What I Saw and Heard in Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp

I was arrested and sent to the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Re-eduction (Brainwashing) Camp, where I was persecuted. The following is what I saw and heard in that dark den.

In late May 2005, in the "Intensive Training Team" of Beijing Women's Forced Labour Re-education Camp, there was an elderly Falun Gong practitioner who was quite tall and had white hair. When it was time for her to shower, three people would hold her body, with a towel forced into her mouth in order to keep her from talking. However, we have not seen her since June.

When we were having so-called "legal lessons," practitioners asked, "What crime did we Falun Gong practitioners commit for you to sentence us?" The guard who was leading the session said, "You committed a crime because you believe morality is superior to the law." There was no further explanation. Then the guards started to talk about other things.

In late June 2005, while we were doing forced labour, a group of people came and took photos of each team while the prisoners were working. The prison guards were frightened, and they started to take down all the surveillance cameras installed in the toilets. The labour camp guards were very deceitful. For example, as soon as people came to inspect, they would order us to finish our work early and hide all our work tools so that the visitors wouldn't find out about the forced labour.

On December 29th, 2005, from 6:00 to 6:15 a.m., guards from the "Intensive Training Team" forced towels into several practitioners' mouths and took them away in vehicles from the Judiciary Bureau. No one knew what was happening. Before lunch, the team leader told each team that no one was allowed to accept an interview, and if anyone decided to say anything negative, that person would be regarded as betraying her country. At noon, the guards forced us to go to sleep as soon as we finished our lunch. Every team leader was watching us closely. Later we found out that people from the United Nations had come to interview Falun Gong practitioners.

Practitioners were also force-fed. In 2005, we could often hear people crying out in the "Intensive Training Team" and the "Tackle the Fort Division," and calling out "Falun Dafa is good!" However, as soon as visitors arrived, the guards would create a false scene.

In 2005, before the Chinese Lunar New Year, a group of practitioners was supposed to be released and reunited with their family members. However, they were not released until after the 15th of the first month of the lunar new year. Drug addict inmates and prostitutes, however, were released before the new year.

From September to October 2006, Ms. Zhang Jinlian, 50, a Dafa practitioner from Miyun held in the "Intensive Training Team," had her arm wrapped with gauze, and she was often sent outside for treatment. It seemed that she was badly wounded.

One day in December 2006, we saw some prison guards holding electric batons and wearing helmets. Later we found out that they were going to torture four female practitioners who had written, "Falun Dafa is good."

On December 22nd, from 6:25 to 6:35 a.m., the labour camp sent a group of steadfast practitioners away by car. Two returned after noon. No one knew where the others were taken.

Those practitioners who refused to be "transformed¹" were not allowed to have a shower for one or more months. They were also not allowed to change their undergarments, which was truly unbearable. They were only allowed to sleep two hours a day, and for the rest of the time, they had to sit in a dark cell. They were watched even when they went to the toilet, and three or four people had to follow them everywhere.

The No. 1 Team of the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Re-education Camp was an especially wicked team. Guo Kaiyang took some collaborators with her to forcefully "transform" those practitioners in the former "Tackle the Fort Division" - now called the No. 2 Team. They tried for three or four days but could not "transform" one practitioner.

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/4/30/153848.html