Methods Used to Persecute Practitioners at Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing

Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing is notorious for its brutality and hypocrisy. Many cruel means have been used to persecute practitioners over the past several years, in efforts to "transform¹" them. To the public, it claimed that its "education" style was "like life-giving spring breezes and showers." This so-called "education" is in fact a retinue of cruel torture and brainwashing. Authorities at Tuanhe use inmate "helpers," "enduring eagle" (sleep deprivation), threats, physical abuse, enforced sitting, hard labour, and other methods to persecute practitioners to get them to recant their beliefs.

For example, practitioner Mr. Li Jingsheng died due to brutal treatment and physical abuse. When he was alive, he suffered cruel torture due to his refusal to "transform," even though he had congenital heart disease, from which he could have died at anytime. During the 2004 Chinese New Year holiday, a practitioner from Mayan County was quickly tortured to death because he exclaimed "Falun Dafa is great" during a flag raising ceremony. Because they refused to "transform," practitioners Wen Jizhong and Zhang Jiuhai were in solitary confinement in the training team for a long time.

Many drug addicts are held in Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp. Fights over opium break out from time to time amongst them. Right after the 2003 Chinese New Year, deputy warden Li Aiming and the Seventh Division chief were relieved of their duties because of a group fight over opium. They were also active participants in persecuting practitioners. Soon after the big fight, the inmates who smoked opium were forced to become so-called "helpers" to monitor practitioners' activities. In effect, prison guards hired the garbage of the society to help them commit their atrocities. Some of the "helpers" were responsible for reporting practitioners' activities to the prison guards and torturing practitioners. Because of this, some practitioners suffered permanent physical injuries. Practitioner Li Xiangling, almost 70 years old, was held by his collar and kicked. Because the "helpers" watched and abused practitioners, they didn't have to work in the fields and earned "extra credit." Some of them, however, began to understand Dafa and expressed interest in learning it after practitioners told them facts of Falun Dafa. Some were sent back to their former teams to stamp nails because they were not strict enough and didn't meet the prison guards' requirements.

Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp authorities use the following ways to persecute Falun Gong practitioners:

1. "Enduring eagle" or sleep deprivation. They use this tactic when their arguments are losing ground and when they see that practitioners do not believe in their lies.
2. Solitary confinement. Practitioners are isolated. Nobody, including "helpers," is allowed to speak with them. They try to make practitioners suffer the pain of loneliness.
3. Threats. The prison authorities tell practitioners repeatedly that their sentences will be extended if they don't recant their beliefs. In addition, they are not allowed to see or call their family members.
4. Using family members. If practitioners refuse to "transform," the prison guards abuse them verbally. They say that practitioners are heartless and don't even want to take care of their parents, wives or children. They then slander Falun Dafa. Even though the prison authorities have already deprived the practitioners of visiting privileges, at this time they invite their parents, wives and children to speak with them while in tears, and even hint that the family members should kneel down to them to beg them to change their mind.
5. Physical abuse. Initially, many prison guards physically abused practitioners. After their crimes were exposed, they encouraged inmates to abuse practitioners. The former deputy chief of the Second Division Ni Zhixiong, was an expert at this. Practitioners Wang Zhenbao, Li Xin, and Yang Hui all experienced repeated abuse from inmates.
6. Sending practitioners to the Training Team. The prison guards find excuses to send practitioners, "transformed" or not, to the Training Team.
7. Forced sitting. Some practitioners who refuse to "transform" are forced to sit in the hallway where there is no heat in winter and in the boiler room in summer. One is forced to follow sitting "rules" in which no movement is allowed.
8. Hard labour. Since the 2003 New Year, Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp guards have done their utmost to make money. The Third Division frequently worked overtime to assemble pirated DVD/CDs. The First and Second Divisions folded antithetical couplets and cut pirated books. The Third Division chief, Zhao Jiang, who was awarded "excellent individual" because of his persecution of Falun Gong, was also deeply into this and "neglected" the "ideological transformation" of Falun Dafa practitioners and lost his job. He was replaced by the more evil deputy chief of the First Dvision, Liu Xincheng. Currently there are two divisions made up of Falun Dafa practitioners. Liu Guoxi is the chief of the First Division and is busy forcing practitioners to work overtime to "plant hair." The section leaders are people who were handpicked carefully for their inhuman natures.

Note

1. "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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/9/18/110654.html