Torture, Brainwashing and Slave Labour at Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp in Sichuan Province

The guards in the No. 7 Team, a team specifically created to abuse Falun Gong practitioners, planned a set of cruel "reform¹" methods prior to May 2007. The guards put each newly-arrived practitioner into a separate room to enforce one-on-one "reform", meaning one or more drug addict inmates would monitor one practitioner, from morning to the middle of the night, or even until 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m. Sleep would be permitted only if one had agreed to give up practising Falun Gong. If not, the drug addicts would determine one's fate. They forced the practitioners to stand still, sit still, and squat for a long time. They would drag practitioners out of bed, even if they had just gone to bed. Practitioners could not leave the cell; were forbidden to look out the window or talk with another practitioner; were not allowed to take anything with them to the cell, such a cup of water or a pen. Practitioners had to get permission from the drug addicts for everything.

Practitioners were not allowed to use the toilet, even when urgent, except for three set times a day from 5:30 a.m. to midnight. To reduce toilet use, practitioners were afraid to drink much water or eat. Some practitioners couldn't have bowel movements for nearly a month, causing abdominal bloating. The drug addicts never gave them enough them enough time in the toilet.

The cell door was always closed. No other people could be seen, aside from several members of the "help and education" (brainwashing) team. If a practitioner refused to give up her belief they would beat her. They also forced the practitioner to read books that slandered Dafa. Some practitioners could not withstand these abuses and wrote the three statements² against their will.

It happened frequently that officials in Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp forced practitioners to ingest unknown substances, or were force-fed or injected with unknown substances. Some perfectly healthy practitioners were forcibly injected with unknown substances, administered by the drug addicts.

At the end of April 2000, the No. 7 Team merged with the No. 5 Team and became the new No. 7 Team.

On August 27th, 2007, several practitioners were transferred from Suining to the No. 7 Team. Three of them were not accepted because of poor health. One of the practitioners, Ms. Deng Li, over 50 years old, did not cooperate with the labour camp officials. They beat one of her legs so severely that they fractured a bone. Chen Yujun, Huang Lijun, and Deng Ying committed this horrible deed. These so-called "personal monitors" were drug addicts. The guards on duty that day included Wu Yuhui, Fu Meiling, and Yang Yizhi. When Ms. Deng Li was indeed unable to walk, Wu Yuhui claimed that she was lying and was trying not to walk. Only after the prison doctor verified that a bone was fractured and was unable to treat her was Ms. Deng Li's family informed to take her home.

Practitioner Ms. Zhou Rong, 50 years old, worked at the Kaijiang County material supplying chain. When her answer did not satisfy the branch section lead's question, No. 7 Team head Ren Fongming ordered her to come "for a talk." Ms. Zhou told her the facts of about Falun Gong. Ren Fongming became severely irritated and brought in the "help and education" people to talk to her. They said to give her another chance and hoped she could change her mind and become part of their "help and education" team.

Ms. Zhou Rong did not comply. The guards again put her into a cell. They prolonged her stay in the labour camp and sent her on October 29th, 2007, to the No. 4 Team, (telephone: 86-832-5212443) where the inmates were forced to do very heavy labour. They had to process pig hair all day long. The pig hair was soaked in a caustic solution. After a while the labourers' hands rotted from prolonged contact with this solution. Because Zhou Rong refused to write the so-called "ideological re-understanding" or to read books slandering Falun Gong, Team leader Fang Xiaoqing and deputy team heads Chen Xiaoting and Wang Shan, and female guard Long Lan made her stand till late at night. Because there was no clock, no one was sure of the exact time. They also threatened to add more hours to her workload. Chen Xiaoting was the one who in particular attempted to brainwash practitioners.

Practitioner Ms. Wang Kaibi was detained in December 2006. She was sent to Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp in January 2007. She was fine when she arrived, but became mentally ill from the tremendous pressure. The officials transferred her to the No. 4 Team in September 2007. By the evening of November 20th, she had not fully recovered her mental faculties. She went to tell Fang Xiaoqing the facts about Falun Gong. Several drug addicts lifted her by her legs and arms and carried her away from Fang Xiaoqing. When they put her back on the ground, she was still saying, "Falun Dafa is good."

Female guard Zeng Juan put Ms. Wang Kaibi in handcuffs and shackles and left her in an area with lots of trash. Eventually they put Ms. Wang in a separate cell. After that she suffered a mental collapse. She began to mutter constantly. Criminal inmates Li Jinxing and Huang Jin wilfully beat, scolded, and kicked her, and gagged her with a dirty sock. A guard named Li also incited other drug addicts to tape her mouth shut. They eventually put her in a small cell and watched her separately. Ms. Wang's labour camp sentence was up on December 13th, 2007. People who primarily contributed to her deteriorating mental state are No. 4 Team leader Fang Xiaoqing, female guard Zeng Juan, deputy leader Jiang Nan, and Duan Yuanyuan from the No.7 Team, now a leader, and the local police.

On October 29th, 2007, there was a hurried meeting made up of people from the education section leaders, the camp manager, No. 7 Team officers, and a few others. People from the No.7 Team and from the education section announced prolonged sentences for the following practitioners: Ms. Yan Zhongfang (over 60 years old from Guangyuan) and Ms. Xiao Guiying's (about 60 years old from Chengdu) had time added time because of their hunger strike; Ms. Zhou Yunyan because she tore slanderous books apart; Ms. Li Zefen because she orally declared that she withdrew her "three statements"; for Ms. He Junhua because he made a solemn declaration. Ms. Yan Zhongfang and Ms. Xiao Guiying are still on a hunger strike.

In May 2007 drug addict inmates Deng Qiaoling and Chen Jia tied Ms. Xiao Guiying's hands and feet until 4:00 a.m. for doing the exercises. Drug addicts also frequently dragged Ms. Xiao away for force-feeding with unknown substances.

Practitioner Ms. Guo Lijun, about 40 years old from Jinhua Township, Meishan City, was detained for appealing. In the summer of 2007, Ning Qinying, Lin Xiaohong, Zeng Yue and others frequently verbally abused and beat Ms. Guo mercilessly. They sometimes tore her clothes off when beating her. She suffered countless tortures. All those incidents happened under orders from No. 7 Team officers.

In the summer of 2007, when the temperature rose to 38 0C (about 100 0F), Xie Xiaowei and Chen Jia from the No. 7 Team sometimes did not let practitioners take a bath or wash their feet. They wilfully decided the time to shut off the water supply and said people had 15 minutes to wash, but the actual time was only a few minutes. The No. 4 Team leader refused to let practitioners make phone calls but let others do so every day. The reason given: practitioners didn't cooperate with them, "to write their ideological re-education."

Once arriving in the camp, the practitioners were divided into these categories: One, the "reformed ones," who, under duress, had written something detrimental to their convictions; two, those who had resisted the persecution and negated it and endured many unimaginable tortures; and three, collaborators [former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.], who became the "help and education" personnel, aiding and abetting the regime to try to brainwash practitioners. Those in charge taught the drug addicts how to persecute the practitioners and force them to read slanderous books. They also held sham conversations with the practitioners to find out whether someone was really "reformed." The "help and education" group head makes note of the practitioners' state and gives it to the duty officer. The duty officer mainly read those notes to determine each practitioner's state of mind.

Presently, personnel in the No. 7 Team don't let practitioners know their release date. They stipulate that the local police unit handling the case must come to pick the practitioner up; otherwise, the labour camp will not release anyone. If a local police unit doesn't come on time to pick the practitioner up, the camp officials prolong her labour camp term.

Any person assisting the labour camp officials charges each practitioner several dozen yuan per month. Some practitioners are worried about this, because their families cannot afford extra expenses. Some unscrupulous individuals stole the practitioners' monthly 15 yuan³ spending money.

For a long time those in charge at Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp have treated the practitioners with absolute cruelty. The so-called goal to "influence, educate, and save" is all deceptive nonsense. Between 2004 and 2005, practitioners in the No. 3 Team couldn't complete their work and were thus deprived of sleep for a whole week. The officials forced them to complete the hard labour. In 2007 the production team worked from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m; some worked until 11:00 p.m. Anyone completing less work would have to work overtime again after others got off work, or their term was extended. The No. 3 and No. 4 Teams constantly worked in the basement. The No. 4 Team in particular assigned practitioners to select wool under electric lights throughout the year, which severely hurt their eyes.

In order to increase production, the camp introduced an incentive system: after completing an extra task, the practitioner would be given some incentive funds based on some percentage of the extra portion. When this was reached, the camp would stipulate a new rule to increase the workload. No matter how hard the practitioners worked, they couldn't get much money. The camp officials simply refused to treat people as human beings and considered them mainly as a tool to make money for themselves and the camp.

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")

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. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/1/24/170978.html