The Brutal Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners at Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp in Sichuan Province

Because we cultivate Falun Dafa and believe in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," we were arrested by police from the local police stations or the National Security Bureau and sentenced to forced labour. During our detention in Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp in Sichuan Province, we were brutally tortured and humiliated by the guards, led by team head Zhang Xiaofang.

The guards always discussed how to make us suffer more. Under their instigation, drug offenders or prostitutes did their best to torture practitioners in order to decrease their prison terms. Their ruthlessness went to extremes. Innocent practitioners were tortured every day with beatings, being handcuffed with their arms behind their back, being hung up while handcuffed, shocked with electric batons, tied up with ropes, tortured with the tiger bench¹, splashed with dirty water or excrement, being forced to stand for long hours, not allowed to go to the toilet, were deprived of sleep, not allowed to brush their teeth or wash their face, and so on.

Besides this inhuman torment, Falun Gong practitioners were forced to work to produce export products day and night. The following is information about the abuse suffered by practitioners under persecution at Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp.

1. Sleep deprivation

Sometimes, Falun Gong practitioners were only allowed to sleep two or three hours a day, or even one or two hours every three days. Sometimes, all the practitioners were forced to work overtime without any sleep at all.

2. Beaten and forced to work long hours

Because of the forced labour, the practitioners often felt dizzy and had blurred vision. They were often scolded if they worked too slow and were often beaten. Practitioner Wang Hongxia was an English teacher in Anyue. She had been hung up off the floor for long hours, was beaten and endured the "tiger bench" torture, which made her lose consciousness several times. Practitioner Zhu Yinfang was beaten by Tang Min, Fan (given name not known) and others in the shower room, which caused her death. Many practitioners were forced to sit on small plastic stools for long hours, which made their buttocks develop sores. The practitioners were forced to work day and night to earn money for the guards. Tasks included doing embroidery on baby clothes, sorting pig hairs and so on. Sometimes the practitioners were not allowed to sleep for several days and were forced to work continually.

Once, guard Zhang Xiaofang (team head) said to the other guards in the duty room that the task just finished by the practitioners helped them earn 290,000 yuan²; 140,000 yuan was handed over to the labour camp and the balance of 150,000 yuan would be divided among the guards. The guards all laughed hysterically.

3. Extortion by guards

Falun Gong practitioners were forced to labour without any income. Their daily needs such as plastic stools, rice bowls and wash basins had to be purchased at a high price in the labour camp with money from their family members. Zhang Xiaofang was in charge of that money. Sometimes, she would say to a practitioner, "I took three hundreds yuan from your account as a fine." They even robbed the hard-earned money of the practitioners' family members!

4. Withholding food

Sometimes all the practitioners in the team were punished by the withholding of meals. The guards would say that the food would be dumped down the sewer pipes to feed the mice. There were many mice in the labour camp. They ran around among the cells, damaging the practitioners' clothes and shoes, leaving excrement in the clothes, and even making nests in their clothes. The guards in the labour camp didn't attempt to control the mouse population and said, with regard to the damage they wreaked, that the mice needed to grind their teeth.

For a long time, many practitioners were punished and given very little food to eat, less than 1/10 of a pound per day and no water. As a result, they were hunger and thirsty. At the same time, they were forced to do heavy physical labour such as carrying water, excrement or garbage.

Zhang Xiaofang said with a complacent smirk, "I am just glad to see you all look thin and sallow." Practitioner Xu Ping from Guanghan City protested, "We are forced to do heavy labour every day but the food given us would not even feed a chicken. What is the point in surviving?" She was immediately dragged to the duty office and was brutally beaten. Her face was deformed and there were wounds all over her body. Zhang Xiaofang stomped on Xu Ping's feet with her heavy shoes, injuring Ms. Xu's feet badly. Xu Ping was also forced to face the wall and stand for long hours without food, drink or sleep, while the perpetrators took turns watching and beating her.

5. Withholding water or force-feeding water

Sometimes the practitioners were given no water at all or else were filled with great quantities of water but not allowed to go to toilet. Practitioner Gao Yan was tortured until she had a mental breakdown. During her period, blood would drip everywhere in her trousers and on the ground. Sometimes the practitioners were punished and not to allowed to go to the toilet, which made many of them have to relieve themselves in their trousers. Those guards would laugh wildly and scold them, "You are so dirty."

6. Forced to sing the songs that praise the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

The guards forced practitioners to sing songs several times a day to praise the CCP. The guards would approach the practitioners closely to check whether they were singing. If one was detected not singing, she would be immediately dragged out and brutally beaten. Some practitioners were forced to dance to praise the party. Those dances were very similar to those used in the great cultural revolution. Everyone was forced to write one's thoughts every day and to praise the guards' "education." If someone was "transformed³" and started to bully other practitioners, the guards would praise her and say she had advanced. That person would get a promotion such as being head of a cell or a group.

Zhang Xiaofang often said, "I represent the police, the country, and the party! Anyone against me would be against the police, the country and the party." Practitioner Xie Wenying once replied, "You can't!" Zhang Xiaofang immediately punched and kicked her and grabbed her hair to drag her to the shower room. Xie Wenying was brutally beaten there by a group of people. Practitioner Su Shihui has been unable to walk because her feet were severely injured with wooden stakes.

The crimes committed against practitioners in the CCP's forced labour camps are too numerous to describe. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Falun Gong practitioners have suffered brutal persecution for eight years. The crimes are still being committed. Even practitioners at home are often monitored and harassed by the authorities. Many are are unable to go home and are forced to move constantly in order to avoid persecution.

We appeal to international organisations, organisations with a sense of righteousness and people everywhere to stand up to stop the CCP's persecution. We hope that the international society will be able to enter forced labour camps in Sichuan Province to conduct independent investigations and help end the unjust persecution soon.

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

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

3. "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/2007/9/8/162328.html