Torture Methods Used to Force Practitioners to Renounce Falun Gong at the Shandong Province Number Two Women's Forced Labour Camp

I was arrested and sent to the Shandong Province No. 2 Women's Forced Labour Camp (Wangcun Women's Labour Camp). The guards there committed the most evil crimes against Falun Gong practitioners. I was one of those who suffered. Mental torment and physical tortures are still happening there right now.

1. Torture Methods Used

This camp is one of the key persecution sites in Shandong Province. Its address is: Wangcun Town, Zhoucun District, Zibo City, Shandong Province. P. O. Box 162-3, Zip Code 255311.

In 2001, more than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners were detained there. They were divided into seven divisions of about 160 people each. Now, the labour camp has changed into four divisions, each consisting of about 90 detainees. Except for a few prostitutes, the majority of the detainees are Falun Gong practitioners.

The camp guards had gone through special training geared toward persecuting practitioners. They are very skilful in applying special torture techniques and playing different roles. The vicious environment turned the guards and some collaborators¹ into evil persons. Good people became bad; bad became worse. They beat, cursed, tormented and tortured others. A former practitioner who let himself be convinced to abandon Falun Gong said, "I learned nothing but violence and cursing here." The labour camp authorities rewarded guards and collaborators for their successes in "reforming² " practitioners. They punished steadfast practitioners by extending their terms. Over the last few years, they trained several groups of violent criminals to commit heinous crimes against Falun Gong practitioners.

The camp benefited financially and had become notorious. Protected by the ruling regime, the camp guards subjected practitioners to arbitrary fines or sold them shoddy merchandise for a high price. During the past few years, all the Wangcun Labour Camp's old buildings were demolished and replaced with new ones. The yard was renovated to look like a flower garden, yet featured electric wires above the outer wall. Labour camp guards were rewarded handsomely - they got compensation and benefits, but it was Falun Gong practitioners' sweat and blood that built it!

Practitioners have to endure daily long hours of slave labour, in addition to brainwashing. They worked from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., sometimes till midnight. Aside from going to the toilet, taking half an hour to eat lunch, or doing stand up work, everyone sits on a small bench the entire day. Guards forbid them to talk or to walk freely. Many practitioners who have been detained here, too numerous to mention, have died as a result of torture, suffered a mental collapse, were injured, disabled or came down with various illnesses in recent years.

The guards were told to use all means necessary to maximize the "reform rate." Guards would do whatever it takes to abuse practitioners, as long as there were no visible wounds when outsiders came to visit. The following are some of the methods used by the guards.

(1) The guards subject the practitioners who refused to "reform" to sleep deprivation for forty to fifty days, even several months, or have them stand or sit on a hard bench for a long period of time without moving.

(2) Solitary confinement in a toilet, a strictly monitored room, or a basement that is only big enough for two people to sit tightly. Two inmates monitor the solitary confinement place, and they rotate every two hours since the inmates can't stand to stay there for long. In the winter it is freezing cold. In the summer it is extremely hot and suffocating.

(3) Handcuffs and shackles; chaining people's hands behind the back and to a headboard of the bed or metal windowsill; hanging-up; electric baton shocks.

(4) Practitioners are prohibited from brushing their teeth, taking showers, changing clothes, using sanitation pads during menstruation, and changing clothes.

(5) Forcing people to squat, stand, kneel, and facing a wall for extended times.

(6) Slapping; taping the mouth with duct tape; sometimes the use of ropes and tape to truss a practitioner into a particular position so that she can be physically abused. Physical violence is accompanied by endless verbal abuse.

(7) Sleep deprivation for days at a time. The officials decided that we could only sleep in a particular way. They forced practitioners to stand or to sit on a small stool for over 40 days, sometimes even several months, without a break. When they found someone dozing off, inmates would yell loudly and grab, scratch, and drag the practitioner.

(8) Deprivation of toilet use. Practitioners are forbidden to use the toilet and had to use a toilet bucket in their room to urinate but were still restricted on the number of times they could relieve themselves. Some practitioners were restricted for five days until they had to relieve themselves on the floor. The guards then forced them to take off their clothes to clean the floor with them. Some people had no choice but to relieve themselves in their trousers.

Many people couldn't take this torture and wrote the "letter of reform" or repentance statement to renounce Falun Gong.

Sometimes the labour camp guards would attack practitioners directly, but most of the time they would have prostitutes do the physical torture, with sentence reduction as an incentive. Women guards were occasionally short staffed, or if they performed special torture techniques, they would urge certain male guards from the men's camp to participate. The guards will go to any lengths to reach the "rate of reform." They declared that their superiors have to sanction any physical abuse first. All labour camps have a death quota. If one is tortured to death, it will be said that she committed suicide. If one suffered a mental collapse from the persecution, the authorities would claim it happened "because she is too much into the practice."

Practitioners suffer such inhuman torture, yet they are not given any rights to appeal. The guards even said, "Aren't you cultivating Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance? You must endure whatever comes to you."

2. Guards

Currently, the labour camp has divided into four divisions with about a dozen guards in each division.

The following are the persecutors in the third division:

Former division head Chen Suping, present division head Li Aiwen, political head Wang Yonghong, deputy division head Lin Yuezhen, guards Ding Haiying, Yan Shuping, Yin Guihua, Zhang Chunxia, Zhang Fang, Cui Hongwen, Han Xinke, Song.

Chen Suping, female, in her 50s, had been the head of the Third Division for a long time. In October 2002, she was transferred to be Management Section Chief. She appears to be outwardly kind and will tell practitioners that her mother also practises Falun Gong. However, she is ruthless in carrying out the persecution. She has personally tortured numerous practitioners to the point of their suffering a mental collapse. Some have contracted various illnesses as a result of torture, even to the point of being at death's door.

Current Third Division head Li Aiwen is around 45 years old. She would personally beat people, or otherwise torture them or instigate inmates and guards to beat practitioners.

Guard Ding Haiying refused the use of the toilet to 68-year-old practitioner Ms. Lu Xuesheng from Zouping City, who was sentenced to six years of forced labour. When Ms. Lu couldn't stand it any more and went outside, Ding Haiying saw her and dragged her back while she was on a urine bucket. In order to prevent Ms. Lu from relieving herself the normal way, Ding sewed Ms. Lu's shirt and trousers together and attempted to force her to "reform" through brainwashing and torture.

3. Detailed Incidents of Persecution

Ms. Wang Yulan, in her 50's, is from Zhucheng City. Because she refused to compromise her belief, guards detained her in isolation for the past three years, either in a basement or in a restroom. Labor camp guards chained her hands behind her back and forced-fed her during her hunger strike. As a result of the torture, she frequently lost consciousness and bled from the mouth and nose. They subjected her to all kinds of torture methods.

Ms. Wu Xiuhua is around sixty years old. The guards used various kinds of physical abuse on her and deprived her of sleep, which caused her whole body to swell up. They didn't let her wear shoes, and she couldn't stand up straight.

Ms. Wang Jinfang from Weihai City is in her 40's. Guards deprived her of sleep for long periods of time and confined her in a basement and a toilet. They beat, cursed, and otherwise tortured her physically.

Ms. Yao Xiurong from Huaifang City is in her 60's. Guards deprived her of sleep for a long time, forced her to stand facing a wall, confined her in a basement, and forced her to do slave labour. Her arm was injured in the process.

Ms. Song Jing is in her 20's and was a student at Beijing University. She was steadfast in her belief and refused to be "reformed." She was forced to stand for many hours in a restroom or a basement without sleep. She was forbidden to shower, brush her teeth or wash her hands and face. In order to coerce her to write a "repentance statement," the guards tortured her every day after midnight for a while. They gagged her with dirty socks or a dirty cleaning rag and attacked her with punches, kicks and scratches. According to eyewitnesses, she was covered with black and purple bruises. The guards feared her injuries being seen, so they hid her. The years of relentless torture took its toll on her mental state and she became muddle-headed, fearful, and easily startled.

Ms. Zhu Lizhen, in her 50's, is from Zibo City. Guards didn't let her sleep for long hours, nor did they permit her to wash herself. She was forced to stand facing a wall for a long time, and her mental state deteriorated. She was always scared. I saw with my own eyes that guard Bi Yuqin pulled Ms. Zhu's hair and punched one of her breasts. They also grabbed her by the hair and knocked the back of her head against a metal rack. She lost consciousness several times.

Ms. Zhang Hong is in her 50's. During her three years here, the guards often confined her in the basement. She was transferred from the 6th Division to the 3rd Division, where she suffered even more abuse. She was deprived of sleep for long periods of time, and was locked in a restroom or a small cell. She was tortured with being forced to stand for long hours in one position, and if she moved the guards would punch and kick her. In order to torment her, they placed a piece of paper in front of her with Teacher's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong] name written on it and forced her to step on it.

Ms. Sun Kailing is from Laizhou City, and she is in her 30's. Guards transferred her to the 6th Division and force-fed her, handcuffed her hands behind the back, deprived her of sleep, and confined her in a restroom, a basement or in the strictly monitored room. They forbade her from toilet use. She had to relieve herself in her clothing.

Ms. Chen Xiaoyue is in her 50's and from Rushan, Yantai City. The guards forced her to renounce Falun Gong, but the abuse did not stop after she gave in. They ordered her to beat someone to "prove that she had truly reformed" and as a result she suffered a mental collapse.

Ms. Liu Yanping of Anqiu City is in her 20's. The guards put her in an isolated small cell. Male guards also participated in handcuffing and force-feeding her. They deprived her of sleep, beat and verbally abused her quite often. Guard Lin Yuezhen beat her so hard that Ms. Liu spat up blood.

Ms. Song Xiumei from Anqiu City is around sixty years old. As a result of being deprived of sleep, she developed high blood pressure, heart disease, and severe tracheitis. She had to be taken to a hospital while wearing an oxygen mask. They still forced her to do slave labour. They didn't release her later, even when she was dying.

Ms. Liu Yumei is from Weifang City and in her 60's. The guards forced her to stand facing a wall for many hours without sleep in an isolated cell, a toilet or a basement. They also used a sharp cardboard edge to cut her eyelids, stabbed her ears with a bamboo needle, taped her mouth shut and tied her arms in a stretched out position to a horizontal metal pipe. After the torture, they asked her if she still wanted to practise Falun Gong and whether she was willing to write a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong. If she said no, they would immediately assault her with punches and kicks.

Ms. Liang Hongzhi is around forty-six years old. They deprived her of sleep and confined her in a toilet. Her feet swelled up badly. She developed several illnesses and her mental state deteriorated as a result of the persecution.

Ms. Zhang Ximei is around fifty years old. Her mental state suffered under physical abuse, yet she did not give in. They confined her in the strictly monitored group and forbade her from moving at all for 18 hours every day. She has to sit there for long periods of time, and if she moved even a little, they would hit her. They restricted her toilet breaks, washing clothes, and taking a shower. Her whole body swelled up.

Ms. Gao Wenmei is from Weifang City and around forty-eight years old. Besides the tortures already mentioned, she was also handcuffed onto a toilet windowsill. When her period came, they ordered her to sit on the cold cement floor and forbade her to change sanitary napkins. They deprived her of sleep to force her to "reform." In the recent years she has suffered a lot and was forced to do slave labour. Her labour camp sentence was extended.

We saw these abuses with our own eyes, but what we could see was very limited, because we were strictly monitored. We didn't know what physical abuses occurred downstairs in the dark, isolated room. Guards always followed us when we went downstairs and would not let anyone see. If someone died there, no one would know how she died.

4. Incomplete list of some responsible parties and other persecutors

Liu Changzeng (male), camp head
Wang Jun, political head
Wang Huili, deputy head
Chen Suping, chief of the management section, 86-533-6689847
Li Aiwen, head of the 3rd Division
Lin Yuezhen, deputy head of the 3rd Division
Wang Yonghong, political head of the 3rd Division, 86-533-6689414
Zhao Li and Shi Wei, female guards of the 2nd Division, 86-533-6689374
Shen Hongxiu and Cai Jing, female guards of the 1st Division, 86-533-6689411
Huang Bo and Fan Naifeng, female guards of the 4th Division, 86-533-6689415

Under the prison guards' directions, inmates who participated in the persecution include Zhou Zhongye (from Yiyuan City), Liu Xiaoyan (from Anqiu City), Xu Meijuan (from Laixi Town, Qingdao City)

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://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/6/11/180032.html