Introduction
General Overview
Physical Violence and Mental Torment
Slave Labour
Crude Living Environment
Closing
The Guangxi Province Women's Forced Labour Camp is one of the places where women Falun Gong practitioners from all over Guangxi Province are detained and grossly abused under the persecution. Sometimes as many as 400 practitioners are held there. This camp previously consisted of Division 3 and Division 4 of the Number 1 Forced Labour Camp in Guangxi Province. It was located at No. 8 Maoqiao in Nanning City, Guangxi Province, inside the Compound of Guangxi Province No. 1 Forced Labour Camp.
This No. 1 Forced Labour Camp consists of about ten divisions plus a juvenile division. Division 3 and Division 4 are women's divisions. The Women's Forced Labour Camp was established on January 1st, 2001. On July 17th, 2001, part of the women's labour camp was moved to a new facility at Yudong, the construction of which cost a large amount of money. Only the following subdivisions were left at the Maoqiao location: the "study group," detained Falun Gong practitioners, and an "education division," which consisted of people assigned to monitor Falun Gong practitioners. In July 2002, the rest of the camp moved to Yudong. The new address is No. 40 Yudong Avenue, Yongning County Economic Corridor Development District, Nanning City.
The Guangxi Women's Forced Labour Camp changed its name to Guangxi Women's Labour Reeducation Administration School. The camp authorities continue to commit crimes within these modern facilities at the new location, in a more brutal and more insidious manner.
Countless incidents of torture have taken place here at Maoqiao, the old site where Falun Gong practitioners' courageous and persevering anti-persecution efforts continuously play out. Due to coercion and mistreatment under persecutory policies, and because of over-crowding, lack of space, outdated equipment and facilities, shortage of factory and dormitory space as well as scant water and electricity, this forced labour camp is a very unique venture. Here, women Falun Gong practitioners are harmed covertly and overtly. This article will mainly reveal the persecution incidents at the old Maoqiao site.
1. General Overview
Falun Gong practitioners held at the labour camp include farmers, workers, teachers, doctors, businesswomen, government employees and officials, students, housewives, and even prison guards. Their ages range from 16 to the late 70s. Many of them have been held at the labour camp more than once. Practitioners Zhang Jingman, He Lingling and He Yan were held at the labour camp three times. He Yan was last sent to the labour camp several months after her daughter was born. Many practitioners have been sent to the labour camp twice.
Division 3 is where most women Falun Gong practitioners are held and abused. It consists of three or four groups. More than 100 and sometimes more than 200 practitioners are held in each group. Each group is run by one head and several guards, plus one head inmate or class head and several work inspectors. The head inmate and work inspectors enjoy special privileges and are served by drug addicts. There are also "on-duty" inmates who maintain order throughout the labour camp. Their 24-hour on-duty posts are set up at the front gate, the small building and the "back port." Those on-duty stand close to the crowd and monitor every major task that is carried out at the labour camp. They blow the whistle to initiate gatherings and surround the group of people that get together. They are the ones who usually carry out abuses and oppression of Falun Gong practitioners. In order to prevent the practitioners from doing Falun Gong exercises, they set up posts on every floor to monitor the practitioners at night. There is a strict administrative hierarchy at the labour camp; those on top exploit and suppress those below them. Falun Gong practitioners belong to category C, the lowest level of the pyramid.
Li, head of Division 3 is in her 40s. An individual named You, deputy head of Division 3, is also in her 40s. Liang Suzhen, a woman in her 30s, used to be a guard and was later promoted to the post of head for Group 3. Because of her savagery in treating Falun Gong practitioners, evildoer Liang Suzhen was awarded tens of thousands of yuan1 in Beijing. The wicked Chinese Communist Party (CCP) even gave her the title "advanced character." She was hailed on TV. After the Education Division had been established prior to the first relocation, Liang Suzhen snatched the post of head of the Education Division. Recently, it was learned that Liang Suzhen has been promoted to head of the labour camp due to her avid devotion to the persecution.
Guard Lu Dengyun is in her 20s. She used to be a "common" guard but was later assigned to oversee the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Lu Dengyun is one of the top evildoers at the women's labour camp who is responsible for cruel "reform2" or brainwashing. She was promoted to deputy head and recently as head of the Education Division. Tang Jingqiu and Lu Heng and several other guards are also in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners at Maoqiao.
There are about thirty women guards and a few doctors at Division 3. Clinic head Wei and a young doctor named Tang Maozhu are the only two male doctors at the clinic. They use their profession and their gender to confuse the practitioners with lies, and collaborate with the guards and those who betrayed Dafa to "reform" the practitioners. The phone number for the labour camp clinic is 86-771-4017161.
Division 3 used to consist of three groups and a so-called study group. The three groups are Group 1, Group 2 and a Subsidiary Group. Group 3 was later added to hold practitioners who had "reformed." In October 1999, Lu Suning was the first Falun Gong practitioner to be sent to the labour camp. Since then many practitioners have been sent there, until the labour camp reached its holding capacity. After the first relocation in July 2001, only Falun Gong practitioners, people assigned to monitor the practitioners and the study group were left at Maoqiao. The Education Division was then established. The Education Division consists of four groups: Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3, and the study group, which was renamed the Internal Group. Group 1 holds elderly practitioners. About 100 practitioners are held in each group. Later, Group 2 and Group 3 were combined as the new Group 2.
Division 3 occupies about 10,764 sq. feet. The front gate opens onto a long road. On either side of the road are men's divisions and a juvenile division. There is a four-story building where Group 3 of Division 3 is located in a so-called classroom on the ground floor. Inside the room are beds in close proximity. The practitioners work on their beds during the day and sleep in the same bed at night. On the ground floor hallway are two metal cases with TVs. The third floor is used as dormitory for inmates, and also as workshop and storage space. In order to make more money, the Education Division officials went against the normal rules and assigned the study group a fixed quota.
The phrase "work section" refers to houses, hallways and empty spaces related to labour and production.
The work sections for Group 1 and the Subsidiary Group are located inside a low and old brick house with no ceiling. The Group 1 work section is about 80 feet long with only one door and almost no windows that will open. Fluorescent tube lamps are the only and constant source of light. More than 100 people are packed like sardines and work next to the tube lamps. Because the lights are always on, inside the room it's hard to tell whether it's day or night. The room resembles an extra-long cargo train section with people and merchandise mixed together.
The room is so jam-packed it's hard to move around. The air is still and stifling. In the summer it's difficult to breathe in this sauna. Three electric fans offer little relief. It was like a big steamer. The camp authorities often punish people by forbidding them to take a shower, which is a common method of punishment during the summer. The Subsidiary Group work section room has a few more windows than Group 1. The two groups are separated by a centre wall. The rest of the amenities in the Subsidiary Group are similar to Group 1.
The Group 2 work section is a large metal shed that measures over 1,000 sq. feet. The shed has an asbestos roof and two sides lean against a wall, while the other two sides are open. Wind and rain freely sweep through the shed. Sometimes more than 200 people work together in this shed. When people work overtime on winter nights, they cover the two open sides with plastic sheets. But Nanning winters are cold and damp, and the plastic sheets are powerless against the bone chilling weather.
The "back port" refers to the narrow winding alley between the small building and the Subsidiary Group work section. This alley is dark and cold, with wind howling and rain pouring down. The only restroom available for several hundred detainees is on one side of the small building. The camp authorities don't allocate enough water for flushing in order to cut water usage. The stench is horrific. The "study group" directly faces this toilet. The practitioners held at the "study group" often cover their mouths in reaction to this pervasive odour. The back window of the cafeteria is located at the end of the alley. People from the Subsidiary Group get their food from the back window and have to eat squatting on the ground in the alley, which is very unsanitary.
There is a shed between Group 2 and the Subsidiary Group that serves as the work section for Group 2. With the shed occupying part of the alley, the remaining passage is only about three feet wide, with an open sewer ditch in the middle. It's very inconvenient, unsanitary and even dangerous when people gather here before and after work and for special occasions and primarily when they get their meals.
Aside from these fixed work sections, the cells and the drill ground are often used for labouring. The Subsidiary Group does not have enough space, so the authorities frequently order some detainees to work inside their cells. If officials from higher administrative departments come to the labour camp on official errands, the camp authorities would order detainees to close the door of the cells, turn off the light and return to work after the officials have left.
Before the first relocation, Group 3 was located in Room 29, which triples as dorm, classroom and work section. People used it as dorm at night and classroom and work section in the day. In order to fit more people inside the room, the camp authorities had the bunk beds put together and formed three long rows. In the daytime, the upper and lower bunk beds and the space between them are filled with people. The authorities also arranged for people to work in the hallway outside that room. Two people work simultaneously on each bed, and two people sleep in the same bed at night. It's virtually impossible for them to turn over in bed at night. More than eighty people sleep in one room, and the rest sleep in other cells. During the day they work and are subjected to brainwashing in Room 29. The brainwashing consists of "lectures," videos and TV programmes that slander Teacher Li and Dafa. At times, as many as over 200 people are held here during the day.
Division 4 is not in the labour camp compound. It is about a ten-minute walk outside the labour camp. This division consists mainly of a large shack and cafeteria inside a bungalow. About three or four hundred people are held at Division 4, a few less people than the other divisions. Division 4 is known for its high production rate, because work is the number one priority. Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to reform at Division 3 are sometimes sent to Division 4, including elderly people and teenagers.
Falun Gong practitioner Zhong Yanjun from Baise City was only 16 years old when she and her mother were sentenced to forced labour. In order to separate mother from daughter, the camp authorities sent Zhong Yanjun to Division 4. During the first relocation Zhong Yanjun was sent to the Education Division along with other practitioners and those assigned to watch them at Division 4. Another practitioner, Long Yunzhi, was about 18 years old when she was sent to the labour camp with her mother. They were forbidden to see each other. Long Yunzhi's father was being held at Beihai Detention Centre and was later transferred to Litang Prison in Guangxi Province. All three members of this family were incarcerated for practising Falun Gong. Practitioner Su Feng in his 60s, Huang Shimei, Cai Dexin, Tan Zezhen and others were once held at Division 4.
2. Physical Violence and Mental Torment
This labour camp, where Falun Gong practitioners are deprived of their inborn rights and privacy, is completely isolated from the outside. The practitioners are prevented from doing exercises, studying the Falun Dafa teachings or exchanging their experiences. They cannot even laugh or talk, because such normal behaviour is labelled "illegal" here.
The persecution of Falun Gong is systematic and the policies and regulations of the labour camp override all else. The words of the guards are regarded as law. These social misfits often vent their frustration on the practitioners. Many guards punish detainees to their satisfaction, and some guards force detainees to wash clothes for them, to perform back and whole-body massage and other personal favours for them.
The division heads, the guards, the sentries and the common criminals assigned to monitor the practitioners randomly slander and verbally abuse Falun Dafa and its founder, and they torture Falun Gong practitioners any time they want. The guards interpret the law according to labour camp policies and their own intentions and can make up new policies and group regulations at any time.
Practitioner Zhang Jingman went on a hunger strike during her first stay at this labour camp. A labour camp head named Li, (female, then a deputy division head) threatened her, "If you die, we can say whatever we want about your cause of death." She also ordered everyone in the labour camp to spit on Zhang Jingman. She also ordered people to step and spit on the Falun Gong founder's picture. Guard Liang Suzhen twisted the facts and claimed Zhang Jingman and a few other practitioners refused to eat and "were trying to commit suicide, like the self-immolators in Tiananmen Square." She incited hatred against the practitioners among common criminals who didn't know the truth. Liang Suzhen also said it's unlawful for Falun Gong practitioners to appeal because the Appeals Office only accepts letters and not personal visits.
A basic administrative method at Guangxi Women's Forced Labour Camp is its scoring system. Newly arrived detainees are required to memorise the rules of the scoring system and pass a test. One extra day of detention is added at every 100 negative points, and a one-day reduction is awarded for every 100 positive points. The camp also has an "accountability by association" system, whereas several people assigned to the same team receive the same punishments and rewards. This system is enforced through coercion and slave labour. The first item on the "accountability by association agreement" says, "admitting crimes and mistakes." Most practitioners refuse to sign this agreement. Usually, points are awarded or deducted according to work performance. Practitioners are deducted points for each day they persist in their belief. Each deduction ranges from 100 points to 3,000 points. Dafa practitioners also are deducted points for doing the Falun Gong exercises and refusing to follow the evildoers' commands and orders.
The following are the common administrative methods used at the labour camp:
Sentence extension and reduction: usually, doing more work means sentence reduction and doing less work means sentence extension. However, the camp authorities often arbitrarily extend the sentences of determined practitioners by six months each time. Some practitioners' sentences have been extended several times. No matter how much work a determined practitioner does, her sentence will still be extended.
Practitioner Wen Shuangxiao is in her 50s, a retired worker from Nanning City Shoe Factory in Guangxi Province. Her sentence was extended because she refused to "reform." Practitioner Zhang Jingman walked close to the front gate but did not go out, and the authorities claimed she was trying to escape and extended her sentence by six months. Many practitioners had their sentences extended by one year.
The labour camp authorities force practitioners to stand in front of others and "repent." Usually, they make the practitioners stand on the drill ground or next to the office, sometimes until 2:00 a.m. They wake the practitioners early the next day and make them stand again. Many practitioners were forced to stand, sometimes long-term. For several months, many practitioners were only permitted two hours of sleep per 24-hour period. People are assigned to monitor the practitioners, to make sure they don't close their eyes outside the allotted sleep time. A guard once said, "If a Falun Gong practitioner closes her eyes, the people assigned to monitor her will receive a one-day sentence extension and will be made to stand as well."
Solitary Confinement: Each detention in solitary confinement lasts ten days, although some practitioners were held for 20 consecutive days. The solitary confinement cell in the women's division is narrow and long. A stone platform inside this cell serves as a bed; the cover and bedding are pieces of worn-out clothing. The cell has one faucet, one toilet and a tiny window on the metal door. There is a monitoring window on the ceiling that can be opened and closed. People held in solitary confinement are not given any meat, no toothbrush, soap or towel. Sanitary napkins are not guaranteed, even when some practitioners have their periods. The detainee is not allowed to wear heavy clothes in the winter and cannot fall asleep due to bone piercing cold. In the summer, hundreds of mosquitoes underneath the stone platform attack the detainee and the noise the bugs make renders the effort to sleep futile.
There are three solitary confinement cells at the women's division; when space runs out, the women practitioners are sent to the men's solitary confinement cells in whose division the room is basically the same, except it's a little wider. Later into the persecution, electric batons are often used in solitary confinement cells. Sometimes covert tortures are carried out and even people sharing the same cell as the practitioner are not aware of beatings. There is another form of solitary confinement, which is isolating the practitioner from others, followed by brainwashing from the collaborators3.
It is learned that there are nine solitary confinement cells at the new Yudong location.
Tying Up: The guards often tie practitioners up if they do Falun Gong exercises, refuse to respond to roll call, expose lies or hold a hunger strike. The guards also tie practitioners up when they "feel like it" and often hang the practitioners up.
Depriving of Showers: In the summer, locals in Nanning City take several showers a day in the sweltering weather. Not showering would amount to huge embarrassment because of body odour. The camp authorities, however, often punish people who don't finish assigned work by forbidding them to take a shower. The officials prevent determined practitioners from taking showers for long periods of time and also forbid them to wash their hair and lower body. These practitioners have no access to hot water during showers in the winter. Many practitioners were tormented this way.
Sleep Deprivation: people whose work speed is slow are forbidden to sleep or are kept up late; those who can't memorize or violate labour camp policies get the same punishment. Dafa practitioners who refuse to "reform" cannot take a noon nap. They are forced to stay behind at night, including elderly practitioners. Practitioner Li Yufang from Wuzhou City was 64 years old. Her hair was grey-white, yet she was coerced to stay up at night, like young people. The guards also use sleep deprivation to make a practitioner give up her belief.
Deprivation of Visiting Rights: According to labour camp policies, detainees are allowed monthly family visits. These visits are limited to immediate family members related by blood. The authorities often violate this policy. Some families are denied visits even if they've travelled a long distance. Some visitors, including husbands and brothers, at the men's division are not allowed to meet with their loved ones, though they are separated by only a wall. Families of Falun Gong practitioners are not granted meetings. The daughter of practitioner Lin Yunzhi from Nanning City came to visit but was denied this right because the daughter is a Falun Gong practitioner as well. (Lin Yunzhi's other daughter Lun Yuzhu is also sentenced to forced labour).
Other means of persecution include Dafa practitioners being made to run, clean work sections, sweep the soccer field, and clean the toilets.
After the first relocation in 2001, a collaborator at Group 3 proposed an idea to group head Wang Hong that Falun Gong practitioners who don't finish slave labour be made to run along the drill ground. This was carried out at night; as a result many people were not aware of the persecution of practitioners from Group 3.
Newly arrived practitioners are compelled to attend the "study group" for one month, during which time they go through military drills, recite the labour camp policies and regulations, learn how to arrange their bed bunks to the proper military code and have to pass a test before they are sent to different groups to do slave labour. For non-practitioners, the "study group" is the first step towards changing a normal person into a servile worker who is taught to obey the labour camp system: the guards, the group heads and the officers on duty, and to accept their exploitation and coercion. For Falun Gong practitioners, the "study group" marks the beginning of mental suffering, because from then on the practitioners are regarded as prisoners, as they are exploited and abused under the persecution.
The letters practitioners receive undergo strict scrutiny and are frequently withheld from them. Determined practitioners are forbidden to make phone calls. After one "reforms" one can call one's family at indefinite time intervals but one is required to use a speakerphone as the guards monitor the phone call and can terminate it at any time. The guards sit beside the practitioner during family visits to keep an eye on the visit. Detainees are required to squat when speaking to the guards, and they have to stop in their tracks and let a guard pass if they run into each other. Newly arrived detainees who forget to yield to the guards are heavily berated and have points deducted.
In order to achieve his goal, division head Li and several other officials went to northern China in 2000 to study methods of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. After they returned to the labour camp, they assigned people to monitor and restrict the practitioners. They brought a group of collaborators from the Masanjia Labour Camp to brainwash practitioners. They then forced the practitioners to watch slanderous videos and read libellous articles the collaborators had written, attend brainwashing sessions, and listen to the guards denigrate Dafa. The collaborators verbally attacked the practitioners and bombarded them with twisted interpretations of Dafa. Guard Zhang once attacked Dafa at a gathering of several hundred people. Lu Dengyun spoke at the early brainwashing sessions, and later collaborators spread lies at the class. They even made the practitioners do homework. The monitoring and brainwashing of practitioners was subsequently promoted in the men's division.
When they first arrive at the labour camp, Falun Gong practitioners are forced to watch filthy videos that are meant to poison their minds and destroy their belief in Dafa. The guards order practitioners to write their understandings of the videos. They force the practitioners to repeatedly watch the videos and write their understandings. Those who refuse would earn heavy point deductions. Collaborators are assigned to brainwash recently arrested practitioners.
One practitioner from Beihai City remembers, "The more severe form [of persecution] is mental devastation. We were often forcibly sent to the so-called study classes for brainwashing. We watched fabricated videos and read similar materials, and we were forced to write our understandings of these lies. Those who refused to write were persecuted and abused in various ways, including sleep deprivation, standing on the drill ground until midnight, standing under the scorching sun and having to remain outdoors in the winter. A group of people would have a 'heart-to-heart' conversation with these practitioners; they actually did everything possible to 'reform' the practitioners by bombarding them with slanderous lies and mind-twisting theories."
The labour camp authorities hired some performers once. Before the show the guards stressed repeatedly that the audience must applaud, regardless of the quality of the program, because they were videotaping the show and they wanted to include applause. Guard Liang Suzhen ordered practitioners to write articles about Dafa based on a magic show in order to twist Dafa.
One practitioner refused to watch the show. Guard Liang Suzhen ordered the officer on duty to tie her up and put her in the work section.
One night the guards gathered everyone and told them they were going to watch CCTV news, but in fact only collaborators handpicked by the guards sat inside the room and watched TV, making a show for the reporters to videotape, while several hundred people sat outside on the drill ground. The TV programmes were showing the Fu Yibin murder case that was used to frame Dafa. Several practitioners, including Du Jing and Liang Biyan, stood up and exposed the lies. They were attacked and taken away and tied up and left in a work section for a whole night. The TV reporters only videotaped the scene in the classroom and ignored the attack on the drill ground.
The guards particularly fear Dafa practitioners passing Teacher Li's articles around. They conduct monthly searches, calling them "security inspections." During the search they turn over clothes, quilts, tools and even toilet paper and also search the practitioners' bodies. They also conduct searches without prior notice. If a guard suspects someone of passing around the articles, he would search all or some practitioners; occasionally the search is carried out away from others. The guards would wake up a practitioner early in the morning and take her away to search all of her personal belongings and her body. If the guard finds a piece of Dafa-related information, she would probe the source, fabricate charges against the practitioner, and threaten the practitioner with transfer to a prison. Once, traces of words were found on a practitioner's white paper, and the guards made a huge fuss about it. It is commonplace for practitioners to have points deducted and be persecuted for possessing Dafa articles. Once an officer on duty took practitioner Zhang Jingman to the toilet and searched her. She ordered Zhang Jingman to remove all of her clothes and jump up and down.
The labour camp uses a set of methods to destroy the practitioners' will to "reform" them. The living and work environment at the camp are very crude. The guards make the practitioners' lives miserable by limiting the amount of money they can receive from their families, by subjecting them to sleep deprivation, around-the-clock monitoring, and various forms of corporal punishment. These are devastating and lead to some practitioners suffering near mental collapse. They also use lies and intentional misinterpretation of Dafa to brainwash practitioners, who over time lose the ability to tell truth from fiction and betray Dafa.
The notorious "Same Song" is used as a tool at Guangxi Women's Labour Camp. Practitioners who give up their belief are forced to sing this song in a group. The people who had given up cultivation sang this song in a state devoid of anything, which acts like brainwashing them over and over again, like taking narcotics. The "Same Song" is used to whitewash the atrocities at the labour camps and also creates an illusion about the true nature of the brainwashing class. The authorities also advocate, "learning from role model Lei Feng" to mislead the physically and mentally collapsed victims into an illusion that their betrayal of Dafa and even evil acts toward other people are justified.
To destroy the practitioners both physically and mentally, the guards send people to monitor the practitioners and observe their personalities before making up plans to individually reform the practitioners. They force elderly and weaker practitioners to do extra heavy labour and restrict their sleep time; they brainwash the practitioners when the practitioners have reached their limit of endurance. They purposely ask practitioners who are mothers to call their families and manipulate the practitioners' love for their children to reform them.
They also bring over practitioners' elder parents to collaborate in the brainwashing effort. Practitioner Du Jing held a hunger strike to protest the illegal extension of her term, and the camp authorities ordered Du Jing's father to feed her. Practitioner Liang Xiaoping went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, and the camp authorities brought in her mother who was also being held at the labour camp.
Sometimes, after they beat the practitioners or after long-term torture, the guards personally cook a bowl of soup and bring it to the practitioners who are sometimes at the brink of death. It's easy for people to crumble under these circumstances. What follows is reform. Guard Liang Suzhen used this tactic on practitioners Meng Gui and Tan Zezhen, but it didn't work. If a person gives up her belief and passes a test, the guards would consider her reliable. They would subsequently disband the watchers, reduce the workload, allow more sleep and phone calls home on a restricted basis. The situation is less intense for people who reform. Sentence reduction is possible for those who do lots of work. Significant sentence reduction is given to those who help to "reform" others. The vast majority of practitioners who were reformed at the labour camp started practising Falun Gong again after they left the labour camp.
"Sandwich watch" is a very vicious form used in the systematic persecution. When arriving at the labour camp, Falun Gong practitioners lose their freedom and are watched by designated people. "Sandwich watch" means determined practitioners experience restraint in their normal daily activities, as they are prohibited from speaking, look at or smile at other practitioners. Practitioners are berated for walking close to each other. The practitioners are required to ask for permission to use the toilet. For a while the practitioners are not allowed to use the toilet at night and periodically not in the daytime. The guards would say, "It's your own fault because you refused to reform!" The watchers would verbally attack the practitioners while the practitioners use the toilet, and some elderly practitioners were yanked up before they could finish and were beaten and humiliated by the watchers.
The guards require the watchers to stay physically close to the practitioners, and as a result Dafa practitioners have to follow the watchers when the watchers use the toilet. The watchers earn sentence reductions and reduced workloads. They get further sentence reductions if they force the practitioners to give up their belief. If the watchers are not fully devoted to their assignments they would get point deductions, punishment, or they would be replaced. Guard Lu Dengyun told the watchers that they are being watched themselves, which made them very nervous. Many watchers are frustrated and depressed with the injustice, slave labour and arbitrary policies at the labour camp and often vent their anger on Dafa practitioners. Customarily, two people watch each determined practitioner.
Guards Lu Dengyun and Liang Suzhen encourage watchers to pick fights and attack Falun Gong practitioners. Watcher Lei Qingsheng beat practitioner Tan Zezhen, who is about her mother's age. After the incident was exposed, guard Lu Dengyun announced in front of everyone that Lei Qingsheng would lose 300-points. Later Lei Qingsheng told people that she didn't have any points taken off. She was promoted to Officer on Duty soon afterwards.
Practitioner Lin Yunying from Nanning City is an elderly woman. People in the same group with her heard the watchers attack her with really vulgar language on a daily basis.
A practitioner from Beihai City remembers, "The guards sent two people to watch me 24 hours a day. They fixed their eyes on me when I worked, ate, slept, washed myself and used the toilet. I was forbidden to talk to anyone, not even nodding at people. The watchers would attack me verbally and physically if I violated any 'rules.' One day during work, I didn't know how to make a piece of art ware and I turned to ask the person next to me. The watcher immediately hit me. The incident spread throughout the work section. The people who witnessed the beating were shocked. The watcher was later not punished. I had to be more careful because I would be subjected to verbal abuse and beating if I did anything that displeased the watcher. The watchers also demanded money and things from me, and they would take everything from me if I refused to satisfy them. Their extortion made my life very difficult."
One practitioner wrote, "The 'sandwich watch' is close monitoring and control of one's words and behaviour 24 hours a day. I brought it up with the group head, and the group head said this is a policy from higher above, and they have no choice but to follow it. This is actually a step and a method to forcibly reform Dafa practitioners. Most watchers are handpicked by guards and they are the most ruthless. They are promised sentence reduction and encouraged by guards, and they torture practitioners in various ways. Many watchers played the front runner and roughneck in the persecution of practitioners. Dafa practitioners would be subjected to insults and torture for exchanging a look or a greeting; they are prohibited from bending their legs or changing their position after long-time work. It's commonplace for the watchers to beat and verbally abuse the practitioners. They are even crueller toward determined practitioners who refuse to reform, even after long-term torture. They don't allow the practitioners to use the toilet. At night the practitioners go to the toilet on their own but the guard on duty would not let them enter the toilet. When the practitioners call on the watchers, they refuse to get up and curse at the practitioners. Some practitioners avoid drinking water even when they were thirsty so they can reduce the number of toilet visits. After practitioners inform the guards about it, the guards say, 'Dafa practitioners do very little work and they always use the toilet.' They personally teach the watchers to restrict toilet access for Dafa practitioners in order to pressure them. The evildoers often order watchers to curse and beat Falun Gong practitioners; practitioners who try to reason with them would have points deducted. Dafa practitioners also get points off and are extorted money for taking 'too long' in the toilet, when they leave the watchers' sight, when they don't complete the slave labour, even when they spill water when washing clothes. In these situations, the practitioners were accused of "refusing to cooperate with the watchers' job." The practitioners are punished for not reciting labour camp policies, and determined practitioners get severely punished each month."
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
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")
3. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/2/1/119915.html
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