The Liaoning Province Women's Prison's Methods of Persecution and Abuse of Falun Dafa Practitioners

1. Humiliating the Falun Dafa practitioners

The first thing a Falun Dafa practitioner had to do there entailed following the prison regulations and publicly acknowledging that they were prisoners. If that was not done, the guards and common prisoners would kick and punch the practitioner. Next, two common criminals would constantly monitor one practitioner in what they called "squeeze control."

2. Rewards for "squeeze control" members are tied to brainwashing activities used against Dafa practitioners

The guards picked criminal individuals as members of the "squeeze squad" who showed a desire to have their prison terms reduced. The officials used even murderers who, incited by the guards, were permitted to do anything to Dafa practitioners as long as it got the criminals an early release for their dirty work. This then depended on how many practitioners they convinced to give up their belief in Falun Dafa. If the hoped for reform¹ rate could not be realised, the "squeeze control" team would be denied sentence reduction. This scheme was also tied to the guards' performance levels. In case the brainwashing did not work, the leaders would be demoted or transferred.

That is the reason practitioners were under 24-hour monitoring and forced to study anti-Falun Dafa propaganda, perform slave labour, act as personal servants. They were even accompanied during toilet breaks. Practitioners were forbidden to go anywhere unaccompanied and were prevented from any contact with other practitioners.

3. Beatings

Practitioner Zhao Junfang in Ward No. 1 refused to be brainwashed. She was assigned to criminals Zhu Yajing (a murderer) and Zhang Yingchun. They beat her cruelly in a separate room. Prison guards Sun Dexue and Xia Ru, afraid to have this outrage exposed, transferred these two criminals to a different location after giving them perfunctory punishment. A new "squeeze control" team member named Mrs. Wang was nice to practitioner Zhao Junfang. That team member did not have her sentence reduced, and practitioner Zhao was subjected to additional abuse.

4. Compelled brainwashing

This took the form of forced watching of videos and reading of books that slander Dafa. Such activities were followed by forced written critique reports that must include words attacking Falun Gong. Since the inmates and guards all had an interest in seeing Dafa practitioners complying with their demands, they used any kind of method, even torture, to get the practitioners to comply. One of these tortures meant the practitioner had to stand from 6:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. except for meals. This was done for several days in a row, leading to severe swelling of the legs. Not being satisfied, the captors then made the practitioners squat. If a practitioner was unable to comply, she had to write the "Three Letters," documents renouncing Dafa that consist of a Letter of Regret, Guarantee Letter and Letter of Intent. If the practitioner refused, she would have to spend time standing in a water dungeon or the toilet in freezing weather during the evening. The "squeeze team" members took turns monitoring the practitioner and attempted to force her to be brainwashed and deprived her of sleep.

To assure their degree of success with "brainwashed" practitioners, the prison administration evaluated that progress by administering tests, to see how successful they were in having practitioners give up their beliefs. These tests were randomly administered and entailed a monthly "thoughts report," and those were compared to the "study notes" the practitioners had taken.

5. Reciting prison regulations

There was no way the practitioners could escape physical trauma, mental torment and psychological duress. They were required to recite older and newer prison regulations and make comparisons between the two. If they missed a point, the officials would deduct the guards' and other group members' bonuses, and this would result in further abuse of the practitioners.

6. Inhuman management practices

Common criminals could leave their cells during the night at any time, unaccompanied, but practitioners had to be accompanied by at least three overseers. If a practitioner had to use the toilet during the night and did not want to wake others, she would have to suffer. The squeeze control team members often could not keep their tempers in check, and they would vent all their anger on the practitioners.

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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/1/20/119081.html