My Experience of Being Persecuted at a Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province

Because of my persistence in Falun Dafa, I have been detained in a rehabilitation centre and a forced labour camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. During my detention, I refused to sign the three statements designed to "expose and criticise [Falun Gong]" and to slander Dafa. Because of my strong resistance and refusal to be "reformed¹,"I was brutally tortured both physically and mentally.

Monstrous crimes are being committed unscrupulously inside the Heilongjiang Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp under the orders of the directors, Chen Guiqing and Zhang Ping. Political director Niu Xiaoyun, division leaders Zhao Wei and Li Quanming, and the team leaders, including Sun Baolian, Liu Wei, Wang Dan, Wang Haiying, Wei Qiang, and others directly take part in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. As soon as a practitioner is sent to the forced labour camp, their movements are strictly monitored by the guards and some prisoners called "assistants" who collaborate with the guards. The guards seek to control the imprisoned practitioners' every thought and notion.

At the beginning of my detention in the rehabilitation centre, the guards arranged a few brainwashing collaborators² to try to "reform" me. I was forced to get up at 4 or 5 a.m. The collaborators surrounded me and promoted their evil concepts and tried to make me accept their crooked logic. This forced brainwashing and mental harassment lasted until midnight every day. Surveillance equipment was installed in every cell occupied by a practitioner. For each practitioner who refused to be "reformed," at least one prisoner would be arranged as the so-called "assistant." The assistant's task was to monitor the practitioner's every word and movement, 24 hours a day. They yelled and cursed at us if we practitioners talked to each other. Eight or nine practitioners lived in one cell. However, we were forbidden to speak even one word to each other. We were deprived of our freedom of speech and personal freedom.

There was a plastic pail behind the cell door. All prisoners in the same cell had to use this pail to relieve themselves. Some cells accommodated twelve prisoners, so the pails emitted foul odors because they were not cleaned regularly in the hot summer days. The stench that filled the whole cell and corridor was so repulsive that even the guards who patrolled the corridor held their breath. What often happened was that while someone was relieving himself, a cellmate would be consuming food only a few feet away. When the guards' superiors came for inspections, these foul pails would be hidden under the bed or in the washroom. Our daily meal was nothing but soup made from rotten vegetables. A prisoner once said, "Even food for livestock is better than ours."

Various cruel methods of torture have been used in the rehabilitation centre in order to try to "reform" practitioners. At the end of November 2002, under the orders of Chen Guiqing and Zhang Ping, the directors of the rehabilitation centre, the authorities carried out a so-called "war against those that persevere," in a renewed attempt to "reform" practitioners. Division heads Zhao Wei and Li Quanming ordered guards to move over 80 practitioners into the dark, damp, cold basement. It was extremely cold in winter in Northeast China. As soon as we got into the basement, the guards ordered us to strip down to our pyjamas. All the windows were opened, and the piercing wind blew in. The guards couldn't help shivering in their cotton-padded overcoats. We were then forced to squat barefoot in the freezing cold, trembling all over. Some of us were chained to the ground with fixed cuffs. The guards put basins of cold water under our buttocks. Anyone who was too tired to squat would have to sit in the cold water. Each guard also carried an electric baton and continuously applied shocks to practitioners. The crackling sound from the electric batons never stopped, and the strong smell of burning skin permeated the air. Some guards let out wild, evil bursts of laughter while swearing at Dafa nonstop.

During that period, I was handcuffed to the ground. Prison guards Wang Dan, Liu Wei, and Sun Baolian kept shocking my neck, back, and head with electric batons. The only thing in my mind at that moment was that there was no way I would yield to them and write the "three statements³," even if I faced death. The guards were cautious not to let the screams and cries be heard outside when we were being tortured. They ordered inmates to tie our mouths tightly with two cloth strips with a gag in the middle and then tape the cloth around our heads several times. Because I was tied so tightly for a long period of time, I struggled to breathe and the corners of my mouth bled. The gags were unfastened only when we were having a meal. At that time, the gags, which were saturated with saliva, fell to the ground and became embedded with dirt and grime before being tied into our mouths again after we were rudely fed by the prisoners.

The guards ordered criminal inmates to try various tortures to abuse us. One example was when the guards ordered inmates to cut our hair in a "ghost style." (They cut our hair any which way to make it look wild and unkempt.) They also pinched the nerves on my back with the tip of a nail, and applied few other cruel tactics. We were forced to squat for 24 hours a day, deprived of sleep, and were not allowed to use the restroom. We were in excruciating pain every moment of the day. After several days of harassment similar to this, I was unable to distinguish between day and night.

One day, guard Niu Xiaoyun ordered me to write the three statements. I said I wouldn't even if I died. She then left and came back with a few inmates who drove me into a dark room in the basement. Five or six guards surrounded me and held my hand to force me to write the statements with the prepared pen and paper in front of me. I strongly resisted. The guards became angry and ordered two prisoners to pinch me in turns. I suffered bruises from head to foot. Seeing that I didn't give up, guard Wei Qiang slapped my face over 20 times until half of my teeth were knocked out and blood flew out of the corner of my mouth. Then they asked me again whether I would write the three statements. I said, "No!" Hearing this, Wei Qiang held an electric baton and walked over to me, while another guard beside him said, "Shock the back of the neck. There are more nerves there." So Wei Qiang began to shock me. After a while, he stopped to see if I would give up, but I gave him the same answer. They punched and kicked me with more force. Finally, I lost consciousness and was removed from the basement.

I was later taken back to the hall in the basement, where many practitioners who didn't yield were held and forced to squat. A practitioner behind me refused to squat but insisted on sitting on the floor, no matter how savagely the guards harassed her. They poured cold water over her and shocked her with stronger electric currents. Those guards verbally abused her while shocking her, and finally the practitioner fell unconscious. I later heard that the practitioner was shocked to death. I also saw another practitioner who squatted beside me. Her mouth was forced open, and the guard cruelly inserted a long thick electric baton into her mouth to shock her. The sound of violent beating and horrifying screams penetrated everywhere.

Heilongjiang Province Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp is a dark den where the Chinese Communist Party is cruelly torturing Falun Dafa practitioners. What I have experienced is only the tip of the iceberg.

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. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

3. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/3/13/150712.html