Brainwashing and Abuse at the Qiqihar Forced Labour Camp

From September 2001 to March 2003, I was detained in the forced labour camp in Qiqihar, Helongjiang Province. I encountered brutal brainwashing and was forced to do hard labour in a poisonous environment.

Right after I was taken to the labour camp, the guards locked me in the room that was used to "transform¹" practitioners by force. There were four of us in the room; the other three were collaborators that had been successfully brainwashed and were now assisting the authorities in trying to "transform" practitioners. At the beginning, the guards and the accomplices took "good care" of me and it seemed like they always looked after me. Two weeks later, they realized that I could not be "transformed," so they revealed their true faces and cursed me with vicious words. They separated me from the other steadfast practitioners. I could only see the guards and the collaborators². Sometimes I could hear that, in the next room, somebody was force feeding practitioners. In the room I was in, other than trying to lie to or trick me, nobody talked to me as a normal person. It was extremely painful physically and mentally. In order to get me to give up my belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance," they arranged for my family to visit me. I learned later that, before my family saw me, the guards threatened them, saying, "We will detain her forever if she is not willing to be "transformed."" They also lied to me, saying that my family members wanted to disown me. When my family saw me, the guards monitored them and prohibited them from giving me food. They persecuted me materially and mentally.

When they tried to force me to recite the the cell rules, I firmly resisted and later I found out that the practitioners in the big room had all resisted it. Those in charge no longer tried to force us to recite the cell rules. I was detained in a "transformation" room by myself for over two months. Seeing that I could not be "transformed," the guards transferred me to a big room. There were a couple of steadfast practitioners in that big room. We could only make eye contact and could not talk each other. There were a couple of criminals and their accomplices around me to monitor me at every single moment. The video monitor was on 24 hours a day. We were forced to watch the propaganda on TV.

In order to earn money in a low, base manner, the guards in the labour camp forced us into a one-story building nearby to pour pesticide into containers. The toxicity of some of the pesticides is very bad. After a whole day's work, some criminals had bloody noses, swollen eyes and faces, and chapped skin. People should have gas masks to pour pesticides, but we only had regular respirators. After a day's work, the toxic pesticide chemicals were all over our clothes, inside and out. We don't have hot water, let alone bathing facilities. Before meals, over 100 people had to wash their hands using water from the same basin and it was impossible to wash off all of the pesticide. Then we had to use our hands to pick up the steamed buns to eat. We were so tired at night that it was difficult to turn over when we slept. Suddenly, we did not have to work. We were forced to watch the fake news that slandered Dafa. We were forced to sit in the iron chair³ if we refused to watch the news. Term extensions are very common.

The standard of the food in the labour camp was very poor. Eight or nine people had to share one dish and we had to do hard labor in order to have that dish. Most times, the majority of the meals were frozen potato soup or cabbage soup, with dirt in the bottom of the bowls. The things in the store were very expensive and people seldom bought them. If an investigation group came, the menu on the blackboard became very rich. Actually, in most of those cases, the rice porridge would be thicker and we would have more pickles. Labour camps never provide us with hot water, whether it's for washing clothes or taking baths, even in the cold weather. Once the investigators came, they would make the collaborators say that hot water was provided.

Later, a couple of practitioners resisted the persecution and refused to do the hard labour. The guards and the criminal inmates pressed us individually in different rooms, shackled our hands behind the backs of the iron chairs, and restrained our feet so that we couldn't move at all. It was in the cold of winter. There was no heater in the room, and there was ice on the window. We were prohibited from sleeping and were provided with two buns every day without water. They tortured us like this until we agreed to do hard labour again and we also had to write a "guarantee letter" stating that we would not stage a strike again in the future. They were afraid to let the other practitioners see us so they only allowed us to go to the toilet once at night. Due to the torture, some practitioners' hands, feet, and faces were terribly swollen. Some practitioners limped as they walked.

This is the inhumane persecution that I encountered in the Qiqihar Forced Labour Camp. There are many practitioners still detained there that have been persecuted as I was several years ago. I hope that all the benevolent and upright people in the whole world will offer their help to uphold human rights and rescue all the unjustly detained Falun Gong practitioners.

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. "Collaborators": [former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.]

3. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/2/8/172043.html