A Letter from Dalian City Forced Labour Camp Reveals Persecution Facts

This letter from a Falun Dafa practitioner illegally held at the Dalian City Forced Labour Camp reveals the guards' and inmates' persecution of practitioners.

"Reforming" from late 2003 to early 2004

From October 27 to November 10, 2003, Liu Zongke, the head of Division No. 8, and division head and instructor Guo Peng, went to an annual meeting held in Changsha City, to discuss the systematic persecution of steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. The persecutors exchanged abuse, mistreatment, torment, and torture methods at the meeting and discussed how to best force practitioners to give up their beliefs. After they returned to the labour camp on November 10, labour camp head Hao Wenshuai, deputy head Zhang Ziliang, and Yao Shanggang, the head of the Disciplinary Inspection Committee, implemented and directed policies to systematically brainwash more than twenty steadfast practitioners by group and by session. They revised their previous methods of isolating practitioners and having collaborators [former Falun Gong practitioners who went astray after torture and brainwashing] "reform" the practitioners. Practitioners were often subjected to violence, corporal punishment, and forced to endure various torture instruments. The new method has been used since April 2003.

In order to cover up their crimes, the brainwashing classes are now held inside a new building on camp grounds. The main methods used include hanging practitioners up with cuffed hands for long periods of time, sleep deprivation, beating and kicking the practitioners if they nod off, and collaborators try to brainwash the practitioners by shocking them with electric batons, threatening to extend the practitioners' sentences, and force-feeding practitioners with alcohol who hold hunger strikes.

The "reform" began on December 15, 2003. Each group consisted of three practitioners, with each session lasting 15 days. Three sessions have been conducted, with nine practitioners in the classes. The third group of three practitioners was held in the new building for 28 days. They locked the practitioners in three separate rooms. They locked the practitioners by their cuffed hands between two beds with their arms vertical to their body and forced them to sit on small stools, forced them to wear heavy helmets, and deprived them of sleep. Two inmates watched each practitioner, and they beat and kicked the practitioner if he nodded off. The guards frequently checked up on the practitioners, and if they caught the practitioners sleeping, they would extend the inmates' sentences. Because of the punishment, the inmates watched the practitioners diligently, and didn't hesitate to physically abuse them. Labour camp head, the deputy head and the head of the Disciplinary Inspection Committee, often went to the new building to check on the practitioners, and sometimes gave orders to intensify the abuses and mistreatments.

One practitioner suffered the following tortures. On the first day, his hands were cuffed and stretched, and he was forced to sit on a stool and deprived of sleep. On the second day, the collaborators from the female division went to him and tried to brainwash him. On the third day, they intensified the abuses and forced the practitioner to stand instead of sit down. Three days later, the practitioner's feet were so swollen his anklebones were invisible. On the seventh day, the practitioner asked ten questions and the collaborators could not answer any of them, after which they gave up their attempt to "reform" the practitioner.

Yao Shanggang often talked to the practitioner, who said, "We didn't violate any policy or rules! Why do you torture Dafa practitioners?" Yao Shanggang said, "If I want to fix you, I don't need an excuse." When he saw the practitioner's black-and-blue feet, he said, "Another 24 hours of inactivity and your feet will be gone," yet he refused to un-cuff the practitioner. On the eighth day, instructor Jiang Tongjiu beat the practitioner and said, "I'll charge my electric batons and come back to teach you a lesson." He ordered inmates Li Yue and Yu Feng to brainwash him. Li Yue cuffed and hung the practitioner up while beating and kicking him. On the ninth day, they forced him to stand with his hands cuffed, but they didn't use an electric baton.

Practitioner Lin Weizhu hung up and scorched for a long time

On October 27, 2003, practitioners Lin Weizhu, Zhao Chuanhai, and Qu Fei wrote a letter to the authorities saying, "Falun Dafa is a righteous way, it's illegal to arrest Falun Gong practitioners. We demand that Falun Dafa's reputation be restored, and release all detained Dafa practitioners. We refuse to do slave labour for the forced labour camp and we will do the Dafa exercises in public!" The persecutors sent the three practitioners to the Strictly Controlled Division, where the practitioners were cuffed to bare beds made of several steel bars with no quilt or bedspread. The practitioners' hands are cuffed to the bed posts and their feet were off the ground, and the practitioners were hung up for at least two weeks. Later, they forced the practitioners to sit on a small stool between two beds and they were only permitted four hours of sleep each night. They were not allowed to wash their faces, shave, have a haircut, or change clothes. A thick layer of filth collected on their faces and their long beards make them look like cavemen.

On February 10, 2004, Lin Weizhu was in the third group of practitioners sent to the new building. In order not to let people see Lin Weizhu's long beard and filthy face, the perpetrators shaved his face, cut his hair, and allowed him to take a shower. In the 15 days of the brainwashing class, the persecutors hung him and didn't allow him to sleep, in addition to the cruelly beating him, all of which failed to make him give up his belief in Falun Dafa. They began another 15-day session, during which division head Liu Zhongke said, "We'll reform him, no matter what it takes!" As a result, the inmates burned his hands with cigarette lighter(s) and tightened the handcuff and shackles until they cut into his flesh. His hands and feet turned black and blue, and a depression would appear when someone pressed his skin. Inmate Pan Yunlong hit practitioner Lin Weizhu's face with rubber slippers until his face was covered with blood.

Lin Weizhu kept a calm and kind mind during the torture and the inmates were surprised and amazed. When asked whether he would reform, he said, "What's death? I'll practise Dafa for sure as long as I live!" The guards thought an ordinary person would not be able to endure such tortures or they could only endure it for a few days, while Lin Weizhu calmly endured all. They could not understand him, and planned to send him to a mental hospital. Lin Weizhu remained unmoved and the perpetrators didn't send him.

Because guards at the labour camp were transferred and re-positioned, the brainwashing sessions ended on March 9, 2004. All guards, inmates, and the third group of three practitioners were moved back to Division No. 8. Lin Weizhu is still in the Strictly Controlled Group because he is determined in his Falun Dafa practice, but he is allowed to sleep. Because of their "outstanding contribution," persecutor Guo Peng was promoted from division head to assistant to the labour camp head, and Jiang Tongjiu was promoted from instructor to the head of Division No. 8.

Hanging-up with arms and legs spread out - 40 days of sleep deprivation

In late 2003, 53-year-old practitioner Gong Fajiu was sent to the Strictly Controlled Group because he refused to do slave labour. At first, the persecutors made Gong Fajiu sleep on a bare bed, and cuffed his hands to the sides of bed. Thirteen days later, Gong Fajiu held a hunger strike to protest the persecution, and inmates made Gong Fajiu stand up, and cuffed him between two beds with each hand cuffed to the bed post on the respective side. They tortured him this way for an entire afternoon. Gong Fajiu vomited, his stomach convulsed, and he passed out.

It is a common occurrence that practitioners at Division No. 8 pass out from torture. On February 10, 2003, practitioner Sun Shizhen was tortured the same way as Gong Fajiu. After she lost consciousness, the inmates pinched her, and continued to torture her after she came to. Practitioner Qu Fei was tortured in the same way from late February 2003 to early March 2003, and his heart stopped beating. The perpetrators carried him to a hospital where he was treated for several days. Afterwards he had to pay the hospital bill. He was taken back to the labour camp after being discharged from the hospital. The inmates reported to the division head and cuffed him. They lowered his body so he could sit on a stool but still didn't allow him to sleep. They cuffed him for another 40 days. The inmates would wake him whenever he nodded off. Later, inmate Sun Zhonghu often hit and kicked practitioner Gong Fajiu's head. He took pleasure in beating Dafa practitioners.

According to reliable information, the decision to determine the extent of abuse and mistreatment practitioners are subjected to lies with the division heads. This includes whether or not the practitioners are permitted to sleep, and how many handcuffs are put on the practitioners. Liu Zhongke, the head of Division No. 8, and sub-division head Luo Xiaochen, both of whom have been transferred away, are responsible for these atrocities. They tried to make Gong Fajiu "admit his mistake and reform." Because of Dafa's power, Gong Fajiu didn't feel very tired, although he didn't sleep for 40 days. When the time of the Chinese New Year was near, they saw they were not going to achieve their goal, so they opened one of Gong Fajiu's handcuffs.

After the 2004 Chinese New Year, Gong Fajiu again held a hunger strike for one month, and the perpetrators force-fed him once daily. Before the force-feeding, inmates Li Yue and Yu Jingkang beat him. Sometimes the inmates grabbed his feet and turned him upside down. Then they threw him headfirst onto the floor. Other times they swept the floor and then brushed Gong Fajiu's face with the dirty broom.

Practitioner Liu Xiyong is 63 years old. In October 2003, inmate Hong Sheng cuffed one of Liu Xiyong's hands to the upper bunk, and his other hand to the lower bunk, so his hands were stretched in a very painful position. Liu Xiyong broke one handcuff. When he shouted, "Falun Dafa is great," inmate Chen Long knocked out two of his teeth and stuffed his mouth with a dirty rag. The perpetrators knocked out practitioner Shi Yueli's tooth with chopsticks in 2002.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/23/84823.html