Five Falun Gong Practitioners Attempted an Escape from the Brutal Persecution at the No. 2 Labour Camp of Shandong Province

On October 24th, 2002, five Falun Gong practitioners walked out of the No. 2 Labour Camp of Shandong Province. It is the first and largest group escape that we are aware of since the establishment of the forced labour system. The staff of the No. 10 Division at the No. 2 Labour Camp of Shandong Province, which was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, was disbanded. Several guards were transferred from this "special division." Chief Zhao Yongming, Instructor Li Gongming and Commissar Wang Jiayong were replaced and many guards were fined and transferred. The detained Falun Gong practitioners' forced labour hours were dramatically reduced. Some practitioners who went astray under the pressure of the persecution are now clearheaded.

A large number of guards jumped into cars to drive after the escaping Falun Gong practitioners, who had left through the entrance to the labour camp. The local artillery troop was also called in to help with the search. The men got almost two and a half miles away before they were caught. The practitioners were confined, kicked, beaten with electric batons and hung up by handcuffs. They were deprived of sleep for an extended period of time. Their bodies were covered with wounds from the torture. A permanent scar was left on Pan Weiyou's face. Those who knew of the escape plan, including Li Liansheng, Li Changsheng, Ran Xiangming, Ji Yongshi and Liu Hongmao, were persecuted by having their detention terms extended.

The No. 2 Labour Camp of Shandong Province, also called Wangcun Labour Camp, is in Zibo City, Shandong Province. It includes four sub-camps. According to an incomplete count, by July of 2005, eight Falun Gong practitioners had been tortured to the point of mental collapse and 23 practitioners were tortured to death in Wangcun Labour Camp.

According to the Clearwisdom.net website, in September of 2000, the Third Sub-camp of Wangcun Labour Camp started to detain male Falun Gong practitioners in Shandong Province, while the Fourth Sub-camp detained female practitioners. The orders to do so were given by the Forced Labour Education Department of Shandong Province. Since 2001, Wangcun Labour Camp has enslaved Falun Gong practitioners to produce large amounts of items for export to Russia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and other countries. The so-called No. 10 Division ("Special Division"), which focuses on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, enslaved lots of Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners in three other divisions were also forcibly enslaved.

Since October 21st, 2003, the forced labour camps in Shandong Province have employed "group brainwashing" on practitioners who firmly believe in Falun Dafa, in attempts to force them to "transform¹." The No. 2 Labour Camp of Shandong Province confined practitioners who did not yield under brutal torture to a particular floor of a building, and secretly carried out "strict management" measures. Four guards monitored the floor constantly and the practitioners under strict management were kept from talking and sleeping. If anyone appeared drowsy, two guards would make him go for a run or they would punch him. If the practitioner still remained drowsy, the guards would hold his head under the faucet and douse his head with cold water. After becoming alert, he would be forced to stand for a long duration. The standing positions are difficult to endure, for example "standing on one leg." Some practitioners were handcuffed to a bunk bed. Their legs were spread and handcuffed to opposite ends of the bed, while their hands were separated and handcuffed to the upper part of the bed. Since the labour camp blocks information very strictly, many other torture means are unknown at this time.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wang Shaoqing, 42 years old, former section chief of the No. 2 Cotton Factory in Wucheng County, Dezhou City, had been held in Wangcun Labour Camp since 2001. In the labour camp, Falun Gong practitioners are forced to perform slave labour continuously from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., with only a ten-minute break to eat. The food is very sparse and bad. The camp cooks sprinkle salt onto radish leaves and call it pickles, and ten people share one small bowl of these non-nutritious pickles. The conditions are terrible beyond imagination. When Mr. Wang Shaoqing asked the officials to reduce the labour hours and improve the working and living environment, the guards stretched his arms horizontally, hung him up and beat him to force him to "acknowledge he was wrong." After Wang Shaoqing was released, he continued to tell people, "Falun Dafa is good." In 2003, he was illegally detained and tortured in a mental hospital for a year, which caused him to suffer a mental collapse. He passed away in July 2005.

The labour camp still detains more than 200 Falun Gong practitioners. The two-pronged persecution of both mind and body brings huge suffering to countless practitioners and their families.

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/11/21/114966.html