Practitioners Enslaved in Qianjin Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City

There are approximately 60 inmates at the Qianjin Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, and most of them are Falun Gong practitioners. About 30 of the 36 inmates in the First Division are practitioners, as are about 20 of the 23 inmates in the Second Division. The guards at the camp recruit the criminal inmates to assist them in persecuting the practitioners.

Labour camp officials force practitioners to work overtime and give them excessive workloads. Practitioners are forced to get up at 5:30 a.m. and must work from 6:00 a.m. until 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. They get only 15 minutes for lunch and must work their entire shift without a break. Zhang Bo, Chief of the First Division, personally monitors everyone's work. Anyone who does not finish the assigned quota has to take the work back to his or her cell and may not go to sleep until the work is done. Once, the inmates were tasked with stacking Popsicle sticks, and everyone was required to complete the same quota, from newcomers to elderly people over the age of 70.

Huo Shuping, Chief of the Second Division, often punches and kicks practitioners and abuses them physically. She also forces practitioners to work more than the regular quota. When inmates are tasked with making rice paper bags, she increases the quota in the Second Division from 400 to 450 bags a day. Practitioners who cannot complete their quota must continue working until 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. If the quota still is not finished, the practitioner is forced to sit on a small stool until 11:00 p.m. or 12 midnight. Labour camp terms are extended for practitioners who cannot finish their quota every day for a month. Those who refuse to work also have their terms extended. The terms of practitioners Ms. Qi Jinlin and Ms. Zhang Cuijuan were extended by 15 days, and the term of Ms. Du Xiuqin was extended by two days.

The current task in the labour camp is sorting and packing coffee stirrers and hot dog sticks, making rice paper bags, and packing toothpicks. The previous task was making shopping bags and pill boxes.

The coffee stirrers and hot dog sticks must be sorted into three categories and then packed into large bags. Each bag is about the size of a 50-pound rice bag. Practitioners under the age of 40 have to finish three bags each day. Those who are elderly or weak have to finish two bags. The process of making rice paper bags is very complicated, with a great deal of folding and gluing. Practitioners under 40 have to finish 450 bags a day, and others have to finish 300 to 400 bags, depending on their abilities. There are two kinds of toothpicks: round and flat. Practitioners have to pack the round toothpicks into bags, put the bags into boxes, and staple the boxes shut. Practitioners under 40 have to pack 1000 bags a day and put them into 20 large boxes; others have to pack 500 bags. When working with flat toothpicks, practitioners must glue the boxes, pack the toothpicks into the boxes, and wrap the boxes with plastic. Practitioners under 40 have to finish 500 boxes a day, and others have to finish 200 to 300 boxes.

There are no facilities, equipment, or process in place to disinfect the toothpicks. Wood dust from the toothpicks is all over the place, and practitioners frequently choke and sneeze from the particles. The yellowish glue has a very strong odour that causes headaches and eye-tearing.

Since hygienic conditions are so bad, rats and flies frequently enter the work area and come into contact with the toothpicks, rice bags, coffee stirrers, and hot dog sticks. There is certainly no guarantee of the sterility of these products!

The toothpicks are exported under the "Arpex" brand name.

Practitioners at this labour camp are routinely deprived of their basic human rights, their health, and their dignity. Practitioner Ms. Liu Xiuli once became so tired that she lost consciousness. Instead of calling for medical assistance, the guard on duty said she was pretending. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Cuijuan fainted a number of times while working, sometimes more than once in the same day. She was later diagnosed with poor circulation in her coronary arteries. Every day, she would pant heavily when she walked from her cell to the workshop. But the guards still forced her to work overtime. If she could not finish her quota, they forced her to work until 11:00 p.m. or 12 midnight. Practitioners are severely persecuted and enslaved, and they are not paid a penny for their work.

We hope that kind people around the world all awaken and voice their support so that the persecution can be stopped.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/2/4/171679.html