Exposing Crimes at Tumuji Forced Labour Camp in Inner Mongolia from My Own Experiences

In July 1999 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began a most violent persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. I want to expose the CCP's evil crimes in the Tumuji Forced Labour Camp from my own experiences.

I was arrested at home the afternoon of June 28th, 2004, by agents from the Yalin Police Division and sent to the Forestry Police Department. That same night they sent me directly to the Tumuji Women's Forced Labour Camp to serve a three-year sentence. Arriving there, they searched me and my luggage; even the toilet paper was opened. Then they put me into a "reformation¹ group," isolated from all others. I ate in the cell and was followed all the time, even when I was sleeping or going to the toilet. They subjected me to around-the-clock mental torment, tried brainwash me with the CCP's propaganda, and tried to force me to write the three statements (to denounce Falun Gong). Three female guards and two criminal inmates watched me. I refused to listen to the them and refused to compromise in any way. They got angry and kept on insulting me, refusing to let me sleep.

I spent more than a month in this harsh environment. They eventually returned me to the newcomer's team. Even there I was still under strict monitoring. I was not allowed to sit by a wall, and I could not close my eyes. No matter what I did, they always picked on me.

After one month in the newcomer's team I was transferred to a middle team. I did not compromise with the evil pressure; so, during the time they held a "reform" meeting, eight of us practitioners refused to attend. The first time we refused they added one month to our forced labour sentence; the second time they added two months. To resist such persecution, the eight of us refused to acknowledge this persecution. From then on, they stopped forcing us to attend this kind of meeting.

One day at the end of October 2004, my husband came to visit me. We took a break from work around 11 a.m., about lunchtime. Before we had a chance to exchange even a couple of words, I was made to eat lunch somewhere else. I told him to wait for me after lunch, but they did not give me a chance; after lunch the detainees went directly to work. My husband said, "Can I see her for five minutes?" Female guard Yin Guijuan said, "No, not even one minute!" She immediately told my husband to leave, otherwise he would be arrested. Everyone was standing at the gate. Two practitioners said, "He came all the way from far away! Why don't you just let them see each other for a few minutes? We can work a little more to cover for her." A guard shouted, "Get out of here, you idiot!" Then she pushed the two practitioners in their 40s and 60s down the four stairs. She even said, "Who cares if you drop dead."

The practitioner in her 60s knocked her head on the ground and suffered a bump on her head and a wrist injury. Her hand hurt when she moved it. The guard yelled at my husband, telling him to leave right away, or he would be taken in. My husband was scared so he left. Seconds after he left the guard began physically assaulting me, punching me in the head and yelling, "I've wanted to beat you for a long time!" She dragged me into the yard and said, "I will show you who the tough guy is!" Several of the other practitioners grabbed her arm and said, "Don't get mad, let's talk." Three other camp employees were watching, including two team leaders and one worker. None of them said a word. The guard at the gate said, "She refused to "reform;" that's why her husband can't see her."

The guards did not waste any time in forcing us to work. The hurt elderly practitioner was still forced to work. The next day they had to take her to a hospital. She returned with her hand in a cast--she had sustained a bone fracture.

Female guard Yin Guijuan was the most evil person in the camp. Guards and inmates monitored the practitioners at all times, even when eating, sleeping, and during bathroom breaks. They forbade practitioners from speaking with each other. Some criminal inmates became informants. The guards let them monitor practitioners. If their performance satisfied the guards they would receive a reward, including sentence reductions.

Once at a lunch break some nurses came to our cell to inform everyone that they would be giving us a physical exam, checking for AIDS and STD. I was the first one called in. I told them that I had no diseases and therefore did not need to be examined. They drew my blood over my objections. When I resisted they slapped my face and kicked and punched me. They drew a pipe full of blood. After that they told us that the government spent 60 yuan² on each person and that we should appreciate it and quit complaining. What a lie! They couldn't care less if we were indeed ill. If someone was ill, we had to ask many times before they agreed to take the person to the hospital. Then the patient had to cover all the expenses, including the meals of the prison guards who went to the hospital.

I spent eight months there before the next round of persecution. Eight months later the guards took me to a "reformation" group the second time and separated me from fellow practitioners. The first night they made me stand until midnight and refused to let me sleep. The next day they threatened, "We will assign six female guards to watch you 24 hours a day." They then put me in handcuffs and affixed me somewhere high up for eight days.

Female guard Zhai Qiuhua was unusually mean and cruel. She began to persecute Falun Gong practitioners on July 20th, 1999. Once she suspended me by my hands from the upper bunk bed. The bed was raised on several bricks, so I had to stand on my toes. The handcuffs eventually became very tight on my wrists: the more I moved, the tighter they cut into my flesh. The guard inserted Teacher Li's portrait underneath my heels, hoping that I would step on the portrait, but I did not even move my feet a little. Seeing her plan was failing she came to pull my leg but failed to move it. After she left I pulled my hands hard and the handcuffs opened. I immediately picked up Teacher's portrait and put on the bed. When the female guard saw this, she came back to beat and insult me. She hit my head with a rubber club. I lost consciousness for a while. Then the female guard began to whip me all over and caused many injuries. They also hung me up for the whole night.

The guards once forced me to watch a TV programme and told me afterwards to write a paper, reflecting my understanding. I wrote what was in my mind instead of what they had expected. Frustrated, a female guard began to curse. She also hung me up by my hands and hit my face with a rubber club. My teeth became loose and bled. I spit blood. She continued to insult me with profanity.

Section Chief Zhang Yaguang and Officer Chen Qiang were two of the worst offenders in persecuting practitioners all these years. They attempted to force me to watch the fabricated TV programme slandering Dafa and demanded that I answer every single question (about the CCP's Department of Justice Number 23 Order). I kept silent. They attempted to force me to answer again. I took the opportunity to clarify the truth. They refused to listen, but instead told me to give the answers they wanted to hear, otherwise they would slap my face. I said, "If my words satisfied you, you would record it, but today I said something true. Will you record that?" They said, "Who wants you to answer this way?" and then they slapped my face repeatedly.

They hung me up for eight days, day and night, except while I ate or used the toilet. Finally my hands turned purple. At night guard Zhang Yaguang came. He planned to handcuff me behind my back, one hand from the top over the shoulder, the other one from below. But it was too difficult for him, so he called guard Hu Hongbo, a young man in his 20s. The two tortured me, a woman in her 50s, for about 20 minutes.

Later the guards sent me to a solitary confinement cell. They also used some collaborators to try to persuade me to give up cultivation. I completely rejected their lies and refused to listen. On the fifth day they began to torture me with backward handcuffing again. I resisted them with all my strength. This time they called in Hu Hongbo. Four of them pinned me down to the floor and tied my hands back while cursing. This time the painful torture lasted 75 minutes. I could not endure it anymore and gave in to their demands. I later felt very bad. But my belief in Dafa became stronger. After that setback, no one could change my solid faith anymore.

I saw the CCP's evilness in that extremely harsh environment. My righteous thoughts became stronger and stronger, and my mind became more and more clear. Now that I am exposing the CCP's crimes, I once again declare that anything I wrote under the extreme pressure is completely void.

After I moved back to the middle team from the "reform" group, the guards warned me not to tell the others what had happened. It was clear that they fear exposure of their crimes.

The persecution I suffered is just the tip of an iceberg. It was one among millions of similar incidents of persecution for which the CCP is responsible. Right now, among the 100 plus people detained in Tumuji Forced Labour Camp, only less than ten are criminals. The rest are all either people of faith or those who filed grievances with the government, calling for justice.

Note

1. "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")

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/11/28/143431.html