Persecution of Practitioners in Yanbian Forced Labour Camp

Since late 1999, the Yanbian Forced Labour Camp in Jilin Province has been a key location for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to recklessly persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Camp authorities have subjected practitioners to various types of torture. Guards constructed special steel cages for solitary confinement. These cages are intentionally placed near the very cold west entrance on the first floor. Practitioner Wang Tiesong died in one of these cages.

The camp director at one time was Wang Qiang, who is now an officer in the Yanji Prison. The deputy director in charge of persecuting Falun Gong is Shan Heping. The head of the Discipline Division is Hong Lin. Lin is a main culprit in the murder of Wang Tieshong. The head of the Education Division is Wenbin Li. Li is also in charge of persecuting Falun Gong.

The camp authorities organised a task force to brainwash and persecute practitioners. Wenbin Li directed this task force and participated in its criminal activities. Li is known as one of "the four wicked devils" of Yanbian Forced Labour Camp. In addition, Guangri Yin of the Education Division worked with Li to torture practitioners. The most barbaric participant in the persecution of practitioners at the Yanbian camp was Wenjiang Xu.

Practitioners are forced to wake up at 4:30 every morning and then subjected to a sitting punishment that normally lasts 14 hours. Many practitioners’ behinds become swollen and blistered. Pus and blood make their trousers stick to their behinds, which become extremely itchy and sore. While sitting on the stool, practitioners must keep their backs straight, have both hands on their knees, and stare at a blackboard at the front of the room. They are not allowed to move or speak. Anyone who moves or speaks is severely beaten. Furthermore, all practitioners, young and old, healthy and ill, are forced to participate in military-style physical training for several hours each day.

Guards apply many forms of corporal punishment. Practitioners are forced to stand facing a wall within 10 centimetres. Another more painful punishment requires practitioners to bend down, put the backs of their heads against the wall, and remain in this position for several hours. Other punishments include performing 500 to 1000 stand-ups from a squatting position, being shackled, being beaten with electric batons, and sitting on a steel chair in solitary confinement. Practitioner Zhang Qingjun collapsed after doing more than 1000 stand-ups.

Practitioners in solitary confinement are stripped down to their underwear. The solitary cell is dark, windowless, and cold. They only get two meals per day consisting of only one or two pieces of cornbread. The toilet is inside the cell. The temperature inside the cells is so low that practitioners cannot fall asleep even in the summer.

The Tiger Bench¹ and heavy labour are also used. In April, Li Wenbin and other guards once forced practitioners to clean a sewer. Practitioners were forced to perform this task in regular clothes. They plodded through the sludge to pick up trash and feces. Dirty water and faeces soaked through their clothes. After work, the guards locked the practitioners in a toilet and refused to let them change into clean clothes. Practitioners Zhang Hui, Jin Minhao, and Wu Chunyan protested this inhumane treatment. Camp guard Li Wenbin knocked these practitioners to the ground and viciously beat them. They were then put into solitary confinement.

"Tying with a rope" is another torture in which the arms are pulled behind the back and firmly tied with a rope. Guards then hang the victims up by this rope so that their feet do not touch the ground. The excruciating pain causes the victims to sweat heavily. To further intensify the pain, the guards insert bottles under the practitioners' armpits to widen the gap even further. The torture does not stop here, for the guards will then flog the practitioners using stiff plastic tubes that are four centimetres in diameter. The guards make sure to target practitioners’ sensitive body parts, like the genitalia and lower back, with the plastic tubes.

Many practitioners sustain bruises all over their bodies. The heavily beaten areas turn black and need a couple of months to recover. Numbness in the arms that results from rope tying lasts much longer. During a scheduled inspection of the camp, the guards took torture victim Xiao Guobing away, because they feared exposure of their crimes.

In the cover-up after practitioner Wang Tiesong was tortured to death in December 2001, camp guards transferred all the remaining practitioners to Yinmahe Forced Labour Camp in Jiutai City.

Between July 1999 and December 2002, nearly 100 male Falun Gong practitioners were detained in Yanbian Forced Labour Camp. Camp authorities extended many of the practitioners’ terms in hopes of forcing them to renounce Falun Gong. Detention periods were extended in 15, 20, or 30 day increments. Some practitioners protested the detention, but camp guard Li Webin extended their terms for three more months. Camp authorities confiscated food items practitioners’ families sent in and only gave practitioners insufficient rations of cornbread.

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/8/129892.html