The Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners at the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City, Part 1

Chaoyangou Forced Labour Camp was originally under the jurisdiction of the Changchun City Judicial Bureau. Since July 20th, 1999, when the persecution started, the labour camp has closely followed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Jiang Zemin's political regime and has brutally persecuted Falun Gong practitioners using all kinds of methods.

In December 2000, the Jilin Province CCP Committee and the provincial government designated the Chaoyangou Forced Labour Camp as a "brainwashing base" to detain Falun Gong practitioners who were sentenced to forced labour. All male practitioners from the whole province (except the Baicheng and Yanbian regions) were sent there. Led by the provincial 610 Office¹, the labour camp has conducted comprehensive persecution of the detained practitioners. This so-called "transformation²" base tramples on human rights. An investigation shows that at least 18 practitioners died there due to the persecution and many practitioners have been injured or disabled.

Falun Gong practitioners keep telling the facts of Falun Dafa to help to rescue the Chinese people who are deceived by the CCP's lies. To destroy people's will, the Chaoyangou Forced Labour Camp has tortured kind people in the most vicious ways, making it the chief place in the province for the violation of human rights. Details of methods of abuse and mistreatment include inciting prisoners by means of rewards and promises of reduction of their prison terms if they openly beat practitioners. They also include using torture, recklessly maltreating practitioners, forcing practitioners to work beyond their capacities, long-term sleep deprivation and forcing practitioners to write a guarantee statement to give up their belief. The mental torment, economic ruin and ruthless physical torture in the labour camp are unprecedented in their terror and cruelty.

Here we expose some of these crimes committed in the labour camp.

I. Mental Torment

Since July 20th, 1999, all Falun Gong practitioners have been under mental oppression. The Party has used its control of all media, including TV and newspapers, to slander Falun Dafa and Teacher. Practitioners are followed by the police and have their activities limited; they are called to local police stations to be questioned; police harass them at their homes; their homes are searched, their property is confiscated and they are detained for long periods.

Led by Wang Yanwei and Wang Jiangang, the heads of the Chaoyangou Forced Labour Camp, the labour camp has adopted brutal measures to forcibly brainwash about a thousand detained practitioners; these methods include group attacking, designating inmates as "personal monitors" to closely supervise practitioners, sleep deprivation and forcing them to write the Three Statements (a guarantee letter, a repentance letter and a dissociation statement). They try to force practitioners to give up their belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and to acknowledge and feel grateful for this persecution against their conscience.

2. Forced Indoctrination

In order to obtain the "Three Statements" the camp police force practitioners to watch TV programmes and over ten kinds of video materials that slander and frame Falun Gong. Then they force them to discuss their "feelings." Those who do not say what the prison police want to hear are tortured. In creating the video programs, the screenwriters fabricate many facts and smear practitioners using an artistic format to deceive and poison the minds of the world's people. Every day at a fixed time, practitioners are forced to listen to or read out loud books that slander Falun Dafa. If they refuse, they are beaten. Many practitioners have suffered brutal beatings because they would not cooperate. Once the police designated twenty inmates in the Xinsheng Division to brutally beat countless practitioners. They also regularly play VCDs that slander Falun Dafa and they try to force practitioners to write reviews. They then use these to determine what specific brainwashing and torture methods they will use on the practitioner.

Zhu Shenlin is a police officer in the No.2 Division who has edited many songs and created rhymed patterns that slander Falun Dafa. They forced practitioners to learn and to sing those songs. The No.7 Division detains mainly practitioners who have yielded to the torture and brainwashing. Early every morning, the head of the division demands that these practitioners recite an article entitled, "Ten Criticisms" ("Ten Criticisms" viciously attacks Falun Dafa, Teacher Li and practitioners). Then they read books that slander Dafa in the morning and give "in-depth" speeches (that is, criticisms) that are recorded.

3. Degeneration Education

The labour camp specifically established the No.7 Division for brainwashing practitioners. All other divisions send those practitioners in their division who have yielded to the persecution to the No.7 Division. In the No.7 Division, practitioners are forced to watch videos that slander and frame Falun Gong, to read all kinds of books that are against Falun Gong, and to attend classes opposing Falun Gong. They are encouraged to scold others, to fight and to smoke. Once they develop such bad behaviour they are considered successfully "transformed." What they call success is to transform a person who believes in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" into a person who has bad habits and does bad things.

The objective of the No.7 Division is to divert practitioners' minds from "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" for a long time. Everyone there is required to write two reports about their thoughts every month, each containing at least one sentence that slanders Falun Dafa and Teacher. If such "education" fails, the practitioner is transferred to another division to suffer more intense persecution.

4. Inducements and Threats

Gao Zhilu is one of the prison guards in the labour camp who targets practitioners during brainwashing. During the "storming of heavily fortified positions" in April 2002, he yelled again and again at newly arrived practitioners, "Let me see who can still persist once you are assigned to a division for a few days. You will all taste what is called 'the dictatorship of the proletariat.' The Party gives me money; therefore I will do whatever it wants me to do and in whatever way it asks me to do it. Otherwise who will give me money? What is Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance? The Party doesn't want you to practise; you should then give it up. There is only one way for you to go - to give up and be transformed. Listen to this!" ( He referred to the painful scrams of the practitioners suffering brutal beatings.)

The practitioners then spoke righteously, to refute what the police officer said. This left Gao Zhilu speechless.

5. Using torture methods to transform practitioners

Before the UN Human Rights Commission meeting in 2000, the prison guards from each division in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp gathered Falun Gong practitioners and told them, "At present, a nation-wide campaign against Falun Gong has been launched by the CCP and we are required to achieve a goal of an over 95% "transformation rate." Thus, all you Falun Gong practitioners need to write the "three statements," regardless of circumstances, even if it is against your conscience, because it is an order from the upper management. If you don't cooperate, we will lose our jobs, so we are allowed to use any method we want on you. We will not bear any responsibility even if we beat you to death. Now is the time to have you experience 'totalitarianism.'"

As a result, prison guard Wang Tao from the No.1 Team in the No. 6 Division violently beat Falun Gong practitioner Jiao Shoutong with electric batons, batons, bamboo sticks, metal wires and other items, making his face swollen and disfigured. He was full of bruises and was bleeding. Because Mr. Jiao refused to write the "three statements," the next day when his wounds were about to stop bleeding, they dragged him out to be beaten again, causing all the cuts to re-open and blood to drip down his face.

Falun Gong practitioner Xing Yueshan suffered the same torture methods as well. He has been beaten savagely each time his wounds were about to heal.

Falun Gong practitioner Ma Shengbo was jailed at the No. 3 Team of the No. 6 Division. On a snowy day, division head Li Zhongbo and prison guard Liu Yan stripped Mr. Ma, opened all the doors and windows and poured cold water, straight from the cold well outside, all over him, chilling him to the bone. Mr. Ma started to shiver, developed cramps and then crouched on the icy cold floor. He soon lost consciousness and had spasms. Yet, the police still shouted at him, "Are you going to write the statement or not?"

Seeing no response, since he was unconscious, the police started to beat Mr. Ma with a bamboo stick, chopping him and leaving traces of long bloody cuts on his exposed body. In addition, the police ordered inmates to spread salt on his body and pour spicy water into his mouth They awakened him. Then they pulled his legs and dragged him back and forth on the ground with his face pointing downward and his open wounds rubbing against the floor.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhong Xi protested this atrocity. He was hoping to call on the guards' consciences and make them stop their inhuman treatment of practitioners. The guards simply ignored him and even increased the abuse. They tortured Mr. Zhong again. His cuts were just stitched up and there was still wet blood on his body. However, the police still tortured him. They handcuffed him and hung him up high. They poured cold water on him before shocking him with electric batons and beating him with police batons. When one felt tired, the other took a turn beating him. Later, the camp head Wang Wei came. He not only didn't stop them, he urged them to continue saying, "Beat him! Beat him until he agrees to write the 'three statements'!"

Police officer Wang Tao used a triangular belt to lash Mr. Zhong. As a result, a big bump appeared on his face and his mouth became distorted. Others hardly recognised him and he had great difficulty eating.

For a whole day, five guards violently beat Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Yu Chunbo with police batons and electric batons. After he returned from the beating, his whole body looked purplish blue and he could not walk.

6. Humiliate Falun Gong practitioners

The police verbally abused Falun Gong practitioners in front of others and demanded that they curse Teacher and Falun Dafa and write articles to criticise Falun Dafa. Because practitioners were steadfast in their belief and would not give in, even in the face of torture, the guards sneered at them while tormenting them, "Didn't you say that you had your Teacher's protection? Why don't you hurry up and ask your Teacher for help?"

On April 6th, 2002, the police hung signs on firm practitioners' chests and paraded them around in the cells. They ordered the inmates to shout criticism at them. Those who did not shout at them were beaten. They called it, "The Second Cultural Revolution." On April 9th, they had a "mobilisation meeting," during which the police publicly humiliated a steadfast practitioner. They forcibly hung a sign with slanderous words on his neck.

Police and gangsters worked together as one

In other countries, a criminal is someone who has harmed society, committing such acts as stealing, robbery, swindling others, taking drugs or other illegal acts. However, people who have committed such crimes receive favourable treatment in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp and have even become key management personnel. The supervisory police appoint them as the "person on duty" or the "team leader" and they all work together to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Once the practitioners are sent to the forced labour camp, two inmates, called "personal monitors," closely watch them at all times. From then on, the practitioners' every word and action are monitored, even during mealtime and when using the toilet. The team leaders are usually the worst criminals; yet, the labour camp authorities often give them face-to-face training on how to intensely persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Once at a meeting with the "person-on-duty," the management section head said, "Why do Falun Gong practitioners dare to go on a hunger strike? It is because we haven't applied enough pressure on them!" Such sayings as, "not enough pressure" and the training "beating as normal management" demonstrate that the law is not enforced in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp.

For the "freshman class" in the No. 5 Division, the police have selected those most wicked and fiercest criminals in advance to carry out the persecution. They shave all the hair from newly arrived practitioners' heads, remove all their clothes, pour 30 basins of cold water on them from head to toe (more on those who protest), and then open up all windows and doors to expose the practitioners to the cold. After that, practitioners are forced to stand still, facing the wall or stoop down for long hours without lifting up their heads. If they resist even a little, the guards or inmates slap them in the face or kick and punch their bodies. After several hours' torment, they force the practitioners to sit on a small stool, with their backs straight, with two monitors closely watching them.

(To be continued)

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/9/7/109929.html