Experiencing the Horror of Zaozihe Labour Camp

The Brutal Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners by Zaozihe Forced Labour Camp

Shaanxi Province

By a Falun Gong practitioner in China

March 18, 2002

The guards in Fengxiang County Zaozihe Forced Labour Camp, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province have, for over two years, used various cruel ways to torture Falun Gong practitioners who were illegally arrested and sent there.

After we were initially sent there, the guards pretended to be kind when talking to us. They tried all means to change our righteous faith in Falun Dafa. When I questioned them and made them dumbfounded, they started to slap me on both sides of my face with the heels of their shoes. They kept slapping my face until they became tired. Only then was I allowed to go back to the cell. The guards ordered the drug addict inmates to continue torturing another Dafa [Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance] practitioner and me. Everyday they forced us to do extremely heavy labour, and our hands were worn badly and kept bleeding. Even so, they still forced us to work the next day. In the evenings after we came back from the working sites, the guards let a group of the drug addicts form a circle surrounding each of us and then abuse us. During this time, we were forced to bend our bodies at a 90-degree angle. After each of them verbally abused us, they beat us. After the beating, they then resorted to other malicious ways of torture, including forcing us to "ride on a plane." [In this torture position, the head is bent until it cannot go down any further, while the hands are pulled up from one's back and held up to the highest position. The hips have to point up. One is forced to keep in this position unchanged for a long time. The body in this position looks like the shape of an airplane, which is how this torture is named after] Owing to the endless torture and suffering, we could not endure any longer and thus gave in. Afterwards, we were transferred to the No.1 Division for forced brainwashing as a group. In the No.1 Division, the guards brainwashed us everyday for a long time. We were also forced to write down our "views" after reading their articles or watching their TV programmes. This kind of forced brainwashing made me feel that I would be better off dead than alive.

Seeing that the cruel guards persecuted Dafa frenziedly, the practitioners who still kept righteous thoughts in their minds could not tolerate this anymore. Most of the practitioners declared one after another that what they wrote during the brainwashing sessions was invalid. We even told the guards that at the time we gave in, it was against our own wills. Gradually, more and more practitioners awakened and declared that the so-called "views" they had written were invalid. They also determinedly resisted the evil's brainwashing. Seeing the practitioners' sudden change, the guards were at a loss. They transferred those determined practitioners to other divisions. I was still kept in the No.1 Division. The evil guards once again threatened and coerced us, and tried to forcefully brainwash us, claiming that our terms would be extended if we did not give in. We did not succumb to them whatsoever, and further pointed out for the guards that what they were doing was nothing but persecution and spiritual rape. The guards ordered the inmates to watch over us. Three inmates watched over one practitioner, which was called encircling a Dafa practitioner. The practitioners were not allowed to talk to each another, and even going to the toilet was strictly limited. The guards often called in the inmates to have meetings in order to let them abuse the practitioners. They even instigated the inmates to be bold in the persecution. The inmates were told that it did not matter if anything misfortunate happened and they would not be held responsible. Furthermore, they would be rewarded with reductions in their terms and labour intensity. In the meantime, the guards also intentionally created various conflicts so as to let the inmates hate and thus abuse Dafa practitioners.

The guards even said fiercely, "A practitioner who cannot be brainwashed has no other choice but death." Two practitioners stood up and protested, and were then hung up [their hands were cuffed to their back and they were hung up] by the vicious guards. The guards tortured the two practitioners by forbidding them to sleep or go to the toilet. After the two practitioners could not stand the torture anymore, they wrote the so-called self-criticism letters. The guards made the two practitioners read the letters at all meetings, large or small. It felt extremely painful to watch the two practitioners being inhumanly tortured to such a terrible state, painfully reading the letters, and their hands trembling while holding the letters. At that time, these thugs became even more ruthless. They wantonly slandered Dafa and said that for a practitioner who refused to be "transformed," his term would be extended or he would be sentenced to jail, etc. I stood up to them, and I was dragged to an office and brutally beaten by the guards. After the beating, they handcuffed me and hung me up so that only the tips of my toes could barely touch the floor. I was forbidden to sleep. They also tied up the ends of my trouser legs with a rope, so I had to pass urine and faeces inside my trousers. The weather was hot, and the smell was unbearable. Many green flies crawled all over my body. Another practitioner whose last name is Ma was also handcuffed and hanged up there. The guards let the inmates take turns to read articles that slandered Dafa to us. In the morning of the third day the person (who had talked to me before) in charge of the labour camp "610 office" [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems] came in. I told him that I needed to use the toilet, but he ignored my request. He instead asked me if I had agreed to be "transformed." I told him that I refused to be "transformed." He was extremely angry, and told the guards to watch me more closely and not to take me down from the hanging position. He then walked away. At night, they put me down. Due to the long time of being handcuffed and hanged, my wrists became inflamed and festered, and the wounds were quite severe.

I was still detained there even though my given term was finished. At that time, the guards pretended to be good to me, asking me to perfunctorily write something so that they could let me go home. I really did not want to stay there any longer, so I gave in to their request. I was just released. Now I solemnly declare that the guarantee letter that I wrote is invalid.

These are the evil-doings of a so-called civilized division in Zaozihe Labour Camp. Then how did the other divisions treat Falun Dafa practitioners? The guards in No.4 Division ripped open the practitioners' shirts, poured water on their chests, and then used electric batons to shock them on their chests. The guards call this torture "doing electrocardiograph." In winter, they forcefully pushed the practitioners down into the water tank and called this torture "lowering the temperature." Before Dafa practitioner Du Feng was sent to the labour camp, his legs were broken after he fell down from the fourth floor while the local policemen were torturing him. He was sent to a hospital. Immediately after his broken legs were set and while he was still using clutches, he was sent to Zaozihe Forced Labour Camp. The labour camp was not supposed to accept a person in such bad physical condition. However, the labour camp accepted him and even hung him up with his hands cuffed behind his back for as long as 49 days.

This is what I know, but I do not know how many other ruthless tortures are still happening in Zaozihe Forced Labour Camp.

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/3/25/20202.html
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/3/18/26876.html