A Teacher Recalls Her Experience of Physical and Mental Abuse at the Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province

One night in December 2005 at about 10:00 p.m., National Security officers suddenly surrounded my home. They remained until 2:00 p.m. the next day, when they broke into my home and arrested me. I was detained in a police station in the western region. After several hours of them questioning me fruitlessly, I was transferred to the City Detention Centre. They kept me there for a month before I was eventually sent to Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp. This place is notorious, known as a living hell. I was sentenced to one year of forced labour. That one-year incarceration made me truly recognize the false and wicked face of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I encountered terrible persecution at Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp.

I was initially held in the second floor location of the Second Team of the Seventh Division, where almost all newly-detained practitioners were compelled to undergo brainwashing. The first floor is the location for the First Team - the "Strictly Monitored Team." The Third Team is the "Attack Team."

Two collaborators¹ monitored me, in a "squeeze control." They constantly talked to me, attempting to convince me to give up my faith. They reported to the camp officials and verbally abused me, but they could not change my mind. Team head Long Liyun called me into her office later on, and lectured me, and the other prison guards took turns going after me to persuade me to abandon Falun Gong, but my mind was firm. As a result, I was transferred to the Third Team, the "Attack Team."

Third Team head Shi Yongqing did not want to hear the truth of Falun Gong. She sent me immediately to the No. 1 Cell where the most severe abuses happened. While in that cell, I was forced to stand on a ceramic tile only the size of my feet. I was kicked and beaten if my feet moved off the tile.

The criminal inmates would spit a mouthful of water or even a glass of water onto me. I was tortured non-stop, 24 hours a day; however, I still treated the abusers with kindness and compassion. For example, a criminal inmate monitored me one day as I stood on this tile. I got tired and my feet slipped off the tile. The criminal violently kicked my belly, but at the same time, I heard her cry out in pain while watching her fall to the floor. I went over, helped her up, and helped her to straighten her clothing. She was shocked and stared at me. I never saw her again.

No matter how much those criminals verbally abused me, I would face them with a smile. Because of my persistence in my faith and non-cooperation with the persecutors' schemes, the criminal inmates gave me a hard time. I would be beaten even if I simply set my cup down, washed a dish or walked a little bit slow. Later on they tortured me by forcing me to squat in an awkward position. I could not hold the position and fell to the floor. They hit and kicked me. They put their knees on my head, mid-section and on my back. I had bruises and injuries everywhere. I was severely tortured, until I was more dead than alive.

One day the officials gave us a test. Several questions slandered Falun Gong, so we practitioners refused to complete them. They punished us by having us stand for a whole day. I was sent to the Strictly Monitored Team. To make me "reform²", the guards subjected me to various torture methods. I was deprived of sleep, forbidden to shower, brush my teeth or wash my face, and forbidden to go to the toilet. I had to squat in a corner by a wall, my arms out in front, parallel with my shoulders. Three guards and criminals took turns torturing me. They compared their torture methods, and would repeat the most cruel methods.

Once, one of the female inmates once took off all my clothes and touched my body inappropriately. I was very angry and bitterly attacked her verbally. However, she said, "I am a gangster, and I am gay." She wrote something on my body that slandered Falun Gong. I was deeply insulted and cried loudly.

Each day, criminal inmates not only tortured me during the daytime, but they also beat me in the middle of the night especially when drug addictions flared up. One criminal would beat me to reduce her sentence. She asked, "Is Falun Gong good!" while beating. I told her "Falun Gong is good, and Falun Gong is the universal law." She hit me harder and more frequently, using her fists, until she ran out of energy. After this beating my teeth were loose, I had a mouthful blood, and one tooth was crooked. My face was swollen, and I had severe pains in my legs. The abuser stepped so hard on my foot that they tore the skin, exposing bare flesh and bones.

The later tortures were even more ruthless and brutal. Several criminals pushed me into a storage room, later called the "torture room." Guard Tang Geli had five criminal inmates stand in the room. They attempted to force me to write the "guarantee letter" to give up Falun Gong. I told the guard and criminals that I would not cooperate with them, even if I died. Five inmates swarmed all over me; some inserted steel needles into the soles of my feet; some pushed my arms behind my back, and some put their knees on me and then beat me brutally while one said, "It is not so easy for you to die. We will torture you to be half alive and half dead." I said, "I will report this cruel abuse, as long as I still have breath." Guard Tang Geli said, "Who is beating you? How come I don't see it?" Another repeated, "Beating a Falun Gong practitioner to death is not considered a crime."

They put an unknown substance in my water bottle and forced me to drink. Having been subjected to long-term prohibition to wash my face and brush my teeth, I had to use the bottled water to wash my face and hands. My beating-induced wounds were getting better, but my vision was deteriorating. I also had blood in my stool, and I was emaciated.

My activities were closely monitored and I could not get in touch with anyone during my detention. I felt compelled to write a letter to the Seventh Team head, to expose how I had been tortured at the Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp. The abuser became fearful and tried to cover things up. On the one hand, the guards extended the sentence of the two criminal inmates who were involved in the tortures and abuse, but on the other hand, I experienced more severe torture from those two. They threatened me and tried to force me to recant my letter, saying that otherwise I would be sent to the Strictly Monitored Team and be subjected to even greater torture. I defied them and firmly refused their demand. Finally, I returned home.

Note

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

2. "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.ca/mh/articles/2008/4/18/176729.html