Falun Gong Practitioners Beaten and Tortured in the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, Changchun City, Jilin Province

1. Persecution at the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, Changchun City, Jilin Province

In March 2009 the Heizuizi Labour Camp refused to release a Falun Gong practitioner from the 4th Squadron, although her term had officially ended. Instead, they arbitrarily extended her term and beat her. In protest, other Falun Gong practitioners at the camp refused to perform forced labour, put on the prisoner uniform and name card or to answer roll call. In retaliation, many of those steadfast practitioners were tortured on the so-called "death bed¹".

On March 20th, 2009 the practitioners of the 2nd Squadron joined this form of protest. Ms. Jin Yingshi was then taken to the prison guards' office by group leaders Liu Lianying and Ren Feng. Many prison guards shouted at her, beat her, and tried to force her to put on the prison uniform, but she refused. After six continuous days of torture she became bedridden and became unable to go to meals on her own. At the same time, Ms. Meng Chunfang and Ms. Zhang Shuxian were forced to stand by a wall for long time periods. Ms. An Fengxiang's ribs were broken when she was beaten by prison guards Liu Lianying and Wang Xiaoling.

On Sunday, March 22nd, on-duty guard Liu Lianying noticed that Ms. Zhang Shuxian and Ms. Liu Lihua were not at work and not in prisoner uniform. She forced them to stand in the corridor and assigned someone to watch them. On May 23rd, practitioner Ms. Jang Guiyun, who had been kept in isolation said the words "Falun Gong is good," so she was bound to the so-called "death bed" and injected with an unidentified drug. Unexpectedly, guard Ma Tianshu who administered the injection, suddenly suffered acute pains in her waist and had to leave to seek medical attention.

Ms. Lei Xiaoting, a practitioner from Changchun City, was taken to the Heizuizi Labour Camp in April 2009. She has remained steadfast in her convictions and has therefore been kept in isolation ever since. On April 9th or 10th she was taken to the prison guards' office by group leader Ren Lan and guard Zhang Xiaohui. Zhang Xiaohui shouted at her loudly and launched into a crazed tirade about Falun Gong.

2. Officers from the Management Section beat practitioners

On September 19th, 2007 four officers from the Management Section arrived at the 3rd Squadron. They were Yue (female), the chief of the Management Section, police i.d. 2200193, Xu, the administrative secretary, police i.d. 2200195, and two male officers, including one named Chen, about 55 years old, police i.d. 2200147. Chen said: "Let's hurry up. We still have other groups to visit in the afternoon and tomorrow." They wasted no time torturing practitioners. Chen punched practitioners in the face, stepped on their toes with heavy leather shoes and viciously beat practitioners on the lower back with an electric baton. The brainwashing officer of the 3rd Squadron, Jin Lihua, was also involved in the incident. Jin's police i.d. is 2200292.

They selected three practitioners (aged 35, 47 and 59) from three subgroups and beat them with electric batons because they had allegedly practised Falun Gong in the labour camp. They asked the accused if they would continue to practice Falun Gong and continued the electroshocks when they received no answer. They kept up the shocks until the victims agreed to sign statements promising to give up Falun Gong.

3. Practitioners forced to labour for excessively long periods even when ill

According to the labour camp regulations, the prisoners are supposed to work for three to six hours each day. In reality, they are forced to labour from 7:10-10:40 a.m. , from 12:00-4:40 p.m., and 5:10-7:10 p.m.. The 9.5 hours of labour does not include the time for breaks. The end of the workday arrives only at 9 p.m. Even prisoners who are sick or suffer from hypertension are forced to work under this system.

Ms. Rong Chunlin (55), suffers from hypertension. Between February 2nd and May 22nd, she was forced to work so much that she often fell unconscious, and is now in precarious health. She was forced to labour for 9.5 hours although she was mentally confused. Practitioners are not allowed to rest when they are ill. Instead, they are forced to take drug infusions in the workshop and are then forced to continue working.

4. Family members not allowed to bring daily necessities during visits

In Chinese prisons and detention centres, items required for personal hygiene are usually supplied by families of the inmates. However, imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners are often not allowed to receive such items during family visits because prison guards tried to earn extra money by selling these goods to them at inflated prices. For these, and many other reasons, Falun Gong practitioners suffer greatly in prisons. The poor quality of food has caused hair to turn prematurely white in many cases.

5. Arbitrary extension of prison terms

Many practitioners were arrested with no legal procedures. Some of them were suddenly taken to local police stations and taken to a labour camp without being allowed to stop at home first. Neither the practitioners nor any of their family members had ever signed any official document relating to the sentence. Any existing documents are often faked by the local police stations. To avoid lending credibility to the forced labour term they were forced to serve, many practitioners refused to sign or fill in official forms provided by the labour camp prior to their release, and received arbitrary extensions to their sentence.

Other practitioners received extensions to their sentence term on various pretences, such as refusing to attend brainwashing classes, writing statements saying that they would continue to practise Falun Gong, or doing the Falun Gong exercises. In principle, practitioners should be allowed to go home immediately upon their release. However, often the local police ask to have them brought to the police station in order to ensure future harassment.

Note

1. "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/2009/6/8/202143.html