Horrors of Tianjin's Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp

Because of the hostile living environment in Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp, 90% of the detainees have scabies (a contagious skin disease caused by mites). At that time my legs, chest, and hands were infected, but the camp still forced us to perform slave labour. Camp police arranged for me to pack chopsticks into paper envelopes or make vegetarian shish kebabs. In the food processing plant, many detained practitioners got scabies, and some even had yellowish pus oozing out of the blisters on their fingers. Without the use of gloves, the pus contaminated the food and the chopsticks. The forced labour camp pays no attention to the well being of the detained practitioners. In the same plant, fire-retardant fibreglass was also being manufactured, so there were bits and pieces of fibreglass everywhere. For a period of time, I was binding brushes for cooking utensils. The regular workload per person was usually 170, but we were each assigned 390. A slower person would have to continue working all day and night. Every time there was an inspection or tour from outsiders, the camp police would keep the workload record as 170 per person and we could be off duty in the late afternoon. However, they would then wake us up at 2:00 a.m. to make up the hours. They arbitrarily added to the workload of practitioners not cooperating with the camp instructors. The detainees at the camp are worked to the bone.

In the name of establishing labour discipline, on February 26, 2003 China's labour and education bureaucrats issued an order to severely punish the practitioners who refused to perform slave labour. Along with the other detained practitioners at the Shuangkou Labour Camp, I was forced to sign and agree to this order. This camp has 5 divisions. In my division, there were 12 persons that refused to sign the agreement in spite of various threats and harassment. The camp formed a special "conquering" team consisting of 6 policemen to torture and beat us . They employed many ways to torture us. When they saw that the 50,000 volt electric batons had little effect on us, they bought 150,000-volt batons to shock us. One day the camp police took me out of the processing plant to an office on the second floor. The windows and the door were locked, and the blinds closed tightly with 7 lead police officers and two non-practitioner detainees. At the signal from a police officer, the two inmates forcefully pulled down my pants together with my underwear and pulled up my sweater to cover my face. Then they push me down to the floor. As I was blindfolded, I could only sense the electric shocks from 7 batons on my thighs, private areas, arm pits, and chest. The police shouted, "We will make you wish you were dead! Let's see if you sign it or not!" My skin and flesh were in agony, burnt as if by charcoal, and the room was filled with the smell of scorched flesh .

Other practitioners went through the same tortures, and the camp police kept increasing the number of electric batons to shock the ones who still refused to cooperate. The user's manual of the 150,000-volt electric baton cautioned not to apply to the human head. But the camp police totally ignored the warning and shocked our faces, temples, foreheads, and around the eyes. Furthermore, they sometimes tied the practitioner to a bed and inserted the electric baton into his mouth for a long time. The camp police shocked many parts of my body. It took me a long time to recover, and I still have many scars.

A certain police officer, Mr. Zhang Ruixiang, declared bluntly that, "We are given the power by the party. We can beat you to death at will. Even if you really die due to the beating, so what? It's simple to make up an excuse." The camp's incentive to the police for forcing a practitioner to give up his belief in Dafa used to be 300 Yuan and now was increased to 500 Yuan [almost a month's salary for an urban worker].

In this forced labour camp, I witnessed practitioner Mr. Chen Baoliang tragically dying as a result of the police torture.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/6/18/52456.html