate student from Chongqing University, was caught possessing balloons and banners printed with messages about Falun Gong. She was arrested and placed in the Baihelin Detention Centre without trial. A male police officer ordered two inmates to strip her naked, then forced her to the floor and raped her. Since news of her story was exposed outside of China, her school and the local authorities have attempted to erase her identity, denying that she exists. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

Authorities order criminal inmates to strip, beat, and sexually abuse Ms Liu Runling

“Liu Runling, aged 38, resident of Hebei Province, was reportedly arrested on September 28th, 2001, and detained at the No. 1 Detention Centre, where she remains. In January 2002, guards allegedly ordered several inmates to torture Ms Liu because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. According to reports, they took her to a toilet, where she was stripped naked and beaten. They reportedly inserted hair and used tissues into her vagina, and pierced her with needles for 40 minutes. It is reported that this left her covered with wounds and needle holes, and both her breasts allegedly turned black.”

source: Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; UN document number E/CN.4/2003/75/Add.2

Yan Juying

“On October 6th, 2000, Falun Gong practitioner Yan Juying from Yanjiao, Sanhe City, Hebei Province, went to Tiananmen Square to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. She was arrested and sent back to Yanjiao police station. It is reported that before she got out of the car, the police captain, Yang Xizhong, started to kick her, beat her, pull her hair, slap her face and kick her private parts. Then he lifted her up and violently threw her to the ground. He allegedly beat her on the buttocks several hundred times with a wooden rod, whipped her numerous times, subjected her to electric shocks all over her body, used a slipper to slap her face, put an electric baton in her mouth, spat on her face and stomped on her heels. He allegedly threatened to splash her body with boiling water. When Yan Juying refused an order to take off her clothes, Yang Xizhong allegedly threatened to find some workers to rape her. He then sexually molested her. After some time Yang Xizhong recorded the interrogation and beat Yan Juying again. That night, Yan Juying was sent to the town government hall to attend the ‘transformation class’.”

Source: Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; UN document number E/CN.4/2001/73/Add.1

A female practitioner raped by a police officer on the street

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On the evening of May 14th, 2001, a female Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing was beaten and raped on the street by a patrolling plainclothes police officer. The photo was taken 9 days later after the incident.

“Finally, I was beaten to the ground and was not able to get up. Two of my front teeth were knocked out; several places on my head were hurt; my body was swollen and turned purple; my bones felt like they were falling apart. He then hit my right ear and temple hard with a stick and I lost consciousness. At this moment he pulled me under a bridge, tore my trousers apart, and raped me. After that, he inserted a plastic baton forcefully into my vagina, and rode on my body. When I regained my strength and was able to shout, I shouted with all the strength I had: ‘Help! Catch this thug!’ The man seemed to have no fear. Finally, he got on his bicycle and rode away in a hurry, leaving me behind.”

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