Details of Torture Methods Used On Falun Gong Practitioners in Shanghai Women's Forced Labour Camp

The Shanghai Women's Forced Labour Camp is one of the places where Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured most seriously in the Shanghai area. Although the worst perpetrators have been exposed on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website several times, they continuing torturing practitioners. Among the divisions at the labour camp, the Second Division is the most brutal.

Those practitioners who are steadfast and not compromising with the authorities, and who are called "stubborn" by the police, are sent to the Second Division.

Once practitioners get in, the guards deprive all of their basic rights, (i.e. reading books/newspapers, writing letters, talking with the criminal inmates who are monitoring the practitioners). The practitioners' daily activities are decided upon and recorded by the inmates monitoring them. The guards often instigate other detainees to hate Falun Gong practitioners. They often order the detainees to enforce the division rules and to torture the practitioners. Practitioners suffer great mental pressure while performing forced labour.

A very common torture includes sitting on a hard bench over a long period of time. As long as practitioners are blamed for violating the so-called division rules, they have to suffer this type of torture. One practitioner, about 35 years old, had been forced to sit on the bench on the fourth floor for a very long time. She had to maintain a 90-degree angle between her body and legs, and was forced to sit this way from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily. Although deprived of all her basic rights, the guards failed to force her give up her belief in Dafa. Hence, she was able to leave the forced labour camp in the end without compromising with the authorities.

Practitioner Wu Qiurong, a college graduate, was detained for a second time in the labour camp. During her detention in the Second Division, the guards failed to brainwash her. The authorities therefore ordered that trouble be made for her physically and in her daily life. After she was tortured physically and mentally for a long time, she looked ill and had difficulty walking. The guards didn't allow her to rest, and forced her to continue the hard labour. She had to be carried upstairs after work. However, Ms. Wu eventually left the forced labour camp.

Practitioner Sun Zhuoying had been detained in Shanghai Women's Prison for four years. Even so, she maintained her belief and didn't accept the so-called "transformation¹." This time, she was sentenced for one-and-a-half years in the forced labour camp. Although she had been persecuted for so long, she was always smiling. But they wouldn't even let up in persecuting an older woman like Ms. Sun. The police forced her to work every day. Every day, she has to finish showering and washing her clothes within ten minutes. Eventually, she was transferred to the Fifth Division. (The story about Ms. Sun can be found in the article about Sun Zhuoying which is posted on the Clearwisdom website: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/12/26/81175.html)

Practitioner Zhang Ying was detained for the second time in the Shanghai Women's Forced Labour Camp. When she got to the Second Division, she got very sick and needed assistance to walk. Because Ms. Zhang refused to cooperate she was punished by being forced to sit on a hard bench. The punishment caused her whole body to tremble. The medical examination showed that she had heart problems and high blood pressure. The guards told Ms. Zhang that if she didn't take medicine, they would assume that she had no health problem. Ms. Zhang was forced to go to work like the others every day. She was so weak that people often felt a simple gust of wind would blow her away.

Practitioner Yang Manhua had been detained in Shanghai Women's Prison for four years and nine months, yet the guards couldn't make her denounce her belief in Falun Dafa. Last year, she was sentenced to forced labour camp and detained in the Second Division. From a reliable source it was learned that Ms. Yang had been tortured since the first day she was detained. She is quite thin now.

To strengthen the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Wang Ming (police ID: 3156089), the associate director of the division, and Xu Hong (police ID: 3156087), the head of the Second Team, started torturing practitioners by hanging them by their handcuffed wrists. Many drug-addicted detainees had seen practitioners being hung up quite high. Normally, to apply this torture, policemen would have to get permission from the Administration Office. So, Yu (last name, police ID: 3156062), the head of the Administration Office, and Cui (last name, police ID: 3156017), the head of the Management Office, are also fully responsible for this torture.

The police clearly know the truth about Falun Gong after being in contact with the practitioners over the years. Yet in order to accomplish the so-called "political tasks," and under the enticement of personal benefits, they have completely lost their conscience and kindness. Using the excuse of following orders from their superiors, they are violating heavenly laws. When practitioners pointed out that they were violating the law, the guards would answer, "We don't care about the law. The government has made the decision about Falun Gong. Here is the law enforcement authority. You can have your own thoughts, but you have to follow orders once you are here." But the truth is, all their regulations and actions are directed at forcing the practitioners to give up their beliefs. Therefore, the practitioners are deprived of their freedoms to think or to act. The process of the law enforcement is actually the process of violating the law. Any excuses the guards use for their behaviour is simply hiding their own crimes.

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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/12/25/145430.html