Practitioners Brutally Persecuted in Brainwashing Sessions in Huaihua City, Hunan Province

In the latter half of 2007, under direct orders from the Huaihua City 610 Office¹ and Hunan Province, Huaihua City authorities held another brainwashing session to brutally persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The following are some of the persecution methods used against practitioners in attempts to force them to renounce Falun Gong: forcing practitioners to watch videotapes and cartoons slandering Falun Gong, holding meetings attacking Falun Gong, and holding classes to spread lies to slander Falun Gong. They also used threats to force Falun Gong practitioners to write the three statements² to give up their practice. They beat, handcuffed, hung up and verbally abused practitioners who remained steadfast in their belief.

The "brainwashing class" is located in a bankrupt printing factory in Yingkou Township of the Tianhu Economic Development Region in Huaihua City, Hunan Province. There are no signs at the front gate and it is enclosed by walls. It is a four-story, two-unit building with a total of sixteen rooms to be used as the "transformation³ base."

From September to November, the Hunan Province and Huaihua City 610 Office transferred people from different area 610 Offices, political and legal departments, police stations, national security departments and other agencies and ordered them to monitor detained Falun Gong practitioners. At the brainwashing centre, each Falun Gong practitioner was kept in one room, with two people monitoring each practitioner. At the same time, they arranged for two teams of agents from the Provincial Prison Management Bureau and Provincial Forced Labour Bureau to conduct brainwashing sessions on Falun Gong practitioners.

Chenxi County is the most severe in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Since mid-September, Zhai Xiaoming, head of the 610 Office in Chenxi County, and Li Huimeng, Wei Minggai, Luo Jianhe and others have arrested over ten local Falun Gong practitioners and sent them to Huaihua for brainwashing sessions.

On September 20th, while practitioner Yu Shaoqi was at work, Zhai Xiaoming led Wei Minggai, Luo Jianhe and others to break into Mr. Yu's office. They forcibly dragged him downstairs, pushed him into a car and sent him to the brainwashing centre in Huaihua. They tell practitioners' relatives that they are sending the practitioners away for "study" and assure them that they live very well. In reality, the practitioners suffer brutal torture and are viciously beaten.

Mr. Yu Shaoqi is disabled. He was handcuffed by Li Huimeng and Luo Jianhe to a window for several hours. He began a hunger strike to protest the persecution, which lasted more than 20 days. Wei Minggai tortured Mr. Yu from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Yu Shaoqi's nose was bleeding and his body was covered with injuries. Finally, Wei handcuffed Mr. Yu in an extremely painful position with one hand brought over his shoulder and the other hand from behind the back. Wei also used a cigarette butt to burn Mr. Yu and struck his back with handcuffs. He kicked and stepped on Yu's disabled foot to further torture him.

They tore off his underwear and plucked out his pubic hair and stuffed them into his mouth. They injured his penis by pulling on it and made it swell with pus. They poked his pubic area with keys, which made Mr. Yu scream in agony.

In another severe case of persecution, practitioner Ms. Gong Huamei was sent to the brainwashing centre in Huaihua. She began vomiting blood eight days after she started a protest hunger strike. She refused to cooperate with the "transformation" efforts. Lan Xiaoming from the county 610 Office went to the room where she was detained and threatened her by saying that if she would not agree to be "transformed", they would have Wei Xiaoming rape her. Gong Huamei sternly replied, "Do you have a mother and sisters at home? Would you treat them like this?" Wei Xiaoming left in anger.

Practitioner Liu Yuan was brutally beaten because he kept shouting, "Falun Dafa is good" at the brainwashing session. Li Huimeng, the assistant head of Chenxi County's 610 Office, and Luo Jianhe, Wei Minggai and others beat Liu Yuan about the head and body. Finally, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., they handcuffed him to a window frame with his feet barely touching the floor. They threatened him by saying that they would send him to a forced labour camp or mental hospital for further persecution if he would not be "transformed".

Falun Gong practitioner Ou Jiafa, over 60 years old, also suffered brutal persecution. They tried to force him to write "guarantee letters⁴" but Mr. Ou told them, "I would die before I wrote that."

Finally, the perpetrators forced Falun Gong practitioners' family members or work units to pay several thousand yuan⁵, and then released them one after another.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "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.

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")

4. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/1/4/169588.html