Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp Deprives Falun Gong Practitioners of Their Basic Human Rights (Photo)

Human rights are not respected in Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp. The Falun Gong practitioners detained there are severely persecuted.

The labour camp has a rule stating, "Each team has to go to the toilet together at night." If someone felt unwell and could not get up to accompany the group, the rest would not be allowed to go to the toilet either. Once at night, several practitioners had a fever caused by the persecution and could not get up. Even so, guard Zhang Xiaodan refused to let us use the toilet. The practitioner who needed to go to the toilet had to stand outside the toilet and wait. The ninth team guard made a rule for people to get up at 4:00 a.m. to go to the toilet together. There were no exceptions, even if people had to go and it was just a few minutes before the allotted time.

These practitioners often felt too embarrassed to wake up all the other practitioners, yet they were too uncomfortable to sit or lie down. When the guards saw their miserable situation, they cursed the practitioners loudly. Usually, several people go together, monitored by one or two criminals. The practitioners were not allowed to talk to each other or close their eyes. Sometimes they could not go to toilet on time. When the guards were not in a good mood, they would intentionally postpone the time for the group to go to toilet. Moreover, they didn't allow people to have enough time for a bowel movement. Sometimes the guards did not let a practitioner to go to toilet just for talking. This resulted in practitioners sometimes having to relieve themselves in their pants.

The guards made it a point to not allow the practitioners to talk. Whenever someone talked, the guards often verbally abused the person and postponed their toilet use schedule or bed time, forced everyone on the team to remain standing, forced them to remain in the same position for long periods of time, or increased the labour intensity for the team.

Steamed bun made from mouldy wheat

On March 10, 2004, the labour camp cafeteria brought in a batch of mouldy whole-wheat flour, the colour of chocolate. Everyone experienced diarrhoea and/or vomiting after they ate the food. When the practitioners reported this, the guards said, "This batch of flour can be eaten up in around 20 days. Then we will change to a good one," but it lasted for over two months. The daily three meals were all plain soup without any oil. However, The menu board on the wall of the cafeteria listed meat, eggs and vegetables each month. Whenever the city officials came to inspect, the guards would clean the place up and improve the meals to give a false impression.

For those Dafa practitioners who refused to give in, the guards would abuse them with all kinds of brutal physical punishment, such as beating and scolding, sitting on a small bench (covered with enamel-insulated wire), shocking with electric batons, hitting with a police baton, backward cuffing (one hand from above one's shoulder and the other hand from below, and two hands cuffed together behind the back) and verbal abuse. For those practitioners who refused to shout out the camp slogans, the guards from the Ninth Team would slap them on the face, and punch and kick them. They would shock them with electrical batons, forbid them to wash, forbid them to eat and use other forms of physical and mental torment.

In addition, the guards intentionally left the six small screws a half-inch higher than the surface of the bench used for practitioners, and forced practitioners to sit on the exposed screws.

The guards tried to force practitioners to say bad things about the founder of Falun Gong. When the practitioners refused, guards would torture them with electric batons, police clubs, backward cuffing and rained punches and kicks on these practitioners. They even forbade them from going to the toilet. Someone's front tooth was knocked out, and another became incontinent because she was denied the use of the restroom. All those who didn't write a "weekly report" and refused to call out the camp slogans were subjected to this sort of torture.

The guards would also force us to keep our eyes open. Whoever was found to have her eyes closed would experience a round of beating and verbal abuse, without exception. The guards made their own regulations that whoever was the last one coming out from the toilet had to buy melon seeds for them. If one refused, they would steal vouchers from that practitioner to buy melon seeds themselves. When the practitioner pointed out that this was unfair, Li Xiujin would beat this practitioner, using "bad attitude" as an excuse. Once, with a very low voice, Fei Jinrong asked for a small spoon from others in the cafeteria, but Sun Hui still caught her. He forced Fei Jinrong to buy melon seeds for him. Fei Jinrong refused, and guard Sun Hui threw Fei Jinrong's spoon and chopsticks onto the ground and shouted at her, "Who let you talk? As long as I am on duty, I will watch you every day!"

Deng Yingchun said one sentence in very low voice. Guard Sun Hui heard it and ordered her to buy melon seeds. Deng refused. Sun Hui took the melon seeds from the grocery store personally and forced Deng to use her voucher to pay for them. Guard Li Xiujin also openly snatched commissary vouchers from practitioners Zheng Yingchun, Su Yanhua, Fei Jinrong and Bao Lixia to buy melon seeds. Once Tong Li said a word in low voice at the dining table, and guard Sun Hui heard it. When Tong refused to buy him melon seeds, Sun Hui suddenly grabbed Kang Aimin's voucher, who was next to Tong Li, to buy melon seeds. Kang said, "I didn't say anything. Why did you take my voucher?" Sun replied, "You two are friends. You have to buy if Tong Li doesn't."

Practitioners were forced to work over ten hours everyday. If someone closed her eyes and was caught, guards Liu Yadong, Li Xiujin, Gao Jie, Wang Xiurong and others would increase the workload, justifying their decision by saying that there was too much idle time. If practitioners could not finish the work, they had to work extra hours. Those in poor health and those who could not work had to accompany the others in doing the extra work. Malnutrition and highly intense labour had made many practitioners ill. Even so, the workload was not reduced. Practitioners were often accused of being lazy, even though they were too exhausted to get up sometimes. Practitioners were frequently subjected to gross abuse and torment such as beatings with a police baton, backward cuffing, electric baton shocks, and being kicked. Even when they were so badly injured that they could not work, the guards still forced them to work. When they simply could not work any more, the guards punished them by having their terms extended. All of the practitioners mentioned above had their terms extended.

Illegal body and baggage search by the labour camp guards was a routine occurrence. If Teacher's new articles were found when practitioners were subjected to a body or baggage search, the guards would punish them by backward cuffing, beating with fists and kicking in addition to term extension. Whoever said that Falun Dafa was good would have their term extended. They often threw practitioners' bedding and personal belongings everywhere.

When writing letters to their family, practitioners could only write some words of greeting. The guards would subject these letters to an inspection. Team leaders stated that no one was allowed to report the true situation in the camp to their family, including things about food and lodgings. No one was allowed to mention the beatings and the guards' verbal abuse against practitioners, and practitioners were also forbidden to write about their poor health as a result of the persecution.

The guards created conflicts between practitioners and the criminal inmates, and incited the inmates' hatred for Falun Gong. When it was getting cold, practitioners requested to have the warehouse opened to change clothes. Guard Sun Hui said, "If Ms. Fei is the last one out after the shower, I will not open the warehouse." Practitioner Fei Jinrong was an older person. It was difficult for her to keep up with others. It so happened that Ms. Fei was the last one out. Guards verbally abused Fei Jinrong. They threw basins all over the ground and slapped her on the face. They taunted, "All of you should complain to Fei. Because of her, today we will not open the warehouse." So, the warehouse was not opened that day. If practitioners changed beds, talked or closed their eyes, they would extend the term of criminals in the same shift, making them hate and beat practitioners. Backward cuffing was an excruciatingly painful procedure. Almost all of the practitioners were subjected to it. Some even had to endure this six or seven times. In addition to having one arm pulled over the shoulder and the other arm brought up from behind the back, both arms were cuffed together to a bed rail. Being cuffed this way, one could not sit straight or lie down. The cuffs dug into the flesh around the wrists. After only a few minutes, one's hands would turn black and blue, and would go numb and cause intense pain. The guards would beat the practitioners who were being punished with backward cuffing and verbally abuse them.

The guards would also force-feed whoever went on hunger strike to protest the persecution. They didn't even stop when someone's mouth was bleeding. Some people's teeth were knocked out. It was unbearably painful.

The practitioners detained in Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp appeal to kind people and human rights organizations all over the world, please help safeguard freedom of belief and put an end to the persecution!

Partial phone list of related persons in Jiamusi City (Dial country+ area code, 86-454 before the 7-digit phone numbers below)

City Political and Judiciary Committee

Qu Zhenyuan 8223490; 8661798

Song Jinhe (City Police Department Head) 8231786; 8225155

"610 Office"

Liu Yan 8668615; 8227116; 86-13304549777 (mobile)

Zhang Ketong 8660671; 8696265; 86-13945486234 (mobile)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/3/80873.html