Exposing the Persecution at Beijing's Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp

I was "illegally arrested¹" on April 4th, 2003 and detained at Beijing's Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp for nearly 300 days. I experienced and witnessed many evil acts in this living hell.

In the beginning, I was assigned to Division 5. Every day we had to sing the so-called "reformation song" before we could eat or sleep, and we had to shout "report!" before going into a room. To get a meal, we had to first kneel down in front of the police chief and say, "How are you, Chief?" and then say, "Thank you, Chief!" after we got our food.

The police incited the collaborators² and criminal inmates to monitor practitioners' activities and to limit practitioner's basic rights. The police encouraged criminals to assist in the persecution if they wanted to get a reduced sentence; otherwise they would have to serve a longer term. The collaborators and criminals did not allow practitioners to recite Master Li's articles from memory, and even interfered when they suspected practitioners were reciting in silence. They forbade practitioners to have any discussion on anything related to Falun Gong. The labour camp's rooms have surveillance cameras, which monitor practitioners' every single activity.

Once, someone reported to the guards that I had talked to another Dafa practitioner. As a result, they locked me into a single cell, away from other practitioners. In the camp, the guards frequently sent those practitioners who were firmly persisting in Dafa and refusing to "reform³" to a single cell or to the Training Centre Unit where they would experience all kinds of persecution.

On July 8th, 2003 the camp created the "Fortified Assault Team," which was the former notorious the "Fortified Assault Class" and later was changed to the "First Division." I was the first one transferred over on the day the "Fortified Assault Team" was established. Practitioners who refused to be "reformed" were locked in separate rooms with prison inmates assigned to monitor Falun Gong practitioners under 24-hour surveillance. The door window was pasted over with paper, leaving only a one-inch edge on each side so that people inside could not see out, but the police could clearly see inside through those spaces.

The meal consisted only of a piece of steamed cornbread and a small bowl of vegetable soup.

Practitioners were forced to sit on a small, 20-centimetre tall plastic chair, with their knees together and hands on each knee, and back and neck straight at all times, from 5:00 a.m. in the morning to 11:00 p.m. or 12:00 midnight, sometimes even later. If one moved a little, the inmates would beat or verbally abuse the practitioners. Sitting there for one day was extremely uncomfortable. After sitting for a longer time, the buttocks and coccygeal vertebra would be rubbed raw, even to the point of bleeding and discharging pus.

In addition, the police also used various other torture methods to persecute steadfast practitioners. Mental torment included verbal abuse, brainwashing attempts, other insults, bans on family visits, threats and inducing fear, and isolation to the point of despair. Through these torments, the perpetrators hoped that practitioners would give up Falun Gong. Physical tortures included beatings, electric shocks, long-term seating on a small chair, meagre food rations to the point of starvation, not allowing normal sleep, not allowing toilet breaks and all kinds of other corporal punishment (exposure to the sun, to the cold or freezing weather, sprinkling foul things into one's nose or mouth). Sometimes practitioners were exposed to a number of these tortures at the same time.

I personally know that at the end of 2003, practitioner Liu Quanwang, who was incarcerated in the First Division, had urine sprayed on his mouth, nose and body. He was forced to sit on the small chair for a long time and was given very little food. He was insulted, beaten, stabbed with sharp objects and he was not allowed to sleep.

For those who were forced to sign the three statements⁴ against their wishes, the police continued persecuting them. They were forced to read materials slandering Dafa and view videotapes and to write down their feelings, reflections, a summary of their new views, and other self-examining thoughts. They would have to re-write this again and again until the police were satisfied with their writing. They would have to present their summary in front of the group and they were forced to assist in "reforming" other practitioners. They were also forced to work as slave labourers to make a profit for the camp. Because many of them signed the "three letters" against their will, they felt bitter from the bottom of their hearts. With repeated brainwashing, repeated writing of summaries, repeatedly having to read their writings aloud in front of the group, they suffered tremendous spiritual torment. That pain really was more brutal than the physical torture. It hurts ten or even a hundred times more.

What I have related above is what I experienced and witnessed of the tortures at the Tuanhe Forced Labour camp.

Note

1. “Illegally arrested”: Contrary to what former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who initiated the persecution, and the Chinese Communist Party would like the world to believe, practising Falun Gong is NOT illegal in China. Although the Public Security Department issued an unconstitutional set of restraints on the practice at the onset of the persecution in 1999, no laws have been passed by the only legislative body in China, the People's Congress, banning Falun Gong or granting the police the authority to arrest Falun Gong practitioners for practicing the exercises or distributing leaflets.

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

3. "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")

4. "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/2005/10/26/113175.html