Ms. Wu Guifang's Account of the Suffering She Endured in Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp

Compiled according to Ms. Wu Guifang's oral account

Introduction

Ms. Wu Guifang, in her 50's, is from Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. She was abducted and twice taken to the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp, where she experienced extremely cruel torture and brainwashing. In mid-August of 2004, she was tortured to the brink of death. Afraid of being held responsible, the labour camp authorities released her on medical parole. The two years of torture turned her into skin and bones. She was extremely weak and pale. She appears to be a different person compared to two years ago, when she was a healthy woman. Many people cannot even recognize her anymore.

The Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp is located in Baoding City in central Hebei Province. The labour camp is mainly used for illegal detention of Falun Gong practitioners from northern Hebei Province and the Beijing area.

This labour camp is notorious for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. It uses many vicious methods to torture people, such as burying them alive, using snakes to bite the practitioners, cutting their flesh with scissors, and burning their heads. The labour camp guards are brutal when beating the practitioners. They withhold the practitioners' allowances, as they only give them only 60 Yuan even though they are entitled to160 Yuan. They do not provide hot water. The practitioners are only given dry, stale and tough to chew steamed buns. No other food is provided. The practitioners are only given a small amount of soup. They are forced to do very heavy labour with an overextended work schedule, and they are sometimes only allowed four to five hours of sleep. To make extra money, the guards force the practitioners to work in the factories nearby as cheap labour. The following was compiled according to Ms. Wu Guifang's oral account.

1. My first time being sent to forced labour

Chicheng County in Hebei Province is one of those counties where the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is the most severe in the whole province or even in the whole country. I lived in Dongmao Township. The Township Party Committee Secretary Su You has done all kinds of evil things in the persecution. Su's plotting was the reason for my being sentenced to forced labour twice.

In 2000, I was sent to the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp for the first time. Division chief Wang slapped me on my face over 60 times because I refused to answer roll call. A few days before the 2001 New Year, guard Ma Li stripped me naked, cuffed me onto a heater radiator, and then used an electric baton to shock me in my mouth. Another time, division chief Hu woke me up while I was sound asleep and ordered me to write a Guarantee Statement to give up practising Falun Gong. When I refused, Hu then used an electric baton to shock me on my insteps.

During the 2001 Chinese Spring Festival, division chief Yang Zemin attempted to force me to give up Falun Gong. Yang took me into a room and forced me to stand against the wall, with my hands laid flat on a half-round table in front of me. Guard Zang Haili and another guard turned on the electric batons, which were emitting sparks, and then ordered me to hold the batons. On top of their beating me, they also wanted me to shock myself. I refused. The two guards then started to shock the backs of my hands. They also pulled up the collar of my clothes and shocked my neck. While shocking, they kept moving the batons back and forth, from my chin to my throat. They also shocked me in my mouth and moved the baton violently in my mouth. As a result, my mouth became swollen right away, and my lips were burned so badly that the oil came out from the flesh. There was also a lot of yellow fluid coming out of my mouth. They ordered me to open up my mouth to attempt to shock my tongue.

After torturing me for over two hours and seeing that I would not give in, they moved me to a bigger office, where they took off my shoes and socks. They ordered someone to hold on to my waist and have my legs straightened, then several people including division chief Hu, division chief Yang, team leader Ye, Zang Haili, Duan Guanghui and others took turns to shock the tops and bottoms of my feet. The electric batons kept discharging electricity to shock me. My insteps became badly injured and a lot of yellow fluid oozed from the wounds. Even today, there is still a walnut-sized scar on the instep of my right foot. The electric shocks resulted in a big hole on my left ankle, which affects my movement even today. Seeing me still refusing to give in, they used copper wire to tie up my hands and then shocked me with electricity generated from a hand-cranked electric telephone generator. I was tied up and could not move, and their shocking my head caused a large clump of my hair to fall out. Every guard who entered the cell where I was detained had the "right" to shock me. I became the target for them to vent their anger.

During the half-year alone, from January to June 2000, all the team leaders in the Gaoyang Labour Camp, without exception, had participated in torturing me.

In the last month of 2000 the guards took me out to the field over ten times. Inside an empty room, they cuffed me in a squatting position and left me there, exposed to the cold weather for a whole day and night. It was so cold that my legs and feet soon became swollen from frostbite. Once a guard took off my coat and threw it into the snow, and then used snowballs to hit me. I lay down on the snow and could not move. A guard said, "Why not throw her into a ditch! Then let her husband come to take her ashes!" Later they dragged me out of the snow and cuffed me inside a room with the window open, letting in the bone-chilling wind. Guard Wei Hongling and her boyfriend watched me being exposed to the cold weather for a day and a night, but I still refused to give in.

A few days later, division chief Wang, Ma Li, Liu Huili and team leader Wu handcuffed me outside, still trying to force me to give up Falun Gong. They called in two young men to torture me. Zang Haili and his accomplices, with each of them holding an electric baton, started to shock me on my lower back over twenty times. Every time they shocked me, they asked me, "Do you still practise or not?" I said, "Yes." They repeatedly shocked my lower back and my arms . They did not stop until they shocked me about a hundred times. My body was covered with wounds. My arms and hands were badly swollen. Many parts of my skin were black and blue.

One time when I shouted, "Falun Dafa is great!" several guards swarmed over to cover and scratch my mouth. The scabs on my mouth were scratched off, and that area kept bleeding. They dragged me to a big room in the factory and handcuffed me there. During the process, the blood kept dripping all the way on the snow-covered road. Now the scar on my lower lip is about three centimeters in size.

In January 2001, the staged act of the "Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation" occurred. Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp repeatedly broadcast this horrible farce. I said that Falun Gong practitioners follow "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" and would never commit suicide or kill others, and that the self-immolation was a frame-up. Team leaders Ma and Ye immediately used dirty socks to cover my mouth and two other practitioners' mouths. They also used scotch tape to seal our mouths, and the tape was not taken off from morning until noon.

One day in February, I washed my woollen sweater and hung it on a rod to let it air-dry. After I took it back, I found that my sweater had a strong petrol odour. Petrol is not allowed in the labour camp. The inmates do not have it. It must have been the team leaders who did this. I did not wear that sweater anymore. I wrapped it up and put it on my bed, so every day I just wore unlined garments. I am not afraid of death, but if the guard had taken me out and used me to stage a suicide tragedy like the "self-immolation," wouldn't it become an excuse for them to slander Falun Dafa and deceive people?

2. Sent to forced labour for the second time

In September 2002, just before the 16th National People's Congress, afraid that Falun Gong practitioners would go to Beijing to appeal, the officials of Chicheng County "610 Office" in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, more than ten people including Dongmao Township Police Station chief Mi Changshuai, township party secretary Su You and others, came to my home. They deceived my family by saying that they would take me to the township government to attend an "education class." They promised to take me back in the evening. A total of eleven Falun Gong practitioners, were taken to the Dongmao Township government. We were then sent to the Chicheng County Detention Centre. Our over a dozen Dafa practitioners were just given a half pot of food for each meal, which was only enough for three people to eat. We were only given one spoon. We had two meals each day and did not have enough to eat. One day at the end of October, they ordered us to sign our names on a document. When we asked the purpose, they said they did not know. Later we found out that we had already been sentenced to forced labour, although neither we nor our families were given a notification letter.

On October 31, 2002, Falun Gong practitioners and I were sent to the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp in the evening. When we were transferred that evening, we were told that we were being taken back home. Most of us were sentenced to three years of forced labour. We were told the terms of the sentence when the guards tortured us in the labour camp.

At noon on November 1, we were sent to the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp. Mr. Wu Xuyin was sent to the male team. Ten of us female practitioners were stripped and our quilts were taken out and examined. We were then asked to stand in line at the fourth floor to wait for their instructions. We were not allowed to squat or sit down. Most of us were over 50 years old. We stood there from morning until evening, after the guards finished their dinners. As soon as we squatted down, the guards would punch and kick us. In the evening, more than ten guards came to a room, carrying seven to eight electric batons.

They interrogated us one by one, trying to force us to give in. After that, they started to torture the practitioners. Several of them shocked Ms. Wu Shouzhi and made her lose consciousness. They then grabbed her and pulled her up, and continued the shocking. Other practitioners were not allowed to witness the torture, so we could only hear Ms. Wu's screams. When the guards heard that the practitioners did not give up their cultivation, they would punch and kick the practitioners, and shocked them with electric batons. The electric batons kept sparking. The noises from the guards' frenzied beating and kicking and the practitioners' miserable screams filled the air.

While I was detained there for the second time, the guards became even more vicious. Two practitioners from my hometown who were sent to the labour camp at the same time when I was sent there became mentally disoriented from the torture.

In May 2003, during the SARS epidemic, the guards took my photo. While I was detained there the first time in 2000, the torture deformed my face. My chin was burned and had turned black, and there were scars on my lips, so they did not want to take the photo. The photo taken this time was used for documentation for my previous detention during the winter. They did it this way to deceive people. It was then already very hot in May. But when the guards took my photo, they forced me to wear a cotton-padded coat and pants and sit in front of a fire pan. They also covered the front of my body with a cotton-lined quilt. Division chief Wang and Ma Li stood by me, showing an expression of being very concerned about me. Guard Yang Zemin took the photo.

I could not endure the subsequent physical and mental torture, which became increasingly brutal, and I gave in. I wrote the "guarantee letter" to not practise Falun Gong. After that, my life became agonizing. During the 2004 New Year, the guards ordered us to answer questions on paper, and many of us wrote down our positive understanding of Falun Gong.

Most practitioners who had been "Reformed" under the pressure of the labour camp wrote down their solemn declarations of "determinedly practising cultivation in Falun Dafa." The leaders and guards of the labor camp became exasperated, since they could not report this to their boss. They frenziedly tortured the practitioners to vent their anger.

A new round of torture started. The practitioners were tortured one by one. The guards tied the practitioners' hands and feet with wire, and then used a hand-cranked electric telephone to generate electricity to shock the practitioners. The guards shocked the practitioner with several electric batons at the same time. They took a practitioner to a field and then buried her. She was not dug up until she was almost suffocated to death. The guards put snakes, scorpions and geckos into the practitioner's clothes, or put these poisonous creatures on the practitioner's body and then used electric batons to shock the creatures. During the torture, the guards clamoured, "We'll conquer all of you in ten days."

Before the 2004 Spring Festival, practitioner Liu Yuzhen, who was in the Fifth Team, was the first one who was taken out for torture. Liu is from Qinghe in Beijing. After the electric shocking, she could not move. In the evening, the guards did not dare to bring her back to the Fifth Team and took her to the Fourth Team instead. Next day she was sent to the Gaoyang Hospital for treatment. She recovered a little after three days. Practitioner Liu Yanxiang, who is from Tangshan City, Hebei Province was the next one to be tortured. The guards used knives to cut her body and used a cigarette lighter to burn her forehead.

I was also tortured very badly. After the torture I had to lie on the bed for over twenty days. One day when I recited Hongyin [a collection of poems by Teacher Li], the guards carried me to the torture room in the second floor, which had all kinds of torture implements. On the door and the wall were the paintings that slandered our Teacher. Drawings of human skulls were everywhere. I was not afraid of them, demanding them to take down the paintings that slandered Teacher. The guards frenziedly beat, cursed and humiliated me. The dragged me from the second floor to the yard and then handcuffed me to a flag post. I was left there until late in the night.

Several days later the guards came to me, showing unusual politeness, and asked me to go out with them. Inmate Wang Shaojie and another inmate who stayed in the same cell as I did led me to the west building. Once I entered the door, they put my hands on the door and took off my shoes and socks. Guard Wei Hongling's husband used an electric baton to shock me on the tops and bottoms of my feet. Wang Shaojie also took an electric baton and shocked me on my mouth, which made my mouth very swollen. After torturing me for over one hour, they dragged me out and handcuffed me to a post. I did not know why I was shocked, and the guard did not tell me the reason.

During that period of time, the labour camp forced us to fold handkerchiefs. Some practitioners wrote down on paper slips how I had been tortured and then put the slips into the handkerchiefs, hoping to send the information out and get the public's support. The guards discovered this and made the practitioners re-do all the handkerchiefs that had already been folded, since they were scared that the persecution was going to be known by people outside the labor camp. As a result, the work could not be finished in time. The guards vented all their anger on me.

One day I asked division chiefs Yang and Ma Li when the government would redress the Falun Gong case and release all the Falun Gong practitioners. Guard Yang Zemin ordered Wang Shaojie, Wei Hongling and others to handcuff me to the flag post. Guard Zhao Yuan kicked me on my mouth many times. I was handcuffed there for one day.

The guards were very cruel. Every time after they finished torturing us, the practitioners were always very weak and could not work, and had to be carried back. Observing the long-time cruel torture, I made my determination to use my life to resist the labour camp in their committing crimes.

On May 15, I declared that I started a hunger strike, demanding the guards to stop handcuffing and beating the practitioners, to give the labour camp detainees the treatment that they are legally entitled to, and release all of the Falun Gong practitioners. After the hunger strike had gone over twenty days, the guards started to force-feed me. Twice per day, guard Wei Hongling handcuffed me onto the bed, saying, "For whichever day you do not eat, you will be handcuffed on that day. You will be handcuffed until you resume eating."

One day in June I refused to cooperate with the force-feeding. Division chief Wang kicked me on my left leg, and that area became black and blue and swollen. The swollen area was as big as the opening of a bowl. Several days later, guard Huang Bao used an electric baton to shock me on my swollen area, and as a result, a gaping hole appeared in the swollen area and kept bleeding. Later, that area formed a four-centimeter scar.

By July, my hunger strike had already lasted over 50 days. I was extremely weak and only skin and bones. My heart, intestines and stomach became to shut down. Seeing this, the labour camp ordered Duan Guanghui and Li Yanji to inform my family members and told them to come to see me. They required my family members to persuade me to resume eating or take me out on a medical parole. My family members took the certificate for medical parole to Dongmao Township party secretary Su You and asked him to stamp it with an official seal. Su You refused. My family members did not know what to do next while my condition was becoming worse every day. My family members travelled back and forth and experienced a lot of hardships before they finally got the seal.

On August 12, my family finally got me out of the den of evil. That afternoon, the section-level leaders in the labor camp held a meeting "to learn new instructions from top officials." I saw that several practitioners were taken out. Before long, I heard their cries of pain. In the evening, two guards carried the practitioners back. Before I left, I witnessed yet another miserable tragedy.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/18/84465.html