Chaoyang Labour Camp: Violent Prisoners and Guards Know No Mercy

The Torture of Falun Dafa Practitioners in Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City, Jilin Province

February 25, 2002

Falun Dafa practitioners from various districts in Jilin Province arrested against their will have been sent to Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City where they are subjected to brutal torture.

On December 24, 2001, practitioners held in Liaoyuan Forced Labour Camp, Baishan Forced Labour Camp and Tonghua Forced Labour Camp were transferred to Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp. There, the guards held rubber truncheons in their hands and body searched every practitioner and inspected their belongings. Some practitioners were bullied and badly beaten up. Later, the practitioners were split up and confined in separate cells, thrown together with criminal inmates.

The guards incited the criminal inmates in each cell to physically torture the practitioners. They were yelling, "We have an order from higher authorities, "Beat them if they will not give up Falun Gong." They threatened the practitioners with punches and kicks, "If you dare not give up Falun Gong, under our torture, even iron could be turned into water." There are practitioners that lost consciousness from the beating, their lower backs, legs and heads covered with wounds.

In the Second Team, two criminal inmates Yu Bing and Zhao Yong, forcibly stripped practitioners. They used the "Copper Rod", a special torture instrument of 20 pounds of copper, to hit practitioners' inner thighs and the back of their lower legs. The victims' bodies were black and blue. They threw their victims to the ground and stepped on their wounds, grinding the heels of their shoes back and forth on the wounded flesh. They pinched the practitioners and scratched their eyes, trying to force them to give up their belief in Falun Dafa. The entire cellblock was filled with the agonizing cries of the badly beaten practitioners. The criminals openly tortured practitioners in full view of the camera [which is used by police to monitor inmates] in each cell. A prisoner said later, "The guards and officials were watching the beating in the control room."

A sixty-year-old principal of Taiping Elementary School in Lishu County who was confined to the camp for practicing Falun Gong, Chen Mingxian, wanted to clarify the truth to the forced labour camp's authority. The authority refused to meet with him. Chen Mingxian went on a hunger strike in January 2002 to protest. The labour camp subsequently prolonged his term. A fifty-five year-old practitioner from Changchun, Ren Xichang, was often beaten up by prisoners. On the night of January 17, 2002, he accidentally dropped and broke open a bag containing a blanket when he went to get it. Prisoner Liu Hongjian and others brutally beat him for it. On January 18, Liu Hongjian once again beat and bullied him for he was thought not to actively follow the "cell rule." These criminals forbid practitioners from speaking with each other and they take the practitioners' daily necessities for themselves.

Practitioners Wang Weizhi and Zang Jinyun got up in the night and wanted to use the bathroom. The labour camp ordered that a practitioner who wanted to use the restroom must have a non-practitioner inmate go along. The criminals intentionally found fault with practitioners, making them unable to use the restroom for two nights. Later the criminals wrongly accused the practitioners saying they "did not follow discipline the whole night, and stayed up talking" and then they beat them up. The criminals took the practitioners' clothes, shoes, belts and anything else they could use. The guards silently permitted this behaviour and never questioned them. The criminals said that it was the "rule."

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/3/7/19549.html
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/2/26/25651.html