The Atrocities at Nanmusi Women's Labour Camp

I started practising Falun Gong in 1997, after which all my illnesses miraculously went away. When the persecution started, I clarified the truth to others about Falun Gong, and was arrested and illegally sentenced to two years in a forced labour camp. I was imprisoned at Nanmusi Women's Labour Camp in Zhizhong. The following is my personal testimony of the brutalities I witnessed in the labour camp.

1. The labour camp forces newly imprisoned Falun Dafa practitioners to sit facing a wall for at least seventeen hours a day. They are also forced to watch and read slanderous material. The labour camp assigns two inmates [non-practitioners] to monitor and constantly keep close watch on each of the practitioners. Practitioners are not allowed to move away from the spot where they sit. Even for eating and relieving themselves, they need to do it on the spot. Prison guards and inmates abuse practitioners regardless of their age. The random cursing and beating of practitioners are common. Practitioners who refuse to write a "repentance statement*" after two or three days of such torture are forced to stand facing the wall for even longer periods of time each day. If they still refuse to write it, they will be forced to stand with both of their arms stretched out and tied to the wall. I witnessed some practitioners being put into solitary confinement right after they arrived at the labour camp. They were handcuffed, and water was poured over their bodies and their beds.

*Repentance statement: In this statement the practitioner is forced to express remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

2. After the first month, practitioners will be sent to a team that is specialized in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. Those who persisted in practising Falun Dafa are subjected to scolding, kicking, electric shock, and being beaten with police batons. The prison police often call on inmates to beat up practitioners. After the beating, they further punish practitioners by forcing them to stand under the scorching sun, or to stand facing a wall. They even keep practitioners from sleeping at night.
3. I once witnessed twelve inmates taking turns torturing a practitioner who refused to participate in the prison exercise drills. They pinned the practitioner to the ground and tortured her in various ways. It turned out such incidents happen quite often. It is common that a practitioner's clothes are torn apart while she is being dragged and kicked on the ground. The practitioner's body would be covered with cuts and bruises afterwards. To make matter worse, they force the practitioner to stand from 6 am to midnight or even until 3 the next morning. I know some practitioners who were forced to stand like that for more than a month, and their jail terms were also increased for a few months. Prison guards even framed practitioners for beating other inmates.
4. Prison guards often consciously look for excuses to punish those Falun Dafa practitioners who refuse to give up the practice. They often force practitioners to stand under the scorching sun for ten days or up to two weeks. They also don't allow practitioners to brush their teeth, wash their faces, take showers, or change their dirty clothes. It does not matter if it is in the middle of a bitter winter, as long as it is not raining, prison guards can torture practitioners by forcing them to stand day and night outside where the wind blows the hardest. They limit the practitioners to using the toilet only twice a day. Even then, practitioners still need to plead for permission to go to the toilet. It is not unusual for practitioners to urinate or defecate in their clothes. As part of the torture, they force the practitioners to drink a glass of water every two hours. If they refuse, the prison guards will force feed them with dirty water and then stuff their mouths with dirty socks. I knew some practitioners who were tortured in this way for almost two months. Afterwards, they could not stand up straight and their bodies were covered with injuries.
5. Some practitioners were tortured for more than sixty days. They had less than twenty hours of sleep altogether and spent most of the time standing. As a result, their calves swelled so badly that they were bigger than their thighs. These practitioners all had blisters on their feet. Yellowish fluid came out when the blisters broke. If the practitioners dozed off while standing, jail guards would have inmates take turns dragging practitioners while they jog. If they fell to the ground, they would be severely beaten. Whenever an external inspector came and inspected the labour camp, all Falun Gong practitioners would be locked up inside so the inspector would find nothing wrong.
6. Other torture methods include forcing practitioners to stand by a wall during the day and to stand in the middle of a field at night. Also, they do not allow practitioners to sit or even crouch down when they are eating. Some practitioners were punished by being forced to eat standing next to the toilet surrounded by maggots. I knew some practitioners who were forced to stand over 21 hours a day in the middle of the winter, and they were all over fifty years old. Some of them did not sleep for more than two months straight.
7. The labour camp often puts practitioners into solitary confinement. To make things worse, they handcuff the practitioners in various torturous positions. Sometimes they hang the practitioners by the handcuffs. Sometimes they cuff both hands behind the back and then hang the practitioner. Or, they cuff the practitioner's hands behind her back with one of her arms over the shoulder while the other arm against her lower back. To increase the pain, they sometimes stuff a blanket between the practitioner's back and hands. They sometimes cuff the practitioner's hands and feet together so that they won't be able to move at all.
8. Prison guards instigate inmates to beat or scold practitioners at will. They sometimes force practitioners to swallow inmate's spit. I knew a practitioner who had gallstones and was not able to eat. The prison guards ordered inmates to force-feed her; they claimed she was pretending to be ill. Later on, doctors diagnosed her as having gallstones. But, she was so underweight the hospital did not dare operate on her. If a practitioner does not have any money in her account, the prison guards will not take her to a hospital at all.
9. In order to brainwash practitioners, I witnessed prison guards stripping practitioners and forcing them to stand outside in the middle of winter for two hours. I also saw inmates making obscene gestures and stuffing foreign objects into practitioners' vaginas. They also forced practitioners to mimic their gestures and they beat up those practitioners who refused. In order to humiliate the practitioners, they dragged them in front of mirrors without any clothes on.
10. I knew some practitioners who had been in the labour camp for more than a year, and they spent most of their time in solitary confinement. They were forced to sleep on the floor and they were often beaten and handcuffed. The prison guards forced one of the practitioners to sit cross-legged; they then tied up her feet and left her sitting in that position on the cold floor in the middle of winter for a long period of time. Now one of her legs is crippled.
11. The jail police constantly look for new ways to torment Falun Dafa practitioners. They often force practitioners to slander Dafa and the Teacher, or to write statements of breaking off from Falun Dafa and the Teacher. Those who refuse are physically abused. They also increase practitioners' jail terms-- some by eight months. Some practitioners were not released even three or four months after they had completed their sentences.
12. Every few days, in the middle of the night, the prison guards organize inmates to drag Falun Dafa practitioners outside and beat them up. I witnessed many practitioners who suffered permanent injuries to their backs, legs, and faces. The police work very hard to force practitioners to give up Falun Dafa because they get a few thousand yuan as a bonus for each successful case. [500 yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.]
13. All practitioners suffered from swollen feet and legs after being forced to stand for long periods of time. In severe cases, swelling even occurred in the abdominal area. Many practitioners' feet were frostbitten, and broken blisters with pus oozing out were very common. Some practitioners could not walk after the punishment. The police sometimes put stacks of newspaper on top of practitioners' heads and between their legs while they are standing. If the paper falls, they will beat the practitioner.
14. I saw a practitioner whose hands were cuffed behind her back. Two people pressed her shoulder and head down. Another person used an electric baton to shock the top of her head. They were also beating and kicking her at the same time. She was beaten into unconsciousness and now has permanent injuries to her back and chest.

These are either my own personal experiences or incidents that I witnessed. I did not see many other practitioners' horrible experiences because they were confined separately on the third floor.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/19/67929.html