Wanjia Forced Labour Camp: The Cruel Torture of Women Practitioners Continues

Like thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners, I have endured the last five years of hardship in tremendous adversity, having been abducted several times, illegally detained, and forced to pay extortion totalling more than 6000 yuan (1). The most severe of these arrests was in April 2002, when I was abducted on the way to my relative's home. The local police department sent me to the "transformation" (2) centre in Wanjia Women's Forced Labour Camp in July 2002. I suffered inhumane persecution there. Both my mind and body were severely tested.

Being in the transformation centre of Wanjia Forced Labour Camp is like going to hell. The prison intensified the persecution gradually. In the beginning, they forced us to sit on plastic stools arranged in rows. The prison guards ordered prisoners to watch over us from 5:00 a.m. until midnight. We were forced to sit in one position without moving all day long. Even our eyes were not allowed to move. If we were not careful and tried to move to alleviate the pain, we would be brutally beaten. After sitting like this for fifteen days, everyone had sores and blistered infections on their legs and hips. Sensing that they could not realize their goal of forcing us to give up cultivation, the prison guards then forced us to do manual labour. They made us work for three days and three nights without sleep.

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhang Jifang from Harbin City fainted and fell to the floor as a result of a relapse of her heart disease and high blood pressure after she was severely hurt in the persecution. The prison guards and the criminal prisoners, however, beat and kicked Zhang Jifang, claiming she was pretending to be ill. When they could not break the will of the practitioners, they would increases the pressure by using cruel tortures such as the Big Hang Up (3), electric batons, and the iron chair. In September 2002, the prison guards again made us sing the so-called "team song," slandering and defaming Falun Dafa. Ms. Ning Shuxian and I refused to sing with the group. Prison guards Zhao Yuqing and Yao Fuchang again took us to the torture room and shocked us with electric batons. With everyone's resistance, the prison guards had to relent and they dispensed with the team song.

On October 1, 2002, I was transferred to Team Twelve. The team head, Guo Qiuli, was given an award for his persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners.

During the Chinese Lunar New Year 2003, Guo Qiuli persuaded the collaborators (4) into writing letters of praise to his supervisor at the Bureau of Justice, taking credit and obtaining awards for himself. Then he had all the practitioners in the brigade sign jointly. There were sixteen of us who refused to sign the letter, since we believe that those who persecute practitioners are criminals who should be punished by the law.

Guo Qiuli was outraged and furious as a result of our refusal to sign. He began trying to brainwash the sixteen of us. When brainwashing did not work, he used the collaborators to torture us steadfast practitioners, handcuffing our hands behind our backs, making us squat, and depriving us of sleep. Wanjia Forced Labour Camp also used practitioners for slave labour, forcing them to work from 6:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. We had to take the work to our cells to finish at night without sleep if we could not finish it during the day. The extreme workload caused our health to severely deteriorate. Finally, we came down with illnesses as a result of excessive work. When I was seriously ill, every day I would recite silently Falun Dafa teachings, based on what I could remember. My health gradually recovered.

After I was weak and could no longer work, the head of Team Twelve transferred me again to the transformation centre, which was controlled by two brutal and ruthless prison guards, Zhao Yuqing and Yao Fuchang. They were hired thugs, sent to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp by the public security department in Harbin City to persecute practitioners.

Ms. Zhang Chunyu was detained and subjected to brainwashing in Team Twelve during the Chinese Lunar New Year 2004 for her firm belief in Falun Gong. While she was detained there, a group of five prison guards headed by Guo Qiuli took turns beating her because she clarified the truth to the supervisors. Her body was covered with injuries from the beating. They transferred her to the transformation centre and separated her from others in order to cover up their crimes. In April 2004, Zhang Chunyu was tortured with the Big Hang Up for 26 days without sleep for reading Teacher's article. The prison guards even put the electric baton into her mouth and shocked her mouth until she could not open it. Her whole face was distorted. She has been grossly disfigured from the torture and can no longer take care of herself. She has to depend on fellow practitioners as well as prisoners to look after her. Wanjia Forced Labour Camp, however, still hasn't released her.

On May 12, 2004, the transformation centre held a so-called exam on reciting the rules. The last three rules were added to the list by the centre with the evil intention of targeting Falun Gong. More than ten of us practitioners refused to recite them.

Prison guard Yao Fuchang placed me in a small room, held up his arm and with his full force hit me in the face straight from his shoulder repeatedly. I could hear my brain banging inside my skull. Then Yao Fuchang kicked me with his leather shoes. When Yao Fuchang became exhausted, he went out to take a break and then returned to beat me again after he came back. I was extremely weak after two years of such inhumane torture. I could not straighten my back, and my legs were too weak to walk after such a cruel beating. Yao Fuchang, however, ordered the criminal prisoners to hang me up. When practitioner Ms. Li Hongmei told them with compassion how Falun Dafa is good while resisting their evil actions, they forced the electric baton into her mouth. Li Hongmei's throat and neck immediately became swollen and disfigured.

In this manner, Wanjia persecuted those of us who were over fifty years old. There were even practitioners that were over seventy years of age. We were forced to do extremely hard slave labour. In the summer we had to sit or crawl to work in the vegetable fields of Wanjia Forced Labour Camp. Otherwise, we were either beaten or cursed.

The prison guards' persecution against us was not only limited to these actions. Their persistent policy toward practitioners is that if beatings do not achieve their goal, then death of the practitioner is acceptable.

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhang Hong is from Harbin City. She was illegally detained in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp on July 22, 2004, and tortured to death after only nine days. She was only 26 years old. Zhang Hong went on a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention and suffered a brutal beating. The prison guards handcuffed her to the bedstead to torture her with the Big Hang Up. She was deprived of sleep and use of the washroom. Yao Fuchang and other prison guards force-fed her with large amounts of strong, salty water and then put her in a non-ventilated and small, dark cell. She was not allowed to drink any water, and nobody was allowed to walk close to her. Zhang Hong died from being poisoned by the salt solution she was force-fed.

Ms. Yu Yuejin, 45 years of age, was from Qinhuangdao and lived in Harbin City. She was detained in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp because she practised Falun Dafa. Her two-year-old daughter was taken from her and put into a childcare centre. Yu Yuejin could not eat or sleep because she missed her daughter so much. She became extremely weak and often lost consciousness. Once she fainted on the playground and her head was injured. The prison guards locked her in the transformation centre where practitioners were most cruelly persecuted. She suffered repeated beatings, and she was cursed and forced to sit on the "tiger bench" (5) for three days and nights without sleep. She was tortured and lost consciousness several times and then was sent to the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp hospital. After she came out of the hospital, she was so weak that she could not get out of bed for a long time. The prison guards separated her from other practitioners and put her in a small, dark room alone so as to cover up their crimes. We sincerely hope that everyone who learns this news will hold out your helpful hands to save those Falun Dafa practitioners illegally persecuted so that Yu Yuejin can be reunited with her daughter.

Practitioner Meng Fanyan and her sister are from Yagou, Heilongjiang Province. They were illegally detained in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in September 2004. They refused to sign the "Three Statements" (6) because they believe strongly in Falun Dafa. On October 18, prison guard Bao Yuen and others moved the two sisters to the torture room while other practitioners were working outside. They told the prisoners to put plastic bags over the heads of the two sisters and give them the Big Hang Up simultaneously. The prison guards shocked them with electric batons and beat them cruelly. They only stopped when the two sisters were on the verge of death.

All of these things happened during the period when Wanjia Forced Labour Camp was advocating a policy of "earnestly carrying out civilized execution of the law and striving to be a first class example of a civilized labour camp." Such an evil and ruthless institution, however, has received awards from its supervisory agency several times. On April 26, 2004, prison guard Yao said to another guard Wu after the Bureau of Justice had inspected Wanjia Forced Labour Camp, "Today, the Bureau of Justice took our ideological and political work experience away with them, so now our experience has become their experience."

Notes:

(1) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

(2) "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

(3) There are two forms of the Big Hang Up torture: (1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. One feels extreme pain as the body is pulled in opposite directions.

(4) "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

(5) "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

(6) "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/1/4/92821.html