(Clearwisdom.net) Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison officials have persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in many ways during the past several years. For example, guards force-feed practitioners who go on hunger strikes to protest. This force-feeding, used as a means of torture, is done as brutally as possible and can easily cause suffocation.

Numerous types of substances have been used in force-feeding, including milk powder mixed with water, corn soup, highly salted water, and unknown drugs mixed with food. In addition, guards also force-feed practitioners with garlic water, hot pepper juice, mustard, and liquor.

The guards use several methods in force-feeding. One common way is to use a thick tube (also called nose feeding). Practitioners are chained to an iron frame, and several people are involved, restraining and force-feeding one practitioner. Sometimes, practitioners are thrown to the floor, restrained by several people and force-fed. During the force-feeding, the guards may use tools to forcibly open the victim's mouth; this is done with so much force that usually one or more of the practitioner's teeth are broken off. When one practitioner returned from prison, she had been force-fed so many times that there were hardly any teeth left in her mouth. Some practitioners were force-fed through a tube for up to three months. Every time the tube was pulled out, it was bloody. The major tool used in force-feeding are thick rubber tubes and sometimes opening clamps. Hegar dilators that are used in delivering babies are also used.

Some examples of force-feeding in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison

(1) Force-feeding while being hung up: A practitioner is first shoved onto a railing. One male guard kicks the practitioner's back hard, grabs their arms and stretches them out, and handcuffs the practitioner tightly. Another male guard grabs the practitioner's hair and pulls it backward. In this position, the opening clamp is shoved into the victim's mouth and opened to the maximum extent possible, causing difficulty in breathing. Then a guard using a flashlight inserts the tube into the windpipe, causing the victim to start suffocating. Guards then demand to know if the practitioner wants to eat. This is repeated several times. Even after the force-feeding is over, the tube and opening clamps are not taken out. Thus the practitioner, with tube inserted and both hands handcuffed behind, is hung up on the railing for several days. Because their mouths are forced into an open position, after several days their bodies are covered with saliva. At least two practitioners from Daqing City were force-fed this way.

(2) "Towing a cow": The feeding tube is inserted into one nostril and pulled out through the mouth. The guard then drags the tube back and forth, causing severe bleeding. Sometimes, even one hour after the force-feeding begins, the food still does not go in. But the guards do not give up. Inmate Shang Xiaomei threatened, "We would rather force-feed you to death than let you starve to death." In the end, the victim's mouth and throat are severely injured and swollen. A practitioner from Dongfengxincun of Daqing City was tortured like this.

(3) Tube-in-place: After one end of a tube is forcibly inserted into the stomach, the other end is fastened to the victim's head with tape. The practitioner is then handcuffed behind the back, hung up, or forced to sit in a metal chair. The tube is not taken out, but is kept in place for a long period of time. Sometimes, the tube begins to rot and molds start to grow. One practitioner in Dongfengxincun of Daqing City was once tortured like this. She was forced to sit in a metal chair and the tube was inserted for 15 days without being taken out.

(4) Feeding with substances other than food: One practitioner in Chengfengzhuang District in Daqing City was force-fed with garlic water. Some practitioners have been force-fed with hot pepper water, mustard water, unknown drugs, highly salted water (for example, 100 grams salt in 400 milliliters of water), or liquor. (Falun Gong practitioners do not drink alcohol.)

(5) Brutal torture with tools: Several inmates throw the victim to the ground, restrain her and stomp on her limbs. One inmate pinches the victim's nose tightly and pours in water. This can easily cause suffocation. Sometimes, inmates will hold down the victim' head, feet, and the rest of the body, while other inmates force open the victim's mouth using a spoon, screwdriver, opening clamp, or some other tool. One practitioner from Honggang District in Daqing City had four teeth knocked out during this torture. A practitioner from Dongfengxicun in Daqing City had her lower jaw dislocated while being tortured this way.

(6) Force-feeding with opening clamps: The victim is handcuffed behind the back, or tied up tightly from behind. The opening clamps are then opened to the maximum extent. Even after the force-feeding is over, to torture the practitioner further, the opened clamps are not taken out and sometimes left in for several days. This causes the jaw to become dislocated or permanently dysfunctional.

(7) IV injection: When the victims gag or vomit while the tube is being forcibly inserted, it is difficult to force-feed. Sometimes, after several days of force-feeding, the nose swells and the practitioner's throat becomes ulcerated, making it impossible to insert the tube. When this happens, the guard orders inmates to hold down the victims for several hours and IV tubes will be inserted in numerous places over the practitioner's body. The IV injections continue until the blood vessel becomes fragile, and it cannot continue. However, soon afterwards the victim will be force-fed again and given IV injections again. This form of torture is repeated like this several times. In the beginning, the force-feeding is done once every five days, three days, or two days. Later, it is done more frequently: once a day, twice a day, or even three times a day. It is even worse for the practitioners subjected to tube-in-place force-feeding: it can be done up to five times a day.

Force-feeding with heavily spiced or salty food, or food containing unknown drugs, has severely harmed the torture victims. Some practitioners, after being released from Heilongjiang Women's Prison, suffer from abnormal physical conditions for years. They cannot resume working normally, and some have been permanently injured to the point that they cannot take care of themselves.