Gross Abuse and Mistreatment at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, Liaoning Province

On July 28th, 2008, prior to the Beijing Olympics, the Third Division at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp incarcerated about 40 Falun Gong practitioners in a closed area who refused to give up their belief. The practitioners were forbidden to call their families, and their families were not allowed to visit them.

The labour camp officials assigned a dozen guards to this area. The head was Liu Yong. Others included Zhang Jun, Zhang Zhuohui (police ID: 2108469), Zhang Lei, Dong Bin, Huang Xiaoyan, and Zhang Xiurong (police ID: 2108051). They have all been actively involved in the persecution of Falun Gong.

1. "Strictly Controlled Team" and "Specially Controlled Team"

A Strictly Controlled Team was set up for the practitioners who remained resolute in their faith. They were divided into three sub-teams; one male guard and one female guard were in charge of each sub-team. The male guard was in charge of brainwashing, and the female guard was in charge of other things. The camp officials also assigned three former practitioners who had been "transformed¹" to each sub-team. One was the head, eating and sleeping with practitioners, and the other two came to take turns every six hours to monitor practitioners. All practitioners were under 24-hour surveillance. Guards and the "transformed" practitioners watched and reported their every action. The persecutors were also involved in beating practitioners.

There was also a "Specially Controlled Team." It contained practitioners who were tortured badly and had lost the physical capability to take care of themselves. Guards monitored them 24 hours a day.

2. Forced Study and Training

Practitioners were forced to study the "Labour Camp Song" and "Labour Camp Rules," and had to sit on a small stool for which they had to pay 8 Yuan². Everyone had to sing and recite the songs and rules. If one refused to do so or was slow in learning, the guards would beat or hang them up. If practitioners shouted, "Falun Gong is good" or informed people about the true nature of Falun Gong, they would be beaten, too. Sometimes, guards sealed practitioners' mouths with tape. Sometimes guards inserted a metal mouth opener into practitioners' mouths for hours at a time to prevent them from speaking. Practitioners were also compelled to place their fingerprints on false statements renouncing the practice. Guard Liu Yong would beat women practitioners on their breasts or genitals.

Practitioners were made to march in the yard. The guards watched them. No matter what their health status was, or how hot the weather, practitioners had to march in military fashion. If they could not follow, guards would punish them, forcing them to walk more.

All practitioners in the "Specially Controlled Team" were physically weak and unable to follow the steps. When this happened, guards kicked them.

After October 1st, several female guards replaced the male guards. They were also cruel and cursed practitioners all the time. In January 2009, guard Zhang Liang, (police ID: 2108223) and Peng Tao arrived to replace the female guards.

3. Practitioners tortured

Practitioners who refused to give up their belief were physically tortured and mentally tormented.

1. Li Yurong, from Dalian, 64-year old, is illiterate, so she inserted some of her own words into the labour camp rules, such as "end the persecution." Liu Yong beat her on the head, neck and torso with a high voltage baton, which caused extreme pain. Liu made Li Yurong read it again. She again read it as "anti-persecution." Liu beat her once more with the baton and punished her by having to stand facing a wall.

2. Sun Xiuzhen, a 45-year old practitioner from Dalian, cried when she saw other practitioners beaten. Policeman Yan took Sun Xiuzhen to the office where he cursed her and punched her head and slapped her.

3. Liu Shiqin, a 63-year old practitioner from Benxi, refused to sing the camp song, or recite the camp rules. She was badly beaten three times. Guards hung her up and forced her to listen to recordings that slander Falun Gong. Guards held her hands and made her leave fingerprints on a guarantee letter that said she would give up Falun Gong. Liu cried because of this and shouted, "Falun Gong is good" in the dining hall. Four female guards took her out, and guard Zhang Liang slapped her face with a shoe. Then they hung her up for a day. When she was released her face was swollen; she could not stand straight, and her legs were lame. To protest Liu Shiqin's torture, other practitioners started a hunger strike.

4. Zhang Min, a 40-year old practitioner from Dalian, was reported by a person named Wang Hong in July 2008 and was placed in Masanjia. While there, she was immobilized on a metal bed in a closet for two weeks, and then was sent to the "Strictly Controlled Team."

Practitioners refusing to be transformed shouted "Falun Gong is good," on September 23rd, 2008 during breakfast in a dining hall. Guards thought Zhang Min was one of the leaders. They separated her and beat her badly. The next day, people observed two guards pulling Zhang to the dining hall. Her body was bent over in pain, eyes and face swollen, and her lips so baldy swollen she was unable to open her mouth to eat. Her back recovered a week later.

5. Li Hong, is a 50-year old practitioner from Dalian, a high school biology teacher. She had sustained six cruel beatings since the Beijing Olympics. Since she refused to sing the camp song or recite the camp rules. She was hung up and beaten with electric batons. She saw a practitioner was beaten and asked her why. Guard Liu Xiurong saw it and savagely beat Li Hong.

The 2009 New Year's Eve Li shouted "Falun Gong is good." Guards cursed her. A few days later, guards beat her with electric batons and hung her up, with her hands locked onto a metal bed, head hanging down. Her spine was distorted. People can even hear the bones grind. Her hands became black. The skin on her wrist was torn. Li Hong shouted, "Falun Gong is good" again. Guards taped her mouth shut and eventually inserted a metal mouth opener into her mouth to prevent her from speaking.

On February 20, 2009 Li Hong tried to open the window for some fresh air. Guards pulled her out of the room and beat her. She bent down, and guard Yang Yue kicked her on the left side of her chest, which caused extreme pain, preventing her to cough. The torture injured Li Hong's left knee. She could not walk the stairs from the knee and chest injuries. Li Hong asked for a physical exam in the hospital, but was refused. In February one practitioner shouted, "Falun Gong is good." Guards thought that Li Hong was the initiator. They pulled her hair and pulled her out of the room. They hung her up. Guard Zhang Liang kicked her back. A few hours later Li Hong's whole body was soaked in sweat.

Practitioners were forced to do slave labour. Li Hong cannot do the work due to her injuries. But she was still forced to sit in the snow. Due to the injured knee, it took her 40 minutes to get up to the fourth floor.

6. Guards badly beat Wei Shaomin, a 67-year old practitioner from Fushun. Her blood pressure went up to 260 mm Hg, but the camp officials still refused to release her. They locked Wei Shaomin onto a death bed³, which is designed for force-feeding. There is a hole on the bed for discharging one's bladder and bowels. Some hunger-striking practitioners were locked these devices for a week, immobilizing their limbs. The guards force-fed them here, leaving the force-feeding tubes in their noses as a further form of torture between "feedings."

Wei Shaomin refused to sign her name on documents. Guards locked her onto the dead person bed and poured unknown substances into her nose. They forced her to listen to recordings attacking Falun Gong. They forced her to vandalize a photo of Teacher Li [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong], trying to destroy her spirit. Wei Shaomin shouted, "Falun Gong is good," so the guards taped her mouth and beat her. Wei Shaomin shouted again in the dining hall and was tortured again.

7. Han Jilin, a 60-year old practitioner from Dalian, refused to sing the labour camp song. Liu Yong and another guard hung her up. Liu poured an unknown substance into her mouth and commented to another guard if Han Jilin tried to say more, he should insert a metal mouth opener into her mouth. After they hung her up, Liu Yong kept tightening her handcuffs. He kept stretching Han's spine and punching it. Han asked to use the toilet. Liu refused her and said, "no one cares if you relieve yourself in you pants."

8. Zhang Yinying, a 54-year old practitioner from Beijing, was subjected to two and a half years of forced labour. Her term would have expired on July 15th, 2008, but camp officials extended it by another six months, under the pretext to protect the Beijing Olympics. Zhang was sent to Masanjia. Another five practitioners there from Beijing also had their terms extended because of the Olympics.

Since Zhang Yinying refused to listen to the guards and shouted "Falun Gong is good," guards beat her and extended her term: by five days, 10 days and a month. On February 20th, 2009 Zhang shouted, "Falun Gong is good" in the hallway. Guards pulled her into an office, badly beat her with electric batons and kicked her and stepped on her. Then they hung her up. Guards Zhang Liang, Zhang Zhuohui, Dong Xiaoyan and Zhang Xiurong were involved.

At 7:00 p.m. Zhang Yinying was released. She could not sit up. She had black cycles around her eyes. Zhang Liang had stepped on her eyes, and her right eyeball was black and bleeding. Her clothes were wet, because guards poured cold water on her. She vomited blood clots several times. Guards put her on the "death bed." She kept vomiting. At 9:00 p.m., they carried her to the clinic. She had IV infusions for several days before she recovered.

9. Qiu Shuqin, a fifty-year old practitioner from Beijing, was sent to Masanjia with Zhang Yinying. On September 9th, 2008 she shouted, "Falun Gong is good" in the dining hall. Guards badly beat her and caused a brain injury. She was in severe pain that night and she kept vomiting. At 11:00 p.m. she was sent to a hospital. No one has seen her since. One guard said her brain bled and she stayed in the hospital, but no one knows her whereabouts.

10. Su Wei is a forty-year old practitioner from Beijing. Her term was extended by six months. She was tortured and beaten and hung up, which injured her arms. One night, as she tried to go to the bathroom, she lost control of her arms and she fell down from the top bunk. She got a bump on her head and lost consciousness. The headache went away one week later. In September 2008 she was sent to "general criminal division" where she was forced to do slave labour.

Note

1. "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")

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

3. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/3/31/198116.html