About three hundred Falun Gong practitioners are currently being unjustly detained in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp. Ninety-one are confined in the training brigade, 120 in the 7th brigade, and 82 (all female) in the 12th brigade. Male police are sent to female brigades, and one male officer is responsible for one female jail cell.
On the east side of the Wanjia Cafeteria are the 12th brigade, the male brigades, and the hospital. On the west side is the 7th brigade. The first floor of the west side building houses workshops, the second floor prison cells, and the third floor the female training brigade, which is overseen by the managers of the department, Zhao Yuqing, Instructor Yao, and Wu. New detainees and Dafa practitioners from the different brigades who are considered steadfast are sent here for brutal torture and forced brainwashing. The prison guards play tapes slandering Teacher Li and Dafa all day long. Whoever refuses to cooperate is brutally and continuously tortured with tactics such as the "Big Hang Up,"[1] being shocked with high voltage electric batons, having to squat with one's mouth sealed, and brutal beatings by criminal offenders.
Ms. Dai Rui, a student in her 20's from Heilongjiang University, was brutally tortured for 10 days for speaking the truth during an interview. Bai Yulian, a criminal offender, beat her until her mouth was bleeding. Ms. Yang Yue, director of an entertainment programme on a Heilongjiang TV Station, was tortured with the "Big Hang Up" for 4 days. Whenever prison police tortured Falun Dafa practitioners, they turned the volume of the loudspeaker to its maximum to cover up their crimes. The prison police also forced Falun Dafa practitioners to write application letters to become members of the Party and forced them to pledge their loyalty to the Party every morning and evening. Neither soft voices nor garbled words were allowed. Those who cooperated felt extremely miserable. The prison police knew that the practitioners wrote the "three statements"[2] against their will, but the police then applied even more brutal tortures. On November 11, 2003, prison instructors Sha Yujin and Cong Zhixiu proclaimed to several practitioners that they would transform practitioners Zhang Yan and Cang Fengying. They did not realise their goal.
In September 2002, female prison police officer Zhou Lifan suggested that the leader of the 7th brigade, Zhang Po (already on the list of persecutors) organized training sessions "outside of the camp," which meant forced brainwashing in small confinement rooms. People in the session have to pledge 5 times a day. In September 2003, Zhou Lifan was thrown from a motorcycle, and her head injury required 6 stitches. She could not straighten her back. Now, she is still not able to work.
The current approaches used by the prison police to torture Falun Dafa practitioners:
1. Forced brainwashing in the training brigade. This "brainwashing" includes being confined in a small solitary cell, subjected to the "Big Hang Up," shocked with electric batons, forced to squat or sit on a small stool, forbidden to talk, forced to watch video tapes slandering Teacher and Dafa such as the Tiananmen Self-immolation or the murder case of Fu Yibin, forced to write "self-understanding" and letters repudiating Falun Gong.
2. Forced allegiance to the Party, including reciting the pledge every morning and evening with a raised hand and application for membership in the Party. No one could be spared without making such an application.
3. Expressing your attitude in every session when the jail term is completed and just before release. If the prison police think that the person's attitude is not good enough, the person will continue to be detained indefinitely.
4. Forced hard labour beyond the tolerable limit. The major task is to fabricate and sew car seat cushions, which makes the practitioners' hands swollen. Another task is to stick eyelashes onto dolls. Each person is assigned 13 dolls a day. Several hundred eyelashes have to be stuck to each doll, one by one, with tweezers. This task gives practitioners headaches and causes eyestrain. Another task is to mend cloth, batches of defective linen. Each person is assigned 40 metres of linen cloth, and the repairs must be completed before sleeping. Sometimes one has to work until 11 pm to complete the job. They must get up at 5 am each morning, and only 10 minutes are allowed for each meal. The rest of the day is spent working. Prison police officer Zhang Po said they have to make a 200,000 Yuan profit [the monthly pay of an urban worker in China is about 500 Yuan].
5. Forced to watch 40 propositions promoting transformation and 8 "what to do," etc. [all of these are means of brainwashing]
6. Cheating by the authorities and covering-up the truth to keep from being exposed. This meant hiding away the practitioners who spoke the truth courageously. For example, whenever the camp had visitors from the outside, practitioner Liu Xiumao would be hidden away. When higher authorities came for inspections, they told the authorities that the fee for baths and haircuts had been distributed to practitioners. Actually, they not only didn't give it to practitioners but also used various excuses to extort money from practitioners. Last year, for example, a 20 Yuan "education fee" was collected from each practitioner. Whoever did not hand in the money had his or her name recorded. Prison police officer Zhang Po asked practitioners to buy white tape to seal the windows. The names of those who didn't give money for the tape were recorded. The labour camp cheated practitioners into donating money, which was actually used to purchase VCD's slandering Dafa. Prison instructor Meng Xiangzhi and male police officer Zhang Xiaochu were in charge of these activities.
7. Abuses. Those who cooperate are given rice and fried dishes. Those who are unyielding are given bread made of stale cornmeal. Clothes could be washed only after two weeks. No baths were allowed all summer and only once before the spring festival. In October of this year, the bathing facilities were altered to be controlled electronically in preparation for the inspection. For testing purposes, practitioners were allowed to take a shower. Three to four practitioners shared one faucet for only 15 minutes. The water was not warm and became completely cold by the end.
8. A male leader from the male brigade tried to force practitioner Cheng Yuqin, a 50-year-old lady, to write the "three statements." Ms. Cheng was sent to a small confinement cell after she refused to do so. Two policemen guarded the entrance to the confinement cell while four or five were inside torturing her. She was suspended with both arms stretched out flat and both legs separated off the ground. She was beaten on her chest from early morning to noontime. In the afternoon, she was forced to sit on an iron chair. She was beaten until she threw up from the pain in her chest. The prison instructor prohibited her from talking about this treatment. She was still forced to do drills outside as usual, pretending nothing had happened to her.
The current situation there is very hard.
[1] There are two forms in this torture: (1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only the toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in opposite directions. One feels extreme pain as the body is pulled.
[2] Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the "610 Office," the three statements consist of a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practise Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/29/61479.html
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