Personal Testimony Regarding Persecution in Huadian City and at Heizuizi Labour Camp

I was arrested and subjected to a year and a half of torture at a labour camp. I spent eighteen months of detention in dark prison cells, which consisted of nearly 550 days of physical and spiritual persecution. I witnessed how the guards from Huadian City and Heizuizi Labour Camp in Changchun City persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.

Tortured by the Police from Huadian City

One night in late 2004, at around 7:30 p.m., two fellow practitioners and I were distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution at Huadian City in Jilin Province. The police, having been informed, arrived in a vehicle to arrest us. They would not listen to us, but rather beat us and kicked us. We were eventually moved into the vehicle and arrested.

Once we were at Erdaogou Police Station, the officers confiscated 635 yuan¹ from us without giving us a receipt. They simply pocketed the money. They handcuffed and illegally interrogated us. The dirty words from their mouths were hard to listen to. One of the police officers asked me where the materials came from, and my address and family name. I refused to reply. He lifted me up by my handcuffs with all his strength, and using his knees to push into my back, he pushed my head toward the floor. He said, "Let's see how much strength you have left." He didn't release me for several minutes.

Later, the police officer who had beaten me outside came in. He said, "Put a book on her chest. This will create an internal injury without leaving any external evidence." He used this method to beat me a second time while spitting out dirty words.

Then a plainclothes police officer, called the manager, arrived. He said, "I have never beaten anyone before, but for you..." Before he finished speaking, his arm had already brandished my face. I moved a couple of steps backward. Before I could say anything, another heavy slap hit my face. I felt dizzy and my teeth felt loose.

Then the police officer pulled me to his side. All others shied away with the door open. He used a previous method - using his knee against my back, he pulled me up by my handcuffs with all his strength. The handcuffs cut into my flesh, and my hands became swollen. Blood came out of my mouth and dripped on the ground. Only then did he stop.

Two other practitioners who were arrested on the same night had also been beaten that night. The police handcuffed us in the same cell later on, forbidding us to use the toilet. The next morning, a practitioner unlocked his handcuffs without a key and walked through two gates. Unfortunately, he was arrested, taken back and brutally beaten. After that, the police handcuffed him more tightly.

On the second day of our arrest, Erdaogou officers sent three of us to the police station in Huadian City, Jilin Province, where a male officer conducted an enquiry. They asked similar questions, about the source of the Dafa materials, and our address and family name. We didn't answer. All we said was that Falun Dafa is good. He demanded we sign the record, but we refused. That afternoon, the police sent three of us to the Huadian City Detention Centre.

We experienced the most agonising fourteen days of suffering from various tortures there. That same afternoon and the entire evening of our arrival at the detention centre, the guards forbade us from eating and sleeping. It was during the chill of winter. No one in the detention centre provided us with anything to keep out the cold. Several criminals who sympathised with Dafa practitioners shared their bedding. The food at that detention centre was fit only for animals.

We were subjected to interrogation at the detention centre, and the guards attempted to force us to provide our fingerprints. We remained unmoved. The police began swearing loudly and incited the criminals to physically force us to give our fingerprints. Our fingers were broken but they failed. The police handcuffed another practitioner and me to a metal door, and the third practitioner to a metal window for the entire day.

After fourteen days, the detention centre transferred us to the notorious Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City for further persecution.

Testimony at the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp

Officials at the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp released one of our three practitioners for failing the physical examination. Another practitioner was sentenced to two years. I was put into the labour camp for one and a half years, during which time I witnessed the evil persecution.

I was imprisoned in the fourth team of the Second Division (also called the newborn team). Liu Lianying was the head of the Second Division. He got all of us into his office as soon as we arrived, trying to threaten and brainwash us into abandoning our belief. During the following two-month-long "Bao Jia" (being surrounded by inmates who try to persuade you to "transform²"), Liu Lianying spoke with me several times. He used vicious language to slander Dafa and attempted to convince me to renounce my belief in Dafa. He also saddled me with certain former Falun Gong practitioners who had gone astray, in an attempt to brainwash me. All failed! On the fourth team, guard Jia Hongyan said, "Once you are here, you have got to do whatever you are told to do. You cannot say 'No.' You cannot say you will not break away [from Dafa]!"

When the 2005 New Year's Eve approached, steadfast Dafa practitioners jointly wrote a collective statement that they would never break away from Dafa. Head Liu Lianying shouted and swore loudly. He threatened us, "All will have their terms extended if they do not take back their statements!" Guard Jia Hongyan took one practitioner away for a long time. When the practitioner returned, he had obvious wounds on his back.

In April 2005, the labour camp forced practitioners to do common exercises in order to force us to give up Falun Gong exercises. Those who refused were punished by having to stand in the big classroom from 4:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. In the meantime, the guards abused them. One morning, a criminal on duty supervising the exercises forced a practitioner to close his two feet together. This practitioner ignored him. That criminal asked another criminal to brutally beat this practitioner. Head Liu Lianying joined in the beating, as did another guard, Zhang Xiaofeng, who was in his pyjamas. The practitioner protested loudly. Many criminals outside the door blocked other practitioners from helping. The practitioner was tortured by having to stand until April 29th, 2005, and was put in isolation for twelve days. When he came out of isolation, wounds were visible on his face. Because of this incident, all practitioners who refused to do the common exercises had their terms extended. Some were even shocked with electric batons. Guard Yu Bo said, "If you dare to do the Falun Gong exercises, your term will be extended!"

Guards in the labour camp colluded with some individual merchants for financial advantages. They forced practitioners to work overtime to manufacture birds, butterflies and many other kinds of handcrafts that do not comply with environmental protection guidelines. Many practitioners took this opportunity to write the truth of Dafa and included it in the packing box, and also exposed the inside story of the plots in the labour camp. A prison guard discovered this. Afterwards, head Liu Lianying and guard Wang Xiaoling swore, and they extended some practitioners' terms. They had discovered the practitioners' identities by their handwriting. After that, the persecutors did not dare to let practitioners do the handcraft packing. When practitioners crafted the butterfly wings, they frequently had to work overtime and were prevented from sleeping until 11:00 p.m.

The workload reached the upper limits that one could stand. The camp also forced us to make some marked playing cards. These kinds of playing cards have hidden writing visible only through special eyeglasses, meant to deceive unsuspecting people. We strongly protested this and it was eventually no longer done.

One day in January 2005, one practitioner escaped successfully, using an opportunity while working. The entire labour camp was in crisis over this. All teams increased their police forces and strictly monitored the persecution. The escaped practitioner was arrested again in April 2006 and once more sent to the Heizuizi Labour Camp. He was handcuffed and detained separately. No further information on him was available.

On July 1st, 2005, the labour camp held a vocal concert to celebrate the wicked Party's birthday. Dafa practitioners collectively stated, "We refuse to sing, because the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting Falun Gong." This action led the guards to extend these practitioners' terms. In late 2005, many individuals from 610 Offices all over the country arrived at the labour camp. The official statement was for them "to visit Falun Gong practitioners." This actually deceived the international community. What it really accomplished was an acceleration of the persecution.

In late 2004, the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp subjected all Falun Gong practitioners to physical exams and took blood samples.

One day in 2006, the labour camp held a law seminar. In fact, its aim was to slander Falun Gong. The practitioners resisted immediately. We all stood up and left the room. Head Liu Lianying pulled my hair and dragged me back to the classroom.

I survived all of this physical and spiritual persecution. I do have one regret, though. During the last ten days of my detention, I allowed myself to fall into the hypocritical and sinister trap of those hoodlums. I wrote five letters against my better judgment. After my release, bathing in Dafa's glory, I woke up immediately. I solemnly declared that the five letters I had written in the labour camp are all invalid and that I would firmly practise Falun Dafa forever.

Heizuizi Labour Camp, Changchun City, Jilin Province

Division head, Liu Lianying

Guards: Jia Hongyan, Yu Bo, Wang Xiaoling

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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/7/30/134321.html