Dafa Practitioners Suffer Brutal Torture at the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp

Since July 1999, in order to make the situation faced by Dafa practitioners in the Heizuizi Labour Camp appear different than it truly is, Jiang Zemin's regime built several new high-rise buildings, repaired the yard, paved the roads, and even constructed a workout room. From the outside it looks very magnificent, but none of these features could cover up the deeds of their persecution of Dafa practitioners.

I am one of those who was illegaly imprisoned in this camp in early 2002. There were seven divisions at that time. More than 2000 people were imprisoned there, including more than 1,800 Dafa practitioners. I want to use my own experience to expose the lies pertaining to this labour camp, so that it will be easier for people to understand the truth.

1. Brutal Persecution

The prison guards in the Heizuizi Labour Camp employed various methods to persecute Dafa practitioners, including utilizing the collaborators* to "help educate," physical punishment, mental torture and other means.

a. Using collaborators to "help educate"

As soon as Dafa practitioners were sent into the labour camp, groups of collaborators would "educate" them. The collaborators complied exactly with what the division chiefs and guards ordered them to do, and took turns to brainwash Dafa practitioners, day and night. They used every means they could, trying to exhaust practitioners' bodies and minds and numb practitioners' spirits so that practitioners' mental state would become fuzzy.

To entice the collaborators, the labour camp authorities dangled the reward of reduced prison term before them. The officials at the camp directed from behind the "curtain" and the collaborators performed such kind of demonic show on stage. They called it "being educated - educating themselves." They also printed the words into books of those who used to practise Falun Gong but stopped and had turned against it. To brainwash them, they forced practitioners to read those books.

b. Physical punishment

After brainwashing practitioners for days and nights without end, the prison guards started to physically punish those practitioners who remained steadfast in Dafa. They mainly used electrical batons or merciless beating, barbaric force-feeding and other physical punishment; or, the prison guards would not allow practitioners to sleep but made them do heavy manual labour for long periods of time.

For example, the prison guards shocked one practitioner from Division No. 4 with electrical batons. As a result, this practitioner's face was swollen and the mouth was deformed. Almost all of the practitioners who were steadfast in Dafa suffered from such kinds of torture.

One practitioner held a hunger strike for many days to protest against the illegal imprisonment and was force-fed by the prison guards. Several people hit and dragged her into a room. The guards and people from the clinic used chopsticks to pry her mouth open. The corner of the practitioner's mouth was torn. The guards covered the door and windows with newspapers from inside, for fear that their wicked actions would be exposed. Afterwards, the guards tortured this practitioner so severely that the practitioner was reduced to skin and bones.

Another practitioner in Division No. 6 was tortured extensively and was so weak that her legs were limp and she could not walk. The prison guards said that she was pretending and forced her to walk downstairs to the dining hall to eat. Two people held her arms and dragged her to the dining room.

c. Mental Torture

The prison guards carried on mental tortures against the firm practitioners, brainwashed them and instilled in their minds propaganda materials that slandered Dafa. They extended prison terms at will and continued to hold practitioners after their terms were over.

The Wang couple managed to write four books that slandered Dafa. The guards used these deceptive books as the major "text books" in the Heizuizi Labour Camp. Cai traveled to several labour camps all over the country to give lectures, slandering Dafa. Video tapes of his lectures were repeatedly played by Heizuizi Labour Camp guards. The practitioners were forced to view the tapes, and then were compelled to discuss them repeatedly. The guards attempted to shake practitioners' righteous belief. This kind of mental torture is even more devastating than physical torture.

Some practitioners' forced labour terms had expired, but their family members were not allowed to come and pick them up. Some of the practitioners were held for additional time. Some were directly picked up by officials from the local "610 Office" and escorted to a local brainwashing classes to be forcibly brainwashed. Some were again compelled to serve forced labor terms or were sentenced to jail terms.

2. Forced Heavy Labour

The state labour reeducation rules stipulate that people imprisoned in the labour camps should not work for more than eight hours a day, but Heizuizi Labour Camp officials forced Falun Gong practitioners to wake up at 5:00 a.m., and go to bed at 9:00 p.m. They worked non-stop daily, except for meals and scant personal hygiene time; ten minutes in the morning and 15 minutes for each meal. Practitioners have less than one hour for washing and eating. The rest of time, they have to work. Furthermore, they often have to work extra hours. When some job needed to be done quickly, practitioners had to work till 11:00 p.m. and get up at 4:00 a.m., working 16 - 17 hours a day.

The guards at the Heizuizi Labour Camp not only prolonged the working hours to exhaust the practitioners, but also carelessly endangered practitioners' safety. For example, in August 2002 when the labour camp produced handicraft birds, they brought feathers to be painted in many different colours. After painting the feathers, they spread them in a hallway to dry. The dye emitted an extremely strange smell that affected people passing the hallway. Everybody felt dizzy, had a headache, and even vomited.

Within several days, nearly one hundred people in this building had symptoms of chemical poisoning. They suffered from the toxic dysentery and a fever of 40 0C [about 104 0F]. The doctors still yelled, "No injections for those whose temperatures are lower than 38.5 0C!" Later, under intense insistence from the practitioners, they took away the feathers with the poisonous dyes.

The guards also lied to practitioners, claiming that this was a disease spread from outside the labour camp. Later practitioners found out that there was simply no such illnesses in Changchun at that time. Everybody's health was seriously damaged.

3. Using deception to cheat the common people

The officials and police at the Heizuizi Labour Camp had always employed trickery and deception. In order to achieve a so-called "conversion" quota, they resorted to terrible means to persecute practitioners. It is reported that among the so-called "reformed" persons, over 90% were compelled by this high-pressure persecution and it was against their will. Once a practitioner wrote the so-called "guarantee statement" of giving up practising, the prison guards would tell practitioners to submit the "application to join the Party." The applications were generally written by one person, but all the others would copy it. Those who don't know how to read would have someone who knows reading and writing to help them copy. The prison guards collected the required numbers of papers and reported to the higher officials, to demonstrate that "the ideological work is well done, and the result is remarkable."

On Mother's Day Eve in 2002, the labour camp held a large scale meeting, the so-called "mother assembly," and many children of the practitioners who were illegally imprisoned were sent to the labour camp by persons from the "610 Office." Then mothers and children were ordered to come on stage for a 5-minute "reunion," to demonstrate the government's "caring." Everybody clearly understood, though, that it was Jiang Zemin's regime's brutal persecution against Dafa and Dafa practitioners that is the cause for tens of thousands of family separations and break-ups.

As a "model" labour camp to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners, the Heizuizi Labour Camp often received outside visits. Before people came, there would be endless cleaning. For fear of interfering with the work and not making enough money, the camp compelled practitioners to work days and nights, yet the prison guards never let up. Everybody called the days of visiting "devil days." Sometimes when "important people" came, the labour camp would hide the old, weak, sick, and disabled practitioners from the visitors.

For example, once a deputy minister from the Ministry of Justice visited the Heizuizi Labour Camp, for which the camp made preparations for two weeks beforehand. On the day of the minister's arrival, the majority of the practitioners were locked up in one building, watched by prison guards. The practitioners were not allowed to look outside the doors and windows. A few of those who compromised their belief against their will were arranged to sing and dance in the yard, and did different physical exercises and other activities. The practitioners sat on the dusty cement floor for the whole morning. They were not allowed to leave the building until after the deputy minister left. This kind of thing happened frequently. The labor camp used deception to cover up the persecution against Dafa practitioners.

The above is just a small part of what I saw, experienced and learned during my imprisonment in the Heizuizi Labour Camp.

*Collaborators: former Falun Gong practitioners who have gone astray due to brainwashing and torture.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/8/16/55691.html