Revealing the Conditions at the Shuanghe Labor Camp in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province

By A Practitioner in China

Shuanghe Labor Camp in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province is yet another place where the evil persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners occurs. Practitioners detained there are being tortured both mentally and physically every day. In the hot summer, the guards do not allow practitioners to open the doors to their cells. Especially in small cells, because there is no other way to ventilate the cell, the toilet fills the cell with a putrid odor. In ordinary cells, inmates (criminals) and collaborators watch practitioners, not allowing them to read Dafa materials or practice the exercises. Practitioners are only allowed to go out of the cells three times a day when they go to the restroom. Water usage is limited. The inmates report to the guards whenever they see Dafa practitioners breaking the guards' "rules".

In July 2000, a female practitioner named Xiao Hongwen was transferred here. She was put on "tight control" for persisting to practice the exercises and study Fa. The practitioner went on hunger strike to protest her treatment and ask for release. Commencing with the 5th day of her hunger strike, the guards force-fed her three times a day. When they saw that the force-feeding did not work, they administered intravenous infusions. During this time, the practitioner was secured to the bed with both hands cuffed to the bed's sides. She had to urinate in her pants. The infusion began right after breakfast and ended in the evening. After several days of this, the authorities tried to force-feed her again. Xiao was tortured like this for a whole month, and she became very skinny. The labor camp then called Xiao's mother, demanding 7 to 8 thousand Yuan (the average monthly income of urban areas is about 500 Yuan) as a "feeding fee".

Another case of brutal torture involved a female practitioner named Song Cuiling. She was strung up in the air in a spread-eagled position for practicing the exercises. The guard named Li Yaping (female) also shouted, "This is the result of you doing the exercises! Now let's see how you are going to practice!" Song remained like this for several hours. Any practitioner who practiced the exercises in the labor camp was brutally tortured.

The guards not only fiercely tortured the solid practitioners, they also kept a tight rein on the brainwashed practitioners. The brainwashed practitioners were forced to watch each other, and once someone questioned whether they were doing the right thing, others went to report to the guards. The one who raised the question was then separated from the others. Even in the same cell, they were not allowed to go to other people's bedsides, and their conversations were monitored. In order to achieve the goal of "complete brainwashing", those who wrote the guarantee letters were not released for at least a 3 month "testing period," and an additional 5 month "stabilizing period--" no matter how long their original terms were.

Some family members of practitioners were very sick, like the grandmother of Sun Yu (female practitioner). Sun's grandmother had a stroke and was completely paralyzed, with no one taking care of her. Sun's mother was also illegally detained in the labor camp. Sun's father wrote a letter to the labor camp, asking for her release, but the letter was ignored. One of Gao Shukun's family is handicapped and all alone. The Labor camp officials said that they would consider releasing him. However, they did not release him until he served his full term.

According to rules made by higher officials, Falun Gong practitioners were not required to do physical labor. However, headman Wang Yan said in public, "You (Falun Gong practitioners) will be re-educated both mentally and physically." He also said that the work we were doing (making boxes for medicine) was only stretching our fingers like a warm up for exercise, and that one day of our work could not even pay for our food there. In the team directly under control of the labor camp, practitioners have to work both inside and outside, including doing a lot of farm work. If we go out to work with Wang Yan, then no one is allowed to rest at all. (The average age of practitioners on the team is over 50.) Once when practitioners were streaming with sweat from working under the baking sun, a practitioner named Cao Shurong (female, 58) was so tired that when she stopped to drink some water, she fell to the ground unconscious. It took her more than 10 minutes to come to. Wang Yan also said that if the practitioners did not participate in the labor, then their stay in the labor camp would not count, so their terms would be extended. Guard Li, who is in charge of studying, read the rules for inmates to practitioners, adding his own rule that the term reduction could not exceed half of the total term. When practitioners asked for term reductions according to the original rules, the guards immediately agreed. However, Headman Zhao said in private, "If they all go away, then who is going to do the work and make money for us?"

The guards in the labor camp not only profit through forcing the practitioners to work, but also collect money from the practitioners using various pretexts like buying mops and clothes dryers. After the guards had collected 300 ~ 400 Yuan from each practitioner, they still used the old mops and clothes dryers and the guards kept all the collected money. They even collected money from the practitioners for constructing a new building for the labor camp; the collection ranged from dozens of Yuan to more than 100 Yuan.

The guards are well fed, but practitioners can only eat bread made with very crude flours. Sometimes the bread had already molded. The food for practitioners is extremely bad and lacks nutrition; sometimes it is even rotten. The result of eating this kind of food is that the practitioners suffer from severe malnutrition. The guards also cheat their superiors when they come to check: they have the cooks prepare some good food, and tell them to lie about feeding practitioners the good food, with vegetables and meat in every meal. Sometimes the guards bring some watermelons and tomatoes and sell them to practitioners at very high prices. Moreover, the vegetables that practitioners grow themselves are sold to them at very high prices.

China has a long history as a country where people showed each other mutual courtesy. However, since the persecution of Falun Gong, the civilization is gone and the law is being trampled on. Family members of practitioners who come to Shuanghe Labor Camp to visit are forced to read flyers defaming Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi. The officials make reading those words a prerequisite to seeing the practitioners. In such manner, a once great country is taking a group of benevolent and peaceful people as enemies and torturing them by the most vicious methods, forcing them to give up their beliefs.

Source: Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/4/15371.html