Brutal Persecutions in Kaiping Forced Labour Camp

After the police sent me to Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City (the First Forced Labour Camp of Hebei Province), the guards in the camp took the steadfast Falun Gong practitioners to the camp's theatre, which was used for holding meetings and persecuting practitioners. We were restrained in chairs with handcuffs and special "constraining belts" (as the guards called them), which were white cloth belts of more than one meter long and about four fingers in width.

I was forced to sit on a front row seat. Each of my wrists was tied up with one constraining belt. They were so tight that I felt pain in my wrists. Both of my arms were then stretched to the hand rests of the seat behind me. A guard pulled the constraining belt on my left wrist and tied my left wrist to the left hand rest of the seat behind me. Since my body was blocked by the seat back, I could only lean my body toward the left rear a little bit in order to alleviate the pain which was similar to a bone fracture. After that, the guard used the same method to tie up my right arm. The extreme pain in my arms was hard to endure even for one second. I was tied up this way for an entire day. Some other practitioners had their down jackets, cotton clothes, or sweaters removed. The guards said, "We'll freeze you guys." Some practitioners shouted, "Falun Dafa is good," spoke to the guards about the facts of Falun Dafa, or told them that their behaviour was real crimes and that practitioners are good people. The guards responded by covering the practitioners’ mouths with duct tape and beating their heads, faces, and bodies with electric batons or truncheons. They cursed Falun Gong, and the practitioners. They told us, "If you give up your practice, we will untie you right away. Otherwise, you won’t be released." When the guards saw a female practitioner doing the sitting exercise on the stage, they jumped on her, dragged her down, and severely beat her. A male guard, Wu Li, who was in charge of Falun Gong practitioners and beat them severely, was transferred to another location. His phone numbers are 86-13831568045 and 86-315-2278579.

In order to protest the persecution, some practitioners started hunger strikes. The guards force-fed them with watery corn flour. They inserted thick feeding tubes into their noses. Sometimes the feeding tubes were mistakenly inserted into the practitioners’ tracheas, and this caused severe coughing. Instead of pulling the tubes out, the guards, the camp doctors and the collaborators¹ intentionally left the tubes in and watched the practitioners cough. (I don’t know whether or not any practitioner choked to death.) They even poured boiling watery corn flour into the feeding tubes, which gave practitioners stomachaches. Practitioners were restrained in chairs to be force-fed. The guards used various brutal methods which were beyond description to torture practitioners. A big bowl of watery corn flour is more than enough for one meal. The guards force-fed practitioners with up to four bowls of watery corn flour at a time with no concern for their wellbeing or survival.

The guards sent ten practitioners at a time to the theatre for persecution. The common method was beating. They forced practitioners to stand behind a chair and bend over at the waist. The guards then hit the practitioners’ bottoms with large wooden posts, stakes, truncheons, or electric batons until the skin was torn and bloody. Then they forced the practitioners to sit on small stools. If they saw any practitioner move his or her bottom at all, they would brutally beat him or her.

Some practitioners were punished by having their hands handcuffed to the legs of chairs in the theatre. The cuffs were so tight that they cut into the flesh. In addition, practitioners were not allowed to stand up or squat. They had to bend their knees or bend over at the waist. The punishment could last for several days, and it caused the feet and legs to swell.

Brainwashing: In the theatre, the guards forced practitioners to sit on small stools or to stand. They then forced practitioners to look at, listen to, and read out loud materials defaming Falun Gong. If any practitioner refused, he or she would be severely beaten or deprived of sleep. The guards and other inmates took turns monitoring the practitioners. The brainwashing could last for several days and nights. Any practitioner who fell asleep would be hit.

The director of the camp, Xu Deshan, and deputy director Ruan sometimes held meetings in the theatre. At the meetings, they announced increases in the detention periods for practitioners who practised the exercises, recited Falun Dafa articles, or spoke about Falun Gong to other people. If the other inmates in charge of monitoring practitioners were unwilling to beat or curse the practitioners, their terms of detention would be increased. Not only that, if they listened to the guards and beat or cursed Falun Gong practitioners, their terms would be shortened. In the meeting, they forced collaborators to perform programmes promoting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including singing, dancing, or reading poems.

A building in the camp was built by funding from the Central Government for the purpose of jailing Falun Gong practitioners. All the practitioners were jailed on the first and second floors. On one occasion, camp director Xu Deshan, about twenty male guards, and the female guards in charge of practitioners brought a bag of "constraining belts," a bag of handcuffs, and electric batons to the building. They rushed into several rooms, tried to pull practitioners out of their rooms, and beat and cursed them. When we heard the sounds of beating, cursing, and electric shocks from other rooms, we understood that the practitioners in the other rooms were being seriously beaten again. We wanted to leave our room to stop the beatings, but the female guard and the criminal inmate in charge of our room would not let us go. They told use that nothing had happened. Only after we firmly requested and told them that we had to save the other practitioners did they finally let us out of the room. In the hallway, the director of the camp directed the guards to beat whomever they saw. The sounds of crying, screaming and cursing all mixed together. Practitioners were beaten so that their heads were cut and bloody. Blood splattered all over the hallway and in the rooms.

One practitioner, about 50 to 60 years old, was kicked by a guard from the second floor down to the first floor. After rolling down the stairs, she lost consciousness. A group of guards rushed to her side. Some guards stepped on and ground her hands, face, and head with their shoes. Other guards cursed her for faking death while they kicked her. Some practitioners wanted to stop the guards since she had lost consciousness. However, the guards turned around and started to beat those practitioners. Xu Deshan was watching the scene. A practitioner asked Xu Deshan to stop the beatings, otherwise, someone might be beaten to death. Instead of listening to the practitioner, Xu Deshan cursed and blamed her. An elderly practitioner was beaten till her mouth and nose bled, and blood covered her face. One practitioner’s head was cracked, and a pool of her blood was on the ground. In addition to beating practitioners, the guards pulled them out of the building to take them to other locations for torture. One practitioner’s clothes were torn to pieces, and she was entirely naked. (At that time, all the jailed practitioners were female.) While Xu Deshan cursed the practitioners and rushed to the hallway of the building, a woman about 25 years old asked him to stop the guards’ beatings immediately. Xu Deshan gave her a solid fist in her chest such that she almost fainted. Fortunately, the many people around her held her up and did not let her fall. Immediately, Xu Deshan started to beat the other people. Such a miserable situation was beyond description.

One time the guards forced us to watch a TV programme in our room which defamed Falun Gong. We refused to do it. Some of us clarified the truth to the guards, and others closed their eyes. Suddenly a group of male guards arrived in our room. They threatened us, saying that if anybody refused to watch the program, they would pull us out of the room. The leader, Wang Jianzhong, more than 1.8 metres in height (5ft. 11in.) with a Luan County accent, pulled me out by dragging me by my hair. The hallway was very long. I was pulled to the office at the end of the hallway. There were several practitioners in the office already. One elderly practitioner was beaten, lost consciousness, and fell to the ground. Instead of stopping, the guards kicked her and cursed her for faking death. In order to protect her, other practitioners immediately blocked the guards and said, "Stop! She has lost consciousness." Then, we helped the older practitioner to sit on a chair and lean against the wall. Wang Jianzhong tore a handful of my hair out of my scalp, and it started to bleed. The guards forced us to stand by the wall. They also lined up and faced us. Wang Jianzhong cursed Falun Gong, and the practitioners for a long time. Other guards also cursed us at the same time.

On a hot summer day, the guards tortured us by making us standing on a cement floor for a long time under the scorching sun. Some practitioners fainted and fell directly onto the floor. The guards and criminal inmates then pulled them back to the room and poured cold water on them. We kept standing, from one morning to the next. In the evening, a thunderstorm came and rain started to fall. We were completely wet. I had never experienced in my whole life staying outside in a thunderstorm and downpour. I had never imagined that the punishments in labour camps were so cruel. We stood in the thunderstorm for an entire night. When some practitioners started to nod their heads in fatigue, they were beaten immediately. (The guards and criminal inmates took turns monitoring us.) They took turns to sleep, but we were deprived of sleep. On the second morning it cleared up but was very windy. The guards forced us to stand in the hallway where the wind whistled through. The west door of the hallway was open. A male guard intentionally opened the east door in order to increase the draft. Our completely wet clothes and hair were blown dry while we trembled. At that time, we held a hunger strike and we were very weak. They refused to let us use the washroom. Some practitioners could not stand it and had to relieve themselves in their pants.

Some guards pulled practitioners from their rooms to a tree by the side of a drilling ground. Male guards pulled at female practitioners’ clothes with their hands. The distance between our room and the drilling ground was about 100 metres. Sometimes, practitioners’ clothes were torn. The skin on some practitioners’ heels was torn, and the bones were exposed. Then the guards handcuffed them to the tree.

When one female criminal inmate met her family, she told them that she was in charge of monitoring Falun Gong practitioners. Unfortunately, the guards heard her. After she came back to the camp, guards inserted an electric baton into her mouth, shocked her, and severely wounded her mouth. On the next family visit, she could neither speak nor open her mouth. She just kept crying. Some guards were closely monitoring her. If she opened her mouth and let her family know that her mouth had been shocked and severely wounded, the guards would torture her even more. The guards warned the criminal inmates that they were not allowed to tell their families that they were monitoring or in charge of Falun Gong practitioners.

A female criminal in charge of us told us that she had seen a female practitioner persecuted to death and that she had been in charge of the practitioner for a period of time.

In order to obtain reward money for their supervision, the workers in the camp persecuted us severely, although they clearly knew that we were good people and had not broken any laws. They invited the reporters from Tangshan TV station to report on the camp and fabricated fake stories for the station's benefit. Once the guards made practitioners clean up the rooms and wear sports uniforms for a TV interview. When the TV reporter arrived, they arranged for Falun Gong practitioners to sit next to female guards. The camera reporter said, "You guys pretend to chat happily with the guards. Pretend you are close friends. Say whatever you want to say. We will not record audio. We only record video. We will dub the video after we go back to the station." After that, they also recorded practitioners working out, singing, and dancing.

Those practitioners who were steadfast and would not cooperate with the persecution were locked in a big room and not allowed to make a sound. The guards were afraid that people from the TV station or other organisations would discover them. After the reporters left, those practitioners were severely beaten and locked in isolated compartments.

In order to make money, camp workers forced practitioners to sew buttons or make bricks. The goods in the camp store were about twice as expensive as outside. The cost to make a phone call was also expensive.

Note

1. "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/2006/8/4/134787.html