Horrific Persecution in Hebei Province Labour Camps

Stories of Persecution of Dafa Practitioners at Forced Labour Camps in Shijiazhuang and Baoding, Hebei Province

By a practitioner in China

These are the personal stories of torture and persecution experienced by several Dafa practitioners in both the Shijiazhuang and Baoding-Gaoyang Forced Labour Camps.
The Baoding-Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp was established in October 2000. During that time there was a large number of Dafa practitioners being illegally detained at forced labour camps in the cities of Tangshan, Shijiazhuang and Handan in Hebei Proince. As time passed, these practitioners were becoming more resolute in their determination to continue practising Falun Dafa. Jiang's regime then built the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp facility, which absorbed more than one third of the jailed Dafa practitioners from Shijiazhuang Labour Camp.
Originally there were four brigades at Shijiazhuang Labour Camp. In order to further persecute Dafa practitioners, they established the 5th Brigade in November 2000. Dafa practitioners safeguarded the right to practice Falun Dafa in unison and maintained a fairly good environment there. However, practitioners also paid a high price for upholding their belief. They were subjected to brutal tortures, such as being tied with ropes, confined in solitary compartment, electrically shocked, lashed with a leather belt or shoe soles, force-fed, and hung up with hands cuffed. Usually the labour camp only used a "single rope" to tie inmates who had serious camp code violations, yet they would apply two or three ropes to Dafa practitioners. A solitary confinement cell is less than two square meters. There was no windows, no bed, with cold wind coming in from all four walls. Practitioners would be cuffed to the bars on the iron door. Only one washbasin was provided. It would be used for eating, urination, as well as body waste discharge. Because they demanded the right to practice and study the Fa (The books of Falun Gong), some practitioners were punished by being made to stand against walls for up to 40 days at a time. Everyday there were practitioners who were cuffed, beaten, and shocked. Brigade leader Yin of the 5th Brigade even stuffed dirty rags into practitioner's mouth when they were being hung up with their hands cuffed. Numerous Dafa practitioners were forced to repeatedly go on hunger strike, some as long as 40 days. They must also endure physical torture such as beating, hanging up with hands cuffed and shocks.

From November 1999 to early 2001, practitioners openly studied the Fa and practiced exercises among all five brigades. Later, they practiced and studied everyday. They would call out in unison, "Falun Dafa is good! Eradicate the evil, suffocate the evil!" If the camp deputies beat anyone, the entire group would go on hunger strike to protest and lend support, until these hoodlums gave up and conceded. If they wanted to seek out individual practitioners, then the whole group would offer protection by surrounding the individuals. The guards could do nothing about the wide-open practice and Fa study. Some practitioners could go on hunger strike, some would reason with guards, and some would study and practice. Around December 2000, under significant pressure, the labour camp released some practitioners who had been tortured severely. Among them Liu Yanhong, Hu Shengman, Wei Tianshen, and Zheng Ping were all released to receive medical treatment due to their life threatening conditions.

In April 2001 the evil establishment forcefully separated Dafa practitioners into different groups. Some very determined Dafa practitioners were transferred to the Baoding-Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp.

Gaoyang Labour Camp was called "Masanjia in Hebei Province.” (MAsanjia is a notorious labour camp in Liaoning Province that is known for its brutality in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners)

At Gaoyang Labour Camp, Dafa practitioners were tortured to the point that dying seemed better than living. They tortured Dafa practitioners every half hour, day and night. When the newly transferred practitioners arrived here, they were all cuffed down to iron tie-down rings on the floor. They could neither stand up nor sit down. They could not move or go to the bathroom either. One practitioner had been on a hunger strike for many days and was extremely weak. He could not stand there. The ruffians pounced on him and started beating him ruthlessly. Whenever practitioners would recite the teachings of Falun Dafa they could remember by heart, the evil guards would order other inmates to scream Dafa slandering slogans. They also interfered by broadcasting noise from morning to evening with very high volume. All twenty Dafa practitioners were beaten and shocked repeatedly, and each time they would demand, "Do you still want to practice? Are you going to write the repentance paper?" If a practitioner refused to cooperate, the vicious hooligans brigade leader Wang Yajie would scream, "no more power, give me another fresh set of batteries so I can shock them every half hour!"
Force-feeding with urine and bowel waste: After practitioners started their hunger strike, the hoodlums resorted to force-feeding by dragging the practitioners to the county emergency centre. They would force-feed them every day. They inserted plastic tubes into the nose of practitioners. After they were done, the practitioner's nose and mouth were full of blood. Local people were curious and came to observe. Even under severe pain, practitioners would clarify the truth to people and won sympathy from many of them. The hoodlums got scared and instead carried out their force-feeding right at the labour camp. After 30 days of hunger strikes, they blatantly started force-feeding practitioners with urine and bowel waste. When practitioners struggled to refuse, they would use tools to pry open their mouths. Brigade leader Zhou Haiyan (female, 30's, short hair) was present during the force-feeding. Practitioners who were fed with urine and bowel waste would experience high fever and bad cases of diarrhoea.

They would (electrically) shock practitioners who refused to be brain washed. They would shock them for four to five hours. Some practitioners would be shocked into unconsciousness.

Later on Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp and Tangshan Forced Labour Camp all sent their deputies to Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp to study their "experience of torture and persecution." Upon returning with the experience gained, Shijiazhuang Labour Camp started another round of escalated persecutions. Practitioners were not allowed to sleep. They would beat practitioners to near death. They put nails into practitioner's fingers. They lashed practitioners with leather belts and police batons. Backed by secret orders from Jiang's regime, "No concerns over beating deaths, count death as suicide," "Must reach transformation quota, otherwise deputies will be fired from their jobs." The thugs would try to save their jobs by ruthlessly and relentlessly torturing Dafa practitioners. The thugs had totally lost their human decency.
The painful regret after cooperation: After one practitioner was forced to cooperate, she knew she did something terribly wrong and was extremely depressed. She resorted to singing and joking loudly, and conducted herself with extreme actions in order to alleviate her depression. She said, "If I had to stay there for one more day, I would become insane." She said that there were others who were forced to cooperate in the same way, but were still enduring the pains of extreme self-regret and depression.

Another practitioner was forced to write repentance papers daily even after she was forced to cooperate. She suffered obvious memory loss. She was forced to recite the so-called "camp rules," yet regardless how hard she tried she could not recite them. She was under severe sedation and depression. Her brain was forced to remember just one thing: "Obey centralized arrangement." She ended up being lethargic, crying and laughing at the same time. Even the labour camp thought she was sick and let her go. Upon returning home, her family was very worried about her condition and sent her to a mental hospital for treatment. Yet nothing changed over there and they had no choice but to let her go home again. Urged by fellow practitioners, she started to read Zhuan Falun again. (The main book of Falun Gong, outlining the underlying principles of the practice) She gradually regained her composure and eventually recovered completely. Even her family was stunned by the power of Falun Dafa.

http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/4/3/27786.html