http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,3756908%255E2703,00.html Chinese torture allegations From The Times February 12, 2002 A SENIOR official in China's National Security Ministry has smuggled documents to the West that disclose orders to police chiefs to torture women members of Christian churches as part of a crackdown on religious groups. Jubilee Campaign, a British human rights group, has obtained evidence of the women being abused with electric cattle prods, sexually assaulted and beaten into falsely confessing they were raped by their religious pastors. Death sentences have been passed on several leading Christians in recent months, including a woman who is a member of the South China Church tried in secret in December. The official who leaked the documents is in hiding, fearing for his life. The dossier has been passed to the White House before US President George W. Bush's visit to China this month. Mr Bush has asked to be briefed about the treatment of Christian groups, and human rights groups hope this evidence will persuade him to take tougher action against Beijing. The testimony of these victims, smuggled out of prison at the end of last year, will embarrass Chinese officials who claim they have stopped such brutal tactics after being included in the World Trade Organisation and securing the Olympic Games for Beijing. One woman prisoner, Yang Tongi, signed her testimony with a bloody fingerprint. She says she was seized from a bus and forced to kneel for hours in a prison cell before her interrogation began. She was handcuffed and her captors boasted as they beat her: "We can kill you without causing any problems." She described watching a friend so badly beaten that her fingers were bent out of position and she could not straighten her legs. Zhang Hongjuan, 20, said guards at the Zhong Xiang detention centre shackled her hand and foot and tortured her with an electric prod. "They forcefully unbuttoned my shirt and touched every spot on my chest with the electric club. I yelled at the top of my voice but they moved the club into my mouth to stop me from crying." Others were forced to endure medical examinations as police sought proof they had had sex with their pastor. Tongjin Li said in the same jail she was threatened with sexual assault and a guard jeered: "This is not considered as raping but just coping with people like you." The woman, who is scarred for life, said the attack on her continued for more than 15 hours and stopped only when she revealed a telephone number of a fellow Christian. The Jubilee Campaign has shown The Times some of the original leaked documents from the Ministry of Public Security. They order a ban on a variety of "cults" which they consider a "crawling danger to domestic security and defence". They identify "cults" as any group which has refused to register with the Government and include Catholic and Protestant missions. The documents include a speech by Sun Jianxian, a leading security official, telling his officers to intensify the crackdown which they must keep hidden from "hostile Western powers hastening to continue their strategies of 'westernising' our country". About 129 people have been killed for their religious activities and another 208 crippled by torture.
