Yinmahe Labour Camp in Jilin Province Subjects Practitioners to Brutal Torture and Hard Labour

Below are accounts from a Falun Gong practitioner detained at the Yinmahe Forced Labour Camp in Jiutai City, Jilin Province, regarding the gross mistreatment inflicted on practitioners held in custody there.

1. Mr. Yang Xingli Pricked with Sewing Needles

While Mr. Yang Xingli was in the labour camp he was assigned to the "isolation division" where Falun Gong practitioners were closely monitored and brutally tortured. In order to force him to write the "four statements" promising to give up his Falun Gong practice, the guards first made him sit on a small bench for extended periods of time. At night, detainees assigned to monitor him showered him with fists and kicks. Seeing that he was not moved, they used sewing needles to prick his whole body, leaving needle pricks everywhere.

Under the division leaders' instructions, the guards beat Mr. Yang savagely on numerous occasions, three times being the worst. The reason: he reported to the division heads that the detainees in charge of the cell often cursed detained practitioners and non-practitioners. Finding this out, the detainees in charge of the cell became resentful of him and always tried to find opportunities to seek revenge. Even though the division leaders promised to punish these detainees in-charge, they never did anything to stop them. Moreover, the division leaders intentionally encouraged the criminals to beat others. Numerous beatings have caused severe injury to Mr. Yang.

2. Mr. Shen Weiliang Became Mentally Disoriented

Mr. Shen Weiliang was led to believe that his term would be reduced by 40 days if he wrote the "four statements." He became mentally disoriented shortly after he renounced his belief in Falun Gong. The division authorities did not provide him with medical care, but also ordered two non-practitioner detainees to keep an eye on him all the time. The two detainees' words often deliberately riled Mr. Shen. When he didn't follow their orders, the two prisoners beat him savagely. When he tried to ward off the beatings, they tied him up or handcuffed him, claiming that Mr. Shen was doing the Falun Gong exercises.

The two detainees kept brutalising Shen Weiliang, making him even more mentally unstable. He chewed toilet paper and even poured his own urine into instant noodles, to eat them together. When Mr. Shen refused to eat, the guards inserted a tube into his mouth and force-fed him. Falun Gong practitioners eventually spoke with him a couple of times. He eventually shed his mental burden and became normal again.

3. Brutal Mistreatment of Mr. Li Wenjun

Mr. Li Wenjun held a 20-day hunger strike at a local detention centre to protest the persecution and expose the deeds that the local police had committed before he was transferred to Yinmahe Labour Camp. He continued his hunger strike at the labour camp. Having obtained approval from the camp authorities, the division began to force-feed Mr. Li. He was extremely thin and weak. The force-feeding severely injured his mouth, as well as his oesophagus, throat, stomach and other organs. He had to lie down all the time. The skin on his back and bottom was broken, with pus oozing out.

The guards used a very long nasal feeding tube. They force-fed Mr. Li cornstarch mixed with salt, adding soybean milk power later on. The camp doctors also injected him with unknown drugs. Seeing that Li Wenjun was on the verge of death, the division reported to the camp many times and requested the prosecutor investigate. Finally they released him on medical parole. Mr. Li had resisted the persecution in custody for more than nine months.

4. High-Intensity Hard Labour

The labour camp also subjected detainees to high intensity hard labour. During the more than ten months that I was held in the "isolation division," we had to work from dawn to night almost every day. The daily workshop routine started at 5:10 a.m. Following breakfast at 6:30 a.m., we had to work from 7:00 a.m. until lunch at 11:20 a.m. From noon to 4:30 p.m., we were again hard at work in the workshop. Dinner was served at 4:30 p.m., but the day was far from over yet. We usually had to work until 7:30 p.m. or even 8:00 p.m. We laboured 12 hours and 40 minutes (sometimes as long as 13 hours) every day. There was no break on weekends.

We did many jobs, including assembling model boats, making photo albums, model birds and butterflies, paper bags, accounting notebooks and calendars. These projects were all tiring to our eyes, arms, backs, legs and bottoms. We each were given a quota that had to be completed. The higher-ups stipulated that work could not be done upstairs, so the division moved to the right wing of the second floor around October. The work time was extended, and the labour intensity heightened. The buyers demanded a quicker product turnaround and gave those monitoring us benefits so they could push us harder. For instance, we were initially given a daily quota of 400 accounting notebooks. Soon, however, the quota jumped to 500. Our whole bodies ached after a day's work and wouldn't get better, even with a night's sleep.

Division One needed help in their brick workshop in May, so I was sent there. Even though the work time was a bit shorter there - around eight hours - the labour intensity was much higher. Moreover, the job was extremely dirty and tiring. Every step of the job was hard, be it loading and unloading bricks, pulling a cement wheelbarrow, arranging bricks, or cleaning up. The most tiring part was loading bricks. A big piece weighed about 50 lbs, and a smaller one 40 lbs. After each load we were soaked in sweat, and plus it was in the summer.

Some were unable to endure such high-intensity labour and the high temperatures. Practitioner Sun Zhanguo couldn't do it anymore after just a short while of loading bricks. He went to talk to division head Zhang who promised to have him do the unloading job in a few days; but he had to wait until the person doing the unloading job was transferred away. Mr. Sun had to pull himself together and keep loading bricks. Each loading team had five people, including three practitioners and two other detainees. Because Mr. Sun was slow, the two non-practitioners were unhappy.

Practitioner Yuan Jinghe's left side of his body felt numb, but he was still forced to load bricks. He reported his accidental fall to the division heads. The division authorities claimed he was faking and forced him to continue with the loading task. One day after work Mr. Yuan went to the camp clinic for a check-up. He also requested he be allowed to see doctors outside the labour camp, but the camp doctor said his condition wasn't bad enough to warrant it. The division heads kept forcing him to work. The next day division leader Zhang ordered Mr. Yuan to pile up bricks. The brick workshop foreman Qu eventually begged division leader Zhang to go easy with him. Only then did they change Mr. Yuan's job.

Pulling a cement wheelbarrow was dirty, high intensity work. Every day the demand for big and small bricks was increasing, so we had to prepare more concrete/mortar. This was a dangerous job. You had to have strong arms and legs. In addition, you had to know how to pull the wheelbarrow. The front end of the wheelbarrow became heavy after you loaded the concrete/mortar, so you had to push it up. But if you used too much force, the wheelbarrow might tip backward. One had to go up and down slopes. After one day's work you were covered in concrete. Once you got this stuff on your skin it was very hard to wash it off.

Another job was arranging bricks. It appeared to be an easy job, but you still felt sore and achy in your legs and back after one day's job.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/12/19/214680.html