Practitioners Forced to Toil in Unsafe Conditions at Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City

Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, is the cause of a serious pollution problem in Harbin City. Manager of the camp Shi Yingbai (male) is cooperating with bureaucratic business leaders. Inside Changlinzi Camp is a sock factory that, for the past seven to eight years, has dumped the raw chemical materials for dyeing the socks and toxic waste into the Songhua River through the sewage system, causing a serious health threat to the several million people in the entire Harbin City area.

Changlinzi Labour Camp also has a factory that produces basketballs and shoes. The glue used is primarily benzene and xylene, both poisonous. Benzene and xylene can cause numerous diseases, including cancer and leukaemia. These poisonous substances flow into the Songhua River through the sewage system. With the cooperation of the local bureaucracy and its protective umbrella, this poisonous factory is able to exist, causing the Songhua River to be seriously polluted. Many prisoners are forced to work in this poisonous environment seven days a week, which seriously violates labour laws.

Two years after the factory had been in production, Changlinzi Labour Camp invited the environmental protection agency to conduct an environmental appraisal. This appraisal revealed that the level of poisonous substances such as benzene and and xylene inside the factory exceeded the amount allowed. The labour camp then moved the guards out of the workshop, but had no regard for the lives of the factory workers.

Since July 1999, nearly all labour camps have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They not only beat the practitioners mercilessly, but also forced them to work in poisonous, harmful environments. Practitioners in Changlinzi Labour Camp work 16 ½ hours daily, from 6: 30 a.m. until 11 p.m. The work hours for the first and fourth ward also exceed 12 hours, seven days a week. The cafeteria meals served to the prisoners are substandard; the good food is eaten by the guards and chiefs. Ten yuan¹ monthly is designated for the imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners for their expenses.. Although they never receive the money, they are forced to sign a statement claiming that it was given to them.

The chief of the fifth ward of Changlinzi Labour Camp, Wang Kai, ordered prisoner Ma Taiping to beat 14 practitioners. He hit Mr. Liu Jingzhou with such force that he broke the bed board. Mr. Liu's nose and mouth bled and his face swelled. All the 14 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to varying degrees. One person's pelvis was broken and the person was hospitalized. Practitioner Mr. Yu Huaicai went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Wang Kai frequently ordered several prisoners to hold Mr. Yu down and force-feed him, making his nose and mouth bleed and leaving him unable to speak. Wang Kai slapped Mr. Yu for not cooperating with the force-feeding. Mr. Yu was extremely weak and was diagnosed as critically ill in the hospital, but the labour camp administration refused to release him and continued the torture, causing his death in April 2007.

Changlinzi Labour Camp also has a toothpick factory, where practitioners are forced to package toothpicks. Some practitioners are tortured to the point that their whole bodies are covered with scars. Practitioners contracted various infectious diseases from the torture, but the labour camp still makes them handle toothpicks.

Men and women practitioners are forced to carry shoulder bags that weigh about 44 pounds, load and unload trucks, and do excessive labour, regardless of age. In June and July the practitioners have to work in the sun, laying down the road boards. The road boards are all extremely heavy. Some have had heart attacks but Chief of the seventh ward Zhang Bo forced them to continue the intensive labour. Some older practitioners were unable to complete the work assigned by warden Zhang Bo and had to take their work to their bedroom to finish, depriving them of sleep. Some practitioners have serious illnesses and cannot do the heavy labour. Practitioners who aren't able do the work are subjected to painful and sometimes crippling tortures such as the "Big Hang up²."

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. Big Hand up - There are two forms in this torture: 1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to a metal window frame; 2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. This is extremely painful as the body is pulled. See illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/11/17/54624.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/4/19/176781.html