I am Chen Chunlin, a Falun Gong practitioner from Heilongjiang Province. In 2001, I was thrown into Harbin Prison for practicing Falun Gong exercises and publicly speaking for Falun Gong.

On September 20, 2002, because I refused to write statements to give up practicing Falun Gong, I was locked into a prison cell. The guard sent in two criminal convicts to monitor me. They beat and cursed me at will. They deprived me of sleep, doused me with cold water, and starved me by feeding me only light rice soup. I struggled to survive under their torture and maltreatment.

In March 2004, to force me to write statements denouncing Falun Gong, policeman Chai Jiatao and Chen Shuhai started another round of torture against me. I refused to do anything against my conscience, and did not compromise myself to them. On March 15, 2004, they put me in solitary confinement. Policeman Chai urged me to write the statements they wanted, and lied to me that all other detained Falun Gong practitioners had written such statements. I reasoned with him and refused his request again. Chai transferred me to an isolated cell without authorization. In the night, I was monitored by three criminals and deprived of sleep. On the next day, four criminals monitored me and humiliated me at will.

Around 9 pm on March 16, criminal Yu Lei did not let me sleep and dragged my blanket away. When I tried to stop him, he beat me up. Criminals Zhang Xuefeng and Sun Xiubo helped him to press me down with a big board. With over 50 prisoners’ watching in the cell, they cruelly tortured me with the notorious “Pushing Back and Forth,” “Breaking Off,” and “Pushing Up” set of tortures. Generally, four torturers press a victim’s face down on the floor and pull his arms to his back. One torturer then sits on his body and holds his wrists, lifting his arms forward and upward with full force starting from the side of his body, straight up over his back, then his head, and finally pressing his palms on the floor. In this way, the torturer repeatedly pushes the victim’s arms back and forth along an angle of 180 degrees. As a result, the shoulders feel as if they were being torn off. The pain from the ripping muscle and ligaments is excruciating.

"Pushing Back and Forth	"Breaking Off"	"Pushing Up"

On the morning of March 17, 2004, policeman Chai Jiatao said he was dissatisfied with the materials I had written and asked me to write more. This time, I refused to do anything against my will. I wrote down the truth of what had happened to me, and my true feelings about the persecution and Falun Gong. I handed it to the section head Zhu Wencheng. I was then sent to a hospital where another round of torture was waiting for me.

On the same day I entered the hospital, the doctor gave me a physical exam and sent me to my room. Criminals Yu Lei, Zhang Xuefeng, Zhang Lichun and Yi Yanjun put me on the floor, stripped off my clothes, and poured cold water on me. Then they opened the window to freeze me (the March weather in Heilongjiang Province is still very cold). At same time, they kicked and beat me for three to four consecutive hours. After that, they carried my to the bed and performed appalling tortures on me; squeezed my testicles, covering my head with a plastic bag to suffocate me, and forcefully pressing my pupils . Policeman Chai called in two more criminals Hong Shidong and Li Tongsheng to the room. The two held me and made me to sit on the bed, while the others fiercely beat me until Chai was satisfied.

On March 19, 2004, when I was unable to walk, Chai ordered two criminals Qiu Mingjie and Song Zhenfeng to lock me inside an isolated cell and shackle me to the ground. They tortured me for another 19 days.

type=Case, Torture;