Exposing Crimes Committed in the Hubei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp

The Hubei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp is located in Mahu of the Hongshan District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province. It was built in January 2005 and occupies an area of over 100 mu [about seven acres]. It cost 42.5 million yuan¹ to construct the European style buildings. Under its gorgeous exterior, it is a forced labour camp used for persecuting and torturing Falun Gong practitioners.

The predecessor of this labour camp was the notorious Qilihu Women's Forced Labour Camp in Shayuan, Hubei Province. In January 2005, it was relocated to Wuhan City with all its original staff and changed its name to the Hubei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp.

Gong Shanxiu, female, 40 years old, from Guohe Town, Xiantao, Hubei Province, is the deputy head of the forced labour camp. She used to be the head of the No.9 Division in the labour camp in Shayang. She brutally tortured practitioner Zeng Xiane from Shiyan until she died.

Wang Qin, previously the head of the No. 2 Division in the labour camp in Shayang, now heads the No.1 Division in the Hubei Province Camp.

Other guards from the former No. 9 Division in the labour camp in Shayang included Cheng Yu, Liu Haiyan, Zhang Yan, Cai Zhengying, and Fang. They are notorious for personally torturing practitioners as well as inciting inmates to help them to carry out the persecution.

These inmates are the so-called "personal cangues," who are selected from different divisions. Two of these personal cangues are assigned to one practitioner 24 hours a day. To intensify the torture, they target practitioners day and night and act at the guards' direction. Those who are most active in beating and torturing practitioners will receive a large reduction of their jail terms and are released earlier; otherwise their term will be increased or they receive other punishment. Every evening, guards will meet with them and tell them how to further torture practitioners. Given such incentives, the "personal cangues" do things that a a normal person wold never do.

These cangues are conditioned to assault practitioners at the guards' discretion. Drug offenders Chen Lu and Jin Jing beat a practitioner and wrote it down in their weekly report, showing it as part of their work. The guard told them, "You did the right thing. You can't ease up on this kind of people."

Below are some common tortures used by the "personal cangues" in the labour camp

1. Brutal beatings

A practitioner in her 50's recalled her experience: "When I was sent to the labour camp, officials immediately arranged for drug offenders to supervise me. I was forced to sit straight on a low, small stool the entire day under the close watch of these drug offenders. I was forced to recite the 55 prison rules. If I refused to recite or was unable to recite, the 'personal cangues' would brutally beat me. They would kick and punch me, grab my hair and smack my head against a wall or the floor, and pound on my feet, legs, and private parts with the stool. The prison guards turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to these beatings. If someone complained to them, they would answer with, "Who saw what happened?"

2. "Digging a wall"

The practitioner is forced to stand with her back against the wall while bending forward. Both arms are pulled up from behind with the backs of her hands touching the wall and her legs straight. The victim is forced to "dig a wall" in this position for several hours, which causes the eyes to swell and renders one unable to see anything. When a practitioner suffers such a torture, the "cangues" often kick, punch or hit her with a stool. Moreover, some even put a basin with water on the practitioner's back. When practitioner Ms. Li Weili was tortured liked this, her lower vertebrae were dislocated, and she was unable to straighten her back for a long time.

3. "Pulling grass"

After being deprived of sleep for several days and nights, the practitioner is taken to the courtyard by the "cangues" and is forced to pull grass under the hot sun. No break or any drinking of water is allowed. One must first completely clean the whole yard. There are many crushed stones and bits of charcoal in the grass. The "cangues" sit in the shade and watch. When practitioner Tong Dongxiang refused to follow this order, the "cangues" held her hands and randomly pushed them onto the ground on the crushed stones and charcoal. Her nails were smashed and bleeding. The two "cangues" also held her by the ears in order to raise her off the ground, up and down. Her ears were torn and bleeding from the abuse.

4. "Cuffing to the bed"

The practitioner is handcuffed to a bunk bed and is deprived of sleep. Because practitioner Huang Qiuzhen (40 years old) from Huangzhi did the sitting mediation, guard Sheng Yu ordered the drug offenders to handcuff her to the bed for two weeks. During this period, they beat and verbally abused her everyday. They kicked and hit her private areas with a stool.

5. Long-term sleep deprivation

The practitioner is detained in a small, dark, damp room and is forced to watch videos that slander Dafa. The person is beaten if she refuses to watch. During the daytime, the practitioner is forced to pull grass under the hot sun, tortured with "digging the wall," or brainwashed by over ten collaborators². This often results the victim becoming disoriented and incoherent. Practitioner Liu Weili from Xiangfan was deprived of sleep for over 20 days. She was punched and kicked. Her lower back was badly injured due to the beatings. She was not allowed to go to the toilet all day long and was punished with squatting, "digging the wall," and "pulling grass."

6. "Carrying the waste bucket"

The practitioner is forced to clean waste buckets and put the waste in a big red bucket without a handle and carry it to the courtyard. To insult and punish practitioners, guards do not give them any cleaning tools and force practitioners to use their rice bowls to clean the buckets. Because practitioner Zhang Jinqiong (40 years old) did not cooperate, guard Zai Zhengying made her carry manure buckets 100 times per day and then forced her to squat down until 4 a.m.

7. Stomping on practitioners' feet and ankles

Drug offender Li Weiwei, female, over 20, is from Yichang. She stomped on and injured several practitioners' feet. Zhang Juan, female, over 20, is a drug offender from Shashi. She often pinched practitioners' nipples and stomped on their feet and ankles. She also introduced her torture methods to other drug offenders.

8. Poking a practitioner's vagina with a toothbrush

Drug offender Tan Qin, female, is from Shashi. She used several toothbrushes to poke a practitioner's vagina.

9. Force-feeding

A metal scoop is used to pry a practitioner's mouth open. Then they force-feed practitioners with salt water and chili water, which causes them to choke and gag. When practitioners vomited blood, water and food, it was scooped up from the floor and dumped back into their mouths again.

Below are some of the severe torture methods used by the guards in the labour camp

1. Shocking with electric batons

Practitioner Liu Guangfen, over 30, was previously detained in the No. 9 Division in Shayang (Gong Shanxiu was head of the division). Because she refused to give up her beliefs, she was brutally beaten, and they broke her leg. Even now, she is still unable to walk normally. Even though she is disabled, they still force her to do hard labour. Guards in the camp often beat her and shock her with electric batons. She often has to stand up straight after being beaten. Many practitioners have witnessed her being beaten repeatedly by drug offenders, but the guards act as if nothing happened.

Practitioner Lu Fengying, over 50, is from Huangshi. When she was detained in the labour camp in Shayang, they shocked her hands with electric batons for a long period of time, which disabled her hands, and she was unable to straighten her fingers.

Practitioner Li Zhihui, 56, is from Xiangfan. Four male guards shocked her with electric batons for over 40 minutes. Before they shocked her, the prison doctor Liu Qiuhong (female, over 40) checked her and then told the four guards to go ahead with the shocking. These male officers disfigured her face. The skin on her eyelids, mouth, and ears peeled off. Before they left, they told her, "We will come back tomorrow."

A practitioner over 50 reported to police officer Liu Bing that the "personal cangues" had beaten her. First, Liu Bing slapped her face twice and then instigated the two "cangues" to drag her to the duty office. She then called in four male officers from the education section to torture her. These four stepped on her hands and feet and shocked her with electric batons all over her body for about 40 minutes. Noticing that she still didn't yield to them, they handcuffed her to a chair and shocked her temples, earlobes, mouth, and fingertips for about 20 minutes. This practitioner's ears and mouth were swollen and her face disfigured. Guards and heads of the division sat outside the duty office watching the torture. Guard Liu Haiyan even taunted her, saying that she looked like a pig after the electric shocks.

2. Forced military stance

Guards Wang Qin and Liu Yan often make practitioners do a military stance. The practitioner is forced to stand under the hot sun for several hours with both arms stretched forward and one leg stretched forward.

3. Brainwashing

When a practitioner gives in to the guards after being tortured and has an unclear mind, she will then be forced to watch video programmes that slander Dafa and listen to those crooked theories all day. She is required to write a so-called "thought report," which must be written according to what they say. Otherwise, she will be beaten every day for over one month or even three months. Three months later, the practitioner will be forced to do hard labour.

4. Slave labour

A practitioner described the situation in the labour camp as follows: "The work load in the labour camp is very heavy. We are forced to work 14 hours a day and some are still unable to finish the quota. The food is of very poor quality. Before October 2005, the labour camp forced us to make photo albums for the Sifang Paper Printing Corporation in Wuhan City. Some people had to work till 4 a.m. in order to finish the daily quota and then had to work the next day. Everyday we had to carry heavy packing boxes from the third floor downstairs. Each box weighs over 20 kilogrammes. Everyone, including the elderly and weak, must carry the boxes downstairs five or six times, up to over ten times per day. Some elderly practitioners were so tired that they felt dizzy and had blurred vision.

The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) henchmen in the Hubei Women's Forced Labour Camp have committed monstrous crimes against Falun Gong practitioners, and they must be brought to justice.

Hubei Women's Forced Labour Camp: 86-27-88422142
Guard gate office: 86-27-88422114
Xu Bingan, head of the labour camp, head office: 86-27-8842210
Mao Jing, head of the Political Committee, Political Committee Office, 86-27-88422100

No.1 Division, 86-27-88422141
No.2 Division, 86-27-88422128, 86-27-88422136
Administration Section: 86-27-88422137
Bi, head of the Administration Section
Team office: 86-27-88422163

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/31/155942.html