Eyewitness Account: Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted at Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province

Xinhua Forced Labour Camp is just one of the many Chinese Communist Party (CCP) heinous forced labour camps where Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted. Practitioners have been tortured at the Second Squadron in the Sixth Division. I saw and heard many incidents of torture while I was imprisoned there.

Mr. Lu Zhiyong, a practitioner around 40 years old, was a forestry policeman. He was sentenced to forced labour twice. His wife is imprisoned in Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp in Sichuan Province. Mr. Lu refused to comply with the guards' orders, so they tortured him. Head of the Sixth Division Su Xin directed several guards to shock him with electric batons until he fell unconscious. After he regained consciousness, the guards handcuffed him to a metal bed frame and kept shocking him. Mr. Lu was then put into a separate cell for "strict management," and his term at the forced labour camp was extended. He was later put in another squadron for strict management. Mr. Lu protested the abuse. Deputy Director Zhao Zeyong of the forced labour camp extended his term for yet another six months under the charge of "injuring and disabling one's self." He is currently imprisoned in the drug rehabilitation squadron in a separate cell.

Mr. Xie Xinglu, around 30, was from Gongli County, Xichang City, Sichuan Province. He was imprisoned in the Second Squadron of the Sixth Division beginning in September 2005. Guards Zhang Xiaogang and Piao Jing abused and insulted him, attempting to force him to give up his belief. They forced Mr. Xie to sit on a small stool and stand up straight until 2:00 a.m. He was then awoken at 5:00 a.m. The guards also ordered him to write the three statements¹. Mr. Xie refused, so the guards did not allow him to use the toilet, forcing him to soil his trousers. Piao Jing scorned him as shameless. He then poured cold water over Mr. Xie's head when he was changing his trousers. One evening in November, guards Shen Rui and Su Xin got drunk when they were on duty. They called Mr. Xie into the office and ordered him to sign a "Guarantee statement²." Mr. Xie refused to sign, so the guards tied him up, shocked him with electric batons, and put a folded paper hat on his head, the same hat that the CCP used to humiliate landlords.

On a hot day in June 2006, guards Zhang Xiaoyang and Yang Jing put Mr. Xie into a separate room for strict management and tortured him with several instruments. The guards told others that they separated Mr. Xie because he was unstable after hearing his father was in critical condition. In the separate cell, several inmates were ordered to be Mr. Xie's "personal monitors" and to make him to sit on a small stool in the centre of the cell until 2:00 a.m. These inmates forced him to watch the video tapes that slandered Falun Gong. Mr. Xie closed his eyes. Yang Jing ordered the monitors to open his eyelids by force. They also used fibres to stab into his nose, ears, and eyes, causing his eyes to become infected and purulent and his vision blurry. Guards also ordered the monitors Li Xin and others to write the three statements and to forcibly put Mr. Xie's fingerprints on it. Mr. Xie held a hunger strike to protest this mistreatment.

Guard Zhang Xiaogang from Tongjiang Town in Mianyang City and Yang Jing from Yanting City, Sichuan Province, threatened and coerced inmates into torturing Falun Gong practitioners. One inmate said that Zhang Xiaogang told them to abuse practitioners "without any worries." One inmate said, "Nobody can become a better person at the forced labour camp except by learning more bad things." Guard Shen Rui told inmates to steal and use practitioners' credit cards.

On October 1st, 2006, the CCP's "National Day," the forced labour camp held a celebration with people giving speeches to praise the CCP. Mr. Xu Hongyu from northeast China went to the podium and said "Falun Gong is good." The guards rushed to the podium and dragged him off. Deputy Director Zhao Zeyong ordered security guards to torture Mr. Xu. They used electric batons to burn his face and shock his palms and navel. They also put the electric baton in his mouth to shock him and they beat him with police clubs. Then the guards locked him in an office and covered the window with paper to keep anyone from looking inside. The guards ordered two inmates to guard the door and several others to watch him inside, around the clock. Mr. Xu was unconscious for several days. His face was burned, purulent, and swollen. His eyelids stuck together due to the purulence. Several guards felt sorry for him when they saw his situation. After Mr. Xu woke up a few days later, the guards handcuffed him to two monitors, forcing them to sit together on stools. The guards would not open the handcuffs, even when they went to the toilet. Mr. Xu's buttocks stuck to his trousers due to the festering sores. He could not sit, but the guards still forced him to sit. Yang Jing lied to doctor, saying that Mr. Xu had haemorrhoids. To please the guards, some inmates roughly wiped the purulence of Mr. Xu's face, creating great pain for him.

In November 2007, the forced labour camp authorities started another round of persecution against practitioners. The guards posted pictures and articles along the corridor to slander Falun Gong. They held "transformation³" meetings and shocked practitioners when they protested at the meeting.

Guard Zhao Yu received praise and was later promoted to be the deputy lead of the Sixth Division for his aggressive persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. He forced several practitioners to perform heavy physical work.

The guards there now conduct closed torture. They obscure the windows with paper, so that no one can see the torture taking place in the room. In this way, the guards can bypass supervision and create an atmosphere of terror to better apply evil "transformation" methods. The guards force practitioners to recite the "Open Law Enforcement Handbook," but the physical punishment, abuse, insults, use of torture instruments, and ordering inmates to torture practitioners that goes on in the camp are all blatant violations of the handbook and the law.

Note

1. "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.

2. "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.

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.org/mh/articles/2008/3/24/175011.html