Cruel Methods of Persecution of Falun Dafa Practitioners at the Weifang Forced Labour Camp

The former head of the Weifang "610 Office"* Song Jiwu, in collaboration with the Weifang Forced Labour Camp, has been holding brainwashing sessions inside the labour camp since March 15, 2001. Over 100 Falun Dafa Practitioners have been brutally tortured and persecuted in these brainwashing sessions.

The deputy head of the Forced Labour Camp, Zou Jintian has been directly involved in the brainwashing. The Head of the Camp's Second Division, Ding Guihua has also been directly involved in arranging the persecution of Dafa practitioners. The Deputy Head of the Second Division, Xu Shimin has been responsible for carrying out the arrangements. Policemen involved in the brainwashing classes include Zhu Weiguang, Liu Jianguang, Song X and Liu X [X indicates first name unknown].

The following are several of the methods mainly used in the persecution:

1. To limit the personal freedom of Falun Dafa practitioners who have been taken to the brainwashing centre, they are all put under close surveillance. There are surveillance cameras in each of their rooms so that their movements are watched carefully. Each Dafa practitioner being persecuted will usually have one or two people monitoring him. (Usually these are the colleagues from the work units where the practitioners work.). As a matter of fact, the practitioners are under round-the-clock surveillance. Dafa practitioners who are forced to attend the brainwashing sessions are followed almost step by step. They are not allowed to visit other rooms or pass messages to other Falun Dafa practitioners. It is said that they are not even allowed to glance at other practitioners.

2. After being taken to the forced labour camp the police will first constantly defame and tell lies to practitioners as well as threaten them, "If you do not renounce your belief in Falun Dafa you will be sentenced to forced labour." Then the collaborators [Former Falun Gong practitioners who have renounced the practice due to brainwashing and torture and assist in persecuting Dafa practitioners.] repeat the lies to practitioners over and over.

3. If a practitioner does not sign the so-called "Repentance Statement" [A statement to acknowledge remorse for practising Falun Gong, to give up Falun Gong, and to never again associate with those practitioners who practise Falun Gong and/ or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.] the practitioners are deprived of sleep for extended periods. Some of the practitioners are not allowed to sleep for five or six days in succession. The forced labour camps adopt various techniques to conduct repeated brainwashing.

4. When the practitioners are not in their right mind as a result of repeated torture the camp police will force them to watch video tapes that defame Falun Dafa.

5. They also use the affection towards family to torture the practitioners. The police in the forced labour camp not only torture the Falun Dafa practitioners but also force the practitioners' relatives to write them letters in an attempt to use human sentimentality to put pressure on the practitioners.

6. Force feeding practitioners who are on hunger strike. [Force-feeding is the number one cause of death for Falun Gong practitioners. The purpose of police force-feeding is not to nourish, but rather to torture practitioners and to cause so much pain that they will renounce the practice of Falun Gong. To that end, the police have used many different means to cause excruciating pain and injury, including inserting and withdrawing the feeding tubes repeatedly, leaving the feeding tubes in the stomach, knocking out teeth while attempting to force-feed, force-feeding saturated salt-water, vinegar/liquor, or urine/faeces, etc.]

7. Charging practitioners money for brainwashing. Falun Dafa practitioners who have been abducted to the brainwashing site are forced to pay their own living expenses, accommodations, and related expenses for the brainwashing. These expenses could be as little as a few thousand yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 yuan.] and as high as tens of thousands of yuan.

* "610 Office" is a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/1/28/66015.html