Persecution of Practitioners in Shaanxi Province Women's Forced Labour Camp

1) In September 2001, practitioners Ms. Zhang Yunxian, 55 years old, Ms. Ma Wenhua, 58, and Ms. He Guilan were detained in the "dark den," which was located on the second floor of the southern building at the Shaanxi Province Women's Forced Labour Camp. They were handcuffed and tortured for over a month. The three practitioners protested the persecution by holding a hunger strike. As a result, they were placed in solitary confinement, with Ms. Zhang in the education team on the first floor, Ms. Ma in the second division on the second floor, and Ms. He in the third division on the third floor. They were tortured physically and mentally for over seven months. The guards often encouraged the criminal inmates to hang the practitioners from the window bars and then kick and beat them. The three practitioners staged hunger strikes many times to resist the persecution, but the torture continued. On April 2nd, during the so-called "suppression" meeting, all the guards were fully armed with handcuffs and batons. Six of them held the three practitioners by grabbing their hair and arms.

2) On November 26th, 2001, practitioner Ms. Liu Yuwen, 63, was working in the second division's machine room. One guard, who was standing there to watch her, told her to stand up. When Ms. Liu did not obey, the guard, Second Division chief Yu Yan, brutally beat her. She also instigated six criminal inmates to torture Ms. Liu together. Practitioner Ms. Ma Wenjing, who was not far from the scene, shouted, "Don't beat people!" Several other practitioners also shouted "Don't beat people!" The guards blocked these practitioners from entering the room and took Ms. Liu Yuwen, in the position of "flying an airplane," out of the machine room and then out to the gate. She was handcuffed to the gate in the hallway for several days and nights. As a result, she suffered a relapse of her heart disease, and she fainted. Only after the incident was she sent to the so-called clinic. The guards used the clinic as a place to persecute practitioners by detaining them in solitary.

3) On the evening of January 23rd, 2002, camp officials forced practitioners to watch video programmes that slandered Dafa. The practitioners opposed and resisted this activity. As a result, the leaders of the labour camp ordered both the female and male guards to beat the already handcuffed practitioners. Practitioner Ms. Liu Guiqing was handcuffed to a bed frame inside the No. 7 cell on the second floor for seven days and nights. The guards handcuffed practitioner Ms. Wang Xiuwen to the gate in the second floor hallway for two days and nights, and she was later handcuffed to a steel pipe inside the guards' office for four days and five nights. They handcuffed practitioner Ms. Li Cuifang to the gate on the second floor of the north side for eight days and nights. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Danxia was handcuffed to a bar of the east-side window or the stairway to the second floor for six days and seven nights. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Ronghua was handcuffed inside a guards' office for seven days and nights. Practitioner Ms. Kan Guangying was handcuffed to a bed frame in the No. 5 cell for two days and nights. The practitioners' basic freedoms were denied.

4) On April 3rd, 2002, the labour camp gathered together the practitioners detained in the first, second and third divisions (a total of nearly one hundred) to try to force them to be "transformed¹." The practitioners were confined in their rooms and their personal freedoms were denied. They were not allowed to use the toilets. For practitioners who refused respond to roll call, refused to count off, refused to report, or did not watch or listen to the propaganda that slandered Dafa, the guards refused to let them sleep, and also forced them to stand "facing the walls." In the meantime, the guards also ordered the criminal inmates to swear at, kick, and punch the practitioners. As a result, some practitioners became dizzy, had blurred vision, and vomited. Practitioner Ms. Luo Changyun's legs were black and blue from being kicked.

5) Eight practitioners--Ms. Wei Xinrong, Ms. Xu Mingxia, Ms. Liu Guiqing, Ms. Sun Yuncheng, Ms. Li Shulian, Ms. Li Xiaorong, Ms. Yu Qinzhen, and Ms. Hu Chunqin--were handcuffed to the racks, gates, and stairs in the backyard, as well as to the window bars in the guards' offices, for several days and nights because they resisted the labour camp's brainwashing efforts. In the meantime, the guards instructed the criminal inmates to put urine in the other practitioners' bowls. The eight practitioners then staged a hunger strike. The guards and the common inmates handcuffed the eight practitioners, sat on them, stuffed their months with dirty clothes, and then force-fed them. Later they handcuffed the eight practitioners to the bed frames and did not allow them to use the toilet. The guards tortured practitioner Ms. Wei Xinrong for eight days and nights and Ms. Xu Mingxia for nine days and nights.

6) Zhao Xiaoyang, who was the labour camp party secretary of the discipline committee, claimed, "Carrying persons out of the labour camp is the same as carrying them out of a hospital." One evening in mid-April, eight or nine practitioners who had been resisting the brainwashing efforts and had already been forced to stand facing the wall for several days and nights, with their legs and feet becoming swollen, including Ms. Kan Guangying, were handcuffed by male guards to the cell windows for three days and nights. They could only touch the floor with their toes. When practitioner Ms. Wang Xiuwen saw what the guards had done, she shouted, "Bad hearts." She was then handcuffed to the window in her cell for three days and nights. On the morning of May 4th, the vicious Zhao Xiaoyang, holding a baton, ordered a group of guards to try to force the practitioners to watch a propaganda program that slandered Dafa. Seeing that Ms. Li Cuifang resisted and did not want to watch, Zhao personally went to beat Ms. Li on the head with a baton. All the practitioners, fifty of them, shouted, "Don't beat people!" Zhao then ordered a guard, whose last name is Ren, to drag Ms. Li away to a solitary cell. He handcuffed her to a window bar and then beat her with a baton. As a result, Ms. Li lost control of her bodily functions and lost consciousness. Later she was handcuffed to a bed frame for nearly one month in solitary. When practitioner Ms. Li Shulian stood up to resist the evil acts of Zhao Xiaoyang, she was also handcuffed and hung on the door frame of the meeting room for two days and nights. Later she was detained in the monitoring room by herself.

7) From April to July 2002, this women's labour camp created an environment of terror to brutally persecute practitioners. Practitioner Ms. Du Shuming, 57, was forced to wear a straight jacket for eight days and nights, during which time she was not allowed to sleep. She was also forced to stand facing the wall. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Xiuying, 65, was handcuffed and detained in solitary for six days and nights. She was put in a straight jacket for as long as 25 days. Practitioners Ms. Gao Yimin, 60, Ms. Liu Gaixian, 50, Ms. Du Shuming, Ms. Wang Xiuwen, 56, Ms. Yu Qinzhen, 43, and others were also tortured with straight jackets for many days. Practitioner Ms. Chen Guilian, 61, was handcuffed to a bed frame, with her hands behind her back, for three days and nights. Female guard Feng used a baton to beat Ms. Chen on her buttocks and thighs until they were covered with bruises. Practitioner Ms. Zhao Bixia was handcuffed with her hands behind her back to a bed frame for two days and nights. Practitioners Ms. Li Xiaorong and Ms. Zhang Ronghua were tortured by labour camp director Tan Zhenglin and other guards. They beat and dragged the two women. When practitioner Ms. Xu Mingxia saw what was going on, she said, "Don't drag her. Let her walk." Tan then knocked Ms. Xu down to the ground with his baton, and subsequently dragged her out to the yard and hung her from the clinic's window for six hours. Later she was handcuffed in a guards' office for seven days and nights. Other practitioners including Ms. Li Shulian, Ms. Sun Yuncheng, Ms. Zhang Ronghua, and Ms. Li Xiaorong were handcuffed for eight days and nights.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/9/23/138498.html