Bearing Witness to the Cruelties Committed at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

Guards at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, have been cruelly persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Persecution methods include torture, brainwashing and heavy forced labour. The following is what I experienced and witnessed while imprisoned at Masanjia.

First I wish to tell you about the heavy forced labour practitioners have to perform. Every day, practitioners have to work for 17 hours. Times for meals and toilet visits are restricted. Sometimes toilet visits are restricted to twice a day. The labour is generally making handicrafts, with most of the products being artificial flowers. Between August and September, we were forced to cut garlic or peel ginger for more than 10 hours a day. Many practitioners' skin broke open and festered.

We made the flowers in our cells, which included spray painting. Most of the sprays are toxic, which affected our breathing. Those doing such work also had headaches, vomited and were fatigued. Guard Shi Yu was afraid that people could see through the windows and find out what was going on in the cell, so he covered the windows with paper.

One day at the end of November 2007, people visited the labour camp. The guards removed the paper, cleaned the cells, hid everything that had to do with the forced labour and took practitioners to workshops for non-practitioner inmates. Once the visitors left, the guards covered the windows again with paper. The practitioners were moved back to their cells to again make artificial flowers. Shi Yu tortured those who provided information to the outside. Whenever there were visitors, the guards would provide better and plenty of food. Generally, practitioners were only fed coarse grain. No one dared to complain, because whoever complained was tortured.

Usually, one was not allowed to go to the toilet when working. On September 6th, 2007, practitioners asked the supervisory guards for additional toilet time. It was not granted. Many people had to urinate in their trousers. When Ms. Kang Xiaoyan asked to use the toilet, she was verbally abused. She was not allowed to see her family for three months, and the guards even tried to extend her forced labour term.

Ms. Feng Guobi was in her 60's. She sustained a broken bone from the torture and could not sit. The guards did not allow her to go to the toilet. The elderly lady passed out since she could not urinate. She was bedridden for more than 10 days.

Brainwashing is one of the inhuman methods used by guards at Masanjia Labour Camp. They generally used those who had succumbed to the torture and turned against Falun Gong to help with the re-education (brainwashing) of practitioners. These collaborators¹ were like robots and did whatever the guards told them to do. They were made into tools that persecuted practitioners and they were controlled and easily manipulated by the guards. Li Mian and Li Teng are former practitioners. For several years, they have tortured practitioners. Guard Guan Liying ordered them to persecute Ms. Xu Hui, Ms. Sheng Lianying and Ms. Geng Lili. The practitioners were handcuffed, hung up and brutally beaten. Ms. Geng Lili became emaciated as a result of this abuse. Ms. Zhi Junying was handcuffed and hung in the air for 8 days in the Donggang confinement room. She was almost paralysed afterwards. Newly arrived practitioners or those who refused to renounce their belief were all detained in the Donggang confinement room. This is where they torture practitioners inhumanly. Donggang is on the east side of the building. The doors and windows are covered with curtains all year long, and no one else can get near that area.

One night in the middle of September 2007, guard Wang Xiaofeng put Ms. Lu Ling (a practitioner from Beijing) into the Donggang confinement room. He tried to make her write the three statements². Ms. Lu refused. Wang Xiaofeng told others to bring prepared statements and demanded that Ms. Lu sign them. Ms. Lu refused. Wang Xiaofeng hung up Ms. Lu for one month. After she was released, she was paralyzed. In August of the same year, practitioner Ms. Wang Lijun refused to wear the prison uniform and did not obey orders from any of the guards [Note: Because Falun Gong practitioners have committed no crimes and should not be incarcerated, imprisoned practitioners often protest the illegal detention by refusing the wear the prison uniform or refusing to follow orders from the guards]. She was hung up, beaten and verbally abused by Wang Xiaofeng. Later she was handcuffed to a bed for more than two months. Ms. Han Xiujian, 58 years old, finally gave in to the extreme pressure and wrote the three statements because of the brutal physical torture. In July, Ms. Han Xiujian declared the statements null and void. Wang Xiaofeng tortured Ms. Han Xiujian inhumanly and handcuffed her to a bed for more than one month.

In September 2007, Ms. Xie Guihua sang a song about Falun Gong in the workshop. Guan Yanjie, a former practitioner, reported it to a supervisory guard. Guard Cui Hong ordered three male guards to beat Ms. Xie Guihua. The next day, guard Shi Yu hung Ms. Xie Guihua up in the reception room for 5 days. Former practitioners Yuan Shuzhen and Zhao Yonghua were brought to Masanjia Labour Camp to torture practitioners. Yuan Shuzhen was brought in as a "teacher" to "transform³. " practitioners. Ms. Han Junlin did not listen to what she said. Yuan Shuzhen cursed at Ms. Han Junlin and claimed, "If I can't 'transform' Ms. Han Junlin, I will not return to Masanjia." Ms. Han Junlin ignored her and held no fear of her. Yuan Shuzhen was not able to "transform" Ms. Han. In the middle of November of last year, the labour camp authorities reassigned guards Shi Yu and Wang Xiaofeng.

We hope that international human rights groups and activists will get involved in helping practitioners who are being tortured, and condemn and stop this persecution by the Chinese Communist Party.

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. "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.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/3/16/174414.html