Practitioners Beaten and Shocked with Electric Batons at the Shaanxi Province Women Forced Labour Camp

Around June 2008, the Shaanxi Province Women's Forced Labour Camp hung up a new sign that read "Shaanxi Province Forced Isolation Drug Relief Reformatory." The approximately 150-inmate prison employs over 100 personnel including guards, officials, four directors, a political committee secretary, and a regular party secretary.

Practitioners held at the forced labour camp are regularly tortured and forced to carry out extremely large workloads for long periods of time. The guards verbally abuse them and lock them up in small cells, where they are brutally tortured. The guards also steal practitioners' personal property with impunity.

Cases of Falun Gong Practitioners Being Tortured and Abused

1. From 2006 to 2008, Ms. Li Shulian from Yan'an City was often tortured to the verge of death at the Drug Relief Reformatory.

2. On January 31st, 2006, while Ms. Li Jinfeng, a resident from Chenggu County, Hanzhong City, was held at the No. 2 Section of the forced labour camp, team leader Lan Yuan directed seven drug addict inmates to beat her into unconsciousness. They then poured cold water on her to wake her up.

3. On March 17th, 2008, Lan incited these same inmates, who were all members of the "People Administration Committee", to beat any practitioner in the No. 2 Section who refused to wear the section uniforms. Then they forcibly put the uniforms on these practitioners and dragged them into the hallway. When practitioner Ms. Liu Li observed what was going on, she confronted Lan and cited several sections of the law that showed that Lan was acting in an unlawful manner. Lan replied, "How dare you argue with the director?" She then called Ms. Liu out of her cell and beat her about twenty times with a police baton. When Ms. Zou Yanping saw the beating, she walked over to try to reason with Lan. Lan then struck Ms. Zou about twenty times with her police baton.

4. On January 12th, 2009, Director Nian Kunping beat Ms. Zhou Yating and Ms. Wu Changchun with a police baton in public because they refused to wear the section uniform or attend the flag raising ceremony. Ms. Zhou was struck eight times and Ms. Wu Changchun was struck five times. Ms. Wu submitted an appeal to address the beatings, but no one investigated the incident.

5. On the evening of February 27th, 2009, guard Guo Ni was moved from the No. 3 Section to the No. 2 section of the camp, specifically to target Ms. Mou. From 2006 to 2007, Guo tortured Ms. Mou and took away all of her personal daily necessities. Eleven practitioners are held at the No. 2 Section, two at the No. 1 Section, and approximately thirty at the No. 4 Section. Most of these practitioners, including Ms. Mou, are incarcerated without any formal paperwork such as the "Letter of Decision on Forced Labour" and the "Letter of Notice on Forced Labour." Guards often verbally abuse, kick, and punch the practitioners.

6. On March 4th, 2009, Directors Ren Haizhen and Sun Mingzhu ordered members of the "People Administration Committee," including Fan Zhengling, Yao Xia, and Zhang Qiumei, to drag Ms. Zhou into an empty dorm in the No. 1 Section and brutally beat her for refusing to wear her section uniform. Ren told Ms. Zhou that she had to wear the uniform while she was eating, but she could take it off when she went back to her cell. Because Ms. Zhou did not consider herself a criminal for practising Falun Gong, she refused to wear the uniform anywhere in the prison. A little while later, three inmates came over and forcibly put the uniform on her. Then they locked her in a tiny toilet, forcing her to stand up the entire night. The guards would not allow practitioners who were walking past the toilet to see what was going on and verbally abused them until they left.

7. Ren Haizhen slapped and punched Ms. Wu Changchun's face because she did not wear the uniform during meal times. Ren ordered the "People Administration Committee" to forcibly put the uniform on her.

One day while Zhang Hongda, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of the camp, was doing an inspection, Ms. Wu walked up to him and handed him her appeal documents, outlining how she had been physically abused. Zhang refused to accept her appeal. If anyone wants to make an appointment with him, he always tries to avoid the issue. When Ms. Wu went back to the No. 2 Section, the guards directed inmate Chen Jingyu from the "People Administration Committee" to take Ms. Wu's documents away from her. In addition, the guards extended her term by an additional twenty days.

As deputy director of the camp, Wang Ruifang is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the camp, including the prisoners' food, clothing, and "re-education." Department chief Liu Hong is in charge of processing the arrival of practitioners into the camp and their final release. Due to her close relationship with the Judiciary Department, she and Wang often arrange for inmates to be released early or late in exchange for monetary and other considerations.

On January 7th, 2004, Li Yangmei was arrested for illegal gambling and detained at the camp. Twenty days later, her family paid 50,000 yuan¹ to secure her immediate release. On February 20th, 2007, Li was again sent to the camp, but this time her family had to come up with an additional 120,000 yuan before she was released.

Xue Hua, a college student, was detained at the camp on February 4th, 2007. When it was time for her to take her exams, she asked to be released, but her request was denied. Xue gave Wang 40,000 yuan to secure her early release but did not pay anything to Liu Hong. When Liu heard about it, she assigned Xue to work at the No. 3 Section. Xue's family managed to come up with an additional 8,000 yuan to give to Liu, but Liu thought it was not enough money and refused to release her.

These are all examples of how the rule of law has no place at the labour camp, and the inmates' lives are ruled by the whims of a few corrupt individuals.

Shaanxi Province Women's Forced Labour Camp:
Zhang Hongda, secretary: 86-13572235672 (Mobile)
Chai Zhiyu, director: 86-13509187123 (Mobile)

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/4/2/198255.html