Cruel Treatment of Practitioners at Women's Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province

Team 5 of the No.1 Women's Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province is a special unit in the camp. In December 2003, it was restructured to confine criminals and steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. It has since been called the "Maximum Security Team." Team head Wang Shuzhen often instigated the prisoners to be cruel to practitioners. Wang Shuzhen often led prison guards to tempt the criminal prisoners by promising them to reduce their prison terms, and instigated them to maltreat and humiliate practitioners.

Team leader Wang Shuzhen often found excuses to persecute the steadfast practitioners. They did not give these practitioners food and did not let them sit. Practitioners were forced to stand from 6 a.m. until mealtime to clean the ward, and they were not able to finish cleaning until past 10 p.m. at night. The guards often did not let practitioners eat their meals, and they never gave them meat or vegetables. They forced the practitioners who were deprived of sleep to sit on small wooden stools less than 10 centimeters high, that had been made as torture objects for the practitioners. The practitioners were extremely weak due to the torture. The bodies of some practitioners became swollen. In order to conceal the torture evidence of each practitioner, Wang Shuzhen did not let the practitioners go to the toilet for fear that the information would be disclosed.

Since March 2004, Team 5 escalated the physical and mental torture against Falun Gong practitioners. They isolated the determined practitioners in the interrogation room on the first floor and pressured them to give in to the brainwashing. Unlike the previous torture rounds, the prison guards inflicted the tortures themselves. Wang Yueyao led the guards to repeatedly torture the practitioners day and night with various brutal means to break the practitioners' spirits.

They handcuffed one of the practitioners' hands high on the heating pipes, forced them to stand day and night, and deprived them of sleep. As a result, their feet became swollen. The guards did not care about them as long as they remained alive. They forced the practitioners to watch slanderous videos attacking Falun Dafa and Teacher Li. In addition, the room was filled with vicious verbal remarks, slogans, and lies.

The sanitation in the forced labour camp was deplorable. In order to tightly block the information, the guards did not let practitioners go to the toilet. The criminal prisoners were also forced to use the toilet in the ward, which was kept locked. There was no table so they ate their meals on the floor. During summer, they were not allowed to open the window or turn on the electric fans except when they were using the toilet. If they forgot to close the window after each use, the prisoners would be criticized. The guards threatened to reduce their points and extend their prison terms, and also threatened to open the window and turn on the electric fans in the winter.

Falun Dafa practitioners were forced into heavy slave labour under poor conditions, making shoes. They were forced to work from 6 a.m. until past 10 p.m. at night. The night shift was from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next morning. They had to finish the meal within 10 minutes. They had no breaks at all. Practitioners worked and slept in the same room. The toxic gas permeated the room but they were not allowed to open the window. Some practitioners got headaches from inhaling the hazardous gas emitted from the glue. Some were allergic to the substances and had blisters on their hands. When they ate, they tasted glue. They were confined in the room 24 hours each day.

As long as the practitioners persisted in practising Falun Gong, the guards did not let them brush their teeth or wash themselves. They could only take a 10-minute shower once every 40 or 50 days with about 7 or 8 people sharing a half-barrel of hot water. They were not allowed to wash their underclothes or socks. As a result, they had to remain barefoot most of the time. The guards forced the practitioners to collect money to buy cleaning products and other items to clean the ward and toilet.

Their standard of living was very poor. Practitioners living allowance was only 10 yuan per month and sometimes less, compared to the criminal prisoners' 20 yuan per month. The guards gave the money deducted from the practitioners to the prisoners who obeyed and could easily be manipulated.

In the dormitory building of Team 5, there was a solitary confinement cell and a so-called Psychological Consultation Room. They used these two places to torture practitioners. The solitary confinement cell was about 8 square meters without any windows. It had a big iron chair, an iron pole on the wall and sometimes a bed. Some practitioners who persisted in their belief of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" were brutally tortured here.

Persecution Cases

1. Jia Quanmei - Because she persisted in practising Falun Gong, Jia Quanmei was locked up in a solitary confinement cell in Team 5 for over 40 days in early 2004. She was forced to stand and deprived of sleep. She was handcuffed extremely tight until her bones were nearly exposed. She was also forced to wear shackles, which caused her feet to swell. After that, the guards forced her to sit on an iron chair and tied her to it. They did not give her food but required her to buy crackers and water. She was allowed to have two meals per day and was not given enough food. The guards soaked the crackers in dirty water that they had used to wash apples and added a handful of salt. Such vicious acts were carried out when team leader Wang Shuzhen force-fed Jia Quanmei twice with dirty water even, though she did not go on a hunger strike at all. They also twisted her neck badly. As a result, she was unable to move.

After she was released from the solitary confinement cell, Jia Quanmei became very weak. She was then locked separately in a room with two criminal prisoners, monitoring her. Under the instigation of a guard, a criminal pressed Jia Quanmei's head into a commode and forced her to drink urine. They did not stop the torture until Jia Quanmei raised the commode and covered her head with it. Even under such circumstances, Liu Xia ferociously threatened Jia that they had more brutal means to torture her. Between April and August, team leader Wang Shuzhen beat Jia Quanmei four times a month, and sometimes 4 times a day whenever she was dissatisfied.

2. Zhang Fuxiang - In August 2004, she was taken from the team to the Interrogation Room set up by the guards. In September, she was locked up in Team 5 solitary confinement cell. At the end of September, she was sent back to the team with guards specifically assigned to watch her. During this time, Zhang Fuxiang was handcuffed, tied and hung up over 20 days. They did not untie her, even when she had to use the toilet or when she was menstruating. She was given only a small bun each day without any vegetables. The guards put on an audiotape that they had recorded by ordering the criminal prisoners to knock on the metal objects while they cursed, slandered and shouted in the background. The guards forced Zhang Guixiang to constantly listen to the tape by putting earphones on her with the volume turned to the highest setting. They did not let her sleep during that torture session. The guards from Team 5 made copies of these tapes and sent them to the Provincial Jail and Wangcun Forced Labour Camp. They promoted the so-called torture experience and claimed this method was very effective.

The political assistant of Team 5, Wang Yueyao, used electric batons to shock Zhang Fuxiang's teeth. She still refused to give in to the forced brainwashing. A physical exam showed that Zhang Fuxiang had massive extravagated blood in her heart. She was on the verge of death. In order to shirk their responsibility, they sent Zhang Fuxiang back to the team. The people had viciously thrown her quilts and clothes away. They did not give her a spoon so she had to eat with her hands.

The guards did not let anyone visit the other teams for fear their evil deeds would be exposed.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/12/13/91320.html