My Experiences of Persecution at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

My name is Tian Shaoyan. I am a female practitioner from Huludao City, Liaoning Province. I started practising Falun Gong in 1997 because at that time I had all kinds of diseases and could not even take care of myself. My health improved greatly soon after my cultivation began, and I was elated.

In August 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa to the authorities. I was detained and then sentenced to a forced labour camp for eighteen months.

I was held in the Detention Centre of Cuizhong County from September 1999 to June 2000. The warden shocked me with an electric baton. During the cold winter months, policeman Zhang Wenzhong poured cold water over practitioners and then opened the window to freeze us.

Sometime later, I was sent to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. In September 2000, policewoman Huang Haiyan in Masanjia slapped my mouth until it bled. She shocked me with two electric batons on my hands, feet, neck, and breasts until the skin blistered. The red blisters became yellow and then black before beginning to heal. She frequently beat me, kicked me and pulled out my hair. She also forced me to squat and stand for long periods of time, trying to "reform¹" me.

In July 2002, I was arrested because I practised the exercises at home. I was sentenced to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp for three years. In December 2002, Policewoman Huang Haiyan commanded other people to confine me in the toilet and did not allow me to sleep.

In April 2003, I became very weak because of a heavy workload of digging holes for planting trees at Masanjia. I suffered from terrible pain in my legs, chest, and abdomen and I could barely walk. My heart beat so fast that I could hardly breathe or sleep.

During the 16th Party Congress, the persecution became more cruel. In December, Masanjia used a "collaborator²" team to persecute Dafa practitioners. They attempted to "reform" practitioners through various tortures, including not allowing them to sleep. I was extremely weak at that time and not able to escape from the torture. Huang only allowed me to sleep for a few hours each night. My heart beat so fast because of the torture, my lips became purple, my limbs felt numb and cold and I could not stop trembling. I was finally sent to the hospital. The hospital diagnosed me with synovitis due to fluid accumulation and swelling in the synovial membrane of my knee joint. I spent 700 yuan³ for medical treatments on two occasions without experiencing improvement, and I continue to suffer from pain even now.

The heavy workload caused severe arm pain, and my fingers became deformed. In February 2004, I was poisoned as a result of working with some kind of rubber material and experienced many symptoms including headache, dizziness, ear problems, vertigo, nose bleeds, mouth numbness, coughing, stomachache, vomiting blood, swelling and weakness. Sometimes I was so weak that I could not even move my hands. I had itchy blisters on my head, face and all over my body. My hair fell out, and I was nearly bald until recently when hair regrowth started There is a large lump on my head which still bothers me today.

There were more than one hundred people poisoned after participating in this work assignment, and it had to be terminated prior to its completion. However, the damage had been done and I lost the ability to work. I became sensitive to many chemicals, such as laundry powder and perfume. The stronger the smell was, the more serious the symptoms were. Following this exposure to the rubber material, I had to stay in bed for almost the entire year. In July 2005, after I finished the forced labour, I was still so weak that I required two people to help me get into bed.

Although I can now walk alone, I cannot endure chemical smells and I am too weak to do the laundry, let alone work. I went to my former workplace to ask for the back salary (6,000 yuan) owed me over the past several years. Zhang, the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) branch of the Forestry Bureau, refused me by saying, "I don't have any money to give you. Do not come here again."

The Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, which persecutes Dafa practitioners so cruelly, should not exist any longer. The Forestry Bureau of my county should pay me back the salary they owe me.

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")

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/12/2/115661.html