Atrocities at the Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin

At Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin City, Falun Dafa practitioners detained in the 5th group were forced to do the most filthy and labour intensive jobs. They were also insulted and abused continuously by the prison guards and criminals.

The main job at Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp is to grade and sort dried beans. Steadfast practitioners, some over 70 years old, were forced to carry 50 - 60 kg (1 kg = 2.2 lb) bags of seed, and they were forbidden to stop and rest or to help each other. Each day the practitioners were forced to perform the most filthy and disgusting tasks. When everyone finished the day's work, some were tortured, being forced to stand in a painful position until midnight or later. Criminal inmates, on the other hand, were allowed to rest. Practitioners were monitored 24 hours a day and forbidden to communicate with each other; even a glance would incur beatings and other abuse.

In March 2003, the labour camp initiated an intensive round of persecution in its 5th group, trying to force practitioners to give up Falun Gong. A brainwashing class was set up with the group heads in charge. To carry out the intensive persecution, the group heads assigned several people to gang up on each practitioner and torture them. Collaborators also tried to confuse the steadfast practitioners with deviated understandings. They dared to insult Falun Dafa and Teacher Li openly. When words did not work, they joined the others in torturing the practitioners physically. Many practitioners were forced to stand in the "flying the airplane" position in which the legs are straight and the back and head is bent down while the arms pointing upwards behind the back. Practitioners were beaten with wooden sticks if they moved. Some practitioners were injected with nerve-damaging drugs and other drugs, and the abusers continued to insult and slander Teacher's picture.

During this time, the most steadfast practitioners were confined to small cells. The cells were 1 meter wide and 2 meters long, without any windows. There were two doors to get in. Inside, the door was made of iron. When the light was switched off, it was pitch dark. The cell was so isolated from the outside that no one could hear anything coming from inside, not even the loudest screams of agony. The cell walls were full of pictures that slandered Teacher. Sometimes the prison guards would strip practitioners' naked while insulting Teacher with the most abusive words. The guards also employed drug addicts to torture the practitioners.

Practitioners were not allowed to go outside once they were confined in the cells. Some of them were so cruelly tortured that they were hardly recognizable, with half of their hair pulled out and their faces badly swollen and bruised. It was in a small cell that practitioner Zhao Dewen from Tianjin City, was tortured to death.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/11/16/89323.html