My Experiences in Zhengzhou City's Shibalihe Female Forced Labour Camp, Henan Province

By Liushan

Since July 20, 1999, I have been an eyewitness to the unjust treatment towards Falun Gong practitioners by the police and have experienced first hand all sorts of torture. Yet, those police personnel, as enforcers of the law, in the name of "safeguarding the country's interests," have themselves violated the law.

In the Shibalihe Female Forced Labour Camp, at an earlier period, steadfast Falun Gong cultivators were not permitted to talk to each other. The vicious police in this forced labour camp appointed prisoners to monitor us 24 hours a day, watching our every move and not letting us out of sight. These officers even gave those prisoners who guarded us 500 points as a reward, which could be used to reduce their prison sentence. Usually two prisoners would guard one Falun Dafa practitioner, one on each side, in such a way that the practitioner was "clamped" in between them and thus these prisoners are called "clampers." The prisoners were permitted to verbally abuse, mete out physical punishment and even beat up practitioners. If they didn't keep a tight watch over us, they were punished as well. If they gave out light punishment they were rebuked by the police; if they gave out heavy punishment they would get points deducted from their sentence and thus shortening it. The monitoring prisoners, called "clampers" often told practitioners that they would not even be allowed to talk.

I was detained separately from others when I first arrived at the labour camp, and the authorities sent four drug addicts to monitor me. They verbally abused and beat me, deprived me of sleep and attempted to forcibly brainwash me. I remembered one of them used a needle to stab the back of my neck and said sarcastically, "its acupuncture." Another person ordered me to stand with my waist bent and my head pressed against the wall, and called this "riding the airplane." They even insulted and cursed Teacher; they beat me with their fists, kicked me, didn't allow me to sit, and tortured me in numerous ways. I was detained in a solitary cell for approximately one month. During this period, besides a few people assigned by certain police officers of the labour camp that I could talk to, other people were forbidden to interact with me and speak to me. Other practitioners who were sent to the forced labour camp also endured the same kind of torture as I did.

On October 1, 2001, practitioners realized we should no longer passively endure this abuse and officially requested to be permitted to practice the Falun Gong exercises. Our request resulted in the police officers directing some prisoners to curse and beat us. Some police officers even took part themselves. When I was in the room practicing the exercises, an inmate who was a drug addict violently kicked my head and used all her strength to stomp on my back with her feet. One practitioner was beaten until her nose bled. One prison officer even personally beat one practitioner until both her mouth and nose bled. She also beat other practitioners. One practitioner was beaten until bruises were all over her eyes, wounds were all over the body, and she felt pain in her chest when breathing.

Also in October, we protested the persecution towards us by refusing to answer roll call. One evening, on the way back from labour work, a police officer directed prisoners to kick, choke, curse, stomp on me, and spit in my face. Wounds on my body from the beating healed only after more than a month later. Also, because of refusing to respond to roll call, several prisoners forcefully pulled me from the upper bunk and threw me to the floor, surrounded me and beat me. Some stomped on me, some violently pulled my hair, some viciously kicked my back, and there were some others who shouted and cheered for them. Some practitioners were physically punished by being forced to stand facing a wall for long periods of time. There was another time, before clearing the cell at night because I didn't notify the "clamper" when I went to the toilet, she loudly shouted and cursed at me.

On December 25, 2001, the authorities in the labour camp used excuses to further torture us. They found some security personnel and asked them to handcuff practitioners, used rope to forcefully tie both practitioners' arms behind the back, used electric batons to shock, and beat us with police clubs. They even applied all sorts of other physical punishment on Dafa practitioners. Some practitioners were forced to stand with their backs bent at a certain angle; both arms were tied tightly behind their backs with rope. Some practitioners' necks and feet were tied together with rope, and they were forced to stand bent over at the waist. They further punished us by ordering us to squat, kneel, and did not permit us to sleep. We suffered from all kinds of verbal abuse and threats, and had to endure the "tiger bench" and other torture.

One practitioner was tortured until she fainted and lost consciousness. When sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, the authorities lied and claimed the practitioner fainted because of fighting with others. The practitioner was tied up again after regaining consciousness, and was forced to write the "guarantee letter." [Note: This letter guarantees that the practitioner will give up Falun Gong, is sorry to have ever practiced it, will never again associate with other practitioners and will never go to Beijing to appeal] It was said that any practitioners who wrote the letter would be released; if they did not write it, then they were not released and all medical expenses had to be paid by the practitioners themselves. Some practitioners were tortured for several days and nights. Twice I was force-fed with some quick-acting "heart medicine." One of the times, several security personnel tied me up and force-fed me. Practitioners were tortured until wounds were all over their body. Several labour camp heads personally monitored the site. One of them threatened me and didn't allow me to shout, "Falun Dafa is Good."

Even to this day, some local police officers still threaten practitioners, "if you don't listen, you will be sent to a forced labour camp and tied up."

We were not guilty; we were illegally detained here, yet endured all kinds of torture. We wrote complaint letters and appeal letters but they were withheld, and never reached the persons they were addressed to.

Source:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/6/18/23243.html

Chinese version available at:
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/6/5/31302.html