Escalation of the Persecution of Practitioners in Masanjia Women's Forced Labour Camp

In October 2009, Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, stepped up the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners being held in the camp. According to the latest information, before October 1st, a high ranking Communist Party official from Beijing inspected the labour camp. He gave official orders to escalate the persecution of detained practitioners.

After the inspection, the labour camp began a new wave of intense brainwashing. Practitioners were forced to answer question sheets that slandered Falun Gong and its founder, write repentance statements that denounced Falun Gong, and recite the Chinese Communist Party's 30 regulations that the Party uses to justify its ban on Falun Gong in China. The prison guards used the women's answers to pick out those who refused to give up Falun Gong. Those whose answers failed to meet the guards' criteria were reassigned to the East Section.

Masanjia Women's Forced Labour Camp is divided into three major groups. The first and second groups are where regular prisoners and very few practitioners are held. Most practitioners are housed in the third group. The major groups are further divided into subgroups.

In the camp, most of the practitioners are held in the third group based on the top floor of the four-storied main building and in the "East Section," which is located on the east side of the building. These women were pressured to write repentance statements giving up Falun Gong. Some of the guards wrote the statements themselves and then tried to force the practitioners to copy them and read them in front of other practitioners. They would count this as a real repentance statement written by the practitioners themselves. The women who refused to do that were tortured. One from Beijing was tortured so severely that she could no longer straighten up and had to remain so far bent over that she was almost touching the ground. Ms. Li Jinqiu from Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, was forced to keep her legs fully stretched out on either side for a very long time. She ended up crippled.

Practitioners who wrote the repentance statement were assembled for further brainwashing. After that they had to answer the question sheets slandering Falun Gong four or five more times.

The following paragraphs partially describe how practitioners were treated in Masanjia Women's Labour Camp around October 1st, 2009. The East Section is where the male guards carried out the worst tortures.

Not long after the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, at least 600 female practitioners were held in the Masanjia camp. They were concentrated on the top (fourth) floor of the main building. In a triangular-shaped room on this floor is a small metal ladder and a metal bed. Not equipped with heat, the room is very cold in the winter. Many of the women who refused to give up Falun Gong have been bound to the ladder in a standing position for long periods of time, with breaks given only for dinner and use of the toilet. They can be held there for more than 10 days at a stretch, even while they sleep. After they are released, they can hardly walk without others helping them. They might even end up disabled. To avoid this outcome, the guards would release them for a few days so they could recover and then lock them up again after they had recovered. Practitioner Ms. Sheng Lianying was detained in that room twice because she refused to do the work the guards wanted her to do. Each time, she was bound for more than ten days. Later, she was transferred to the Strict Discipline Team in the East Section, where the torture continued.

Other examples of abuse:

1. The labour camp never provides any warm water to practitioners. Even when temperatures drop during the winter, practitioners still have to shower with cold water.

2. When the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, a practitioner under 30 from Huludao City, Liaoning Province was tortured here. The guards shoved her head against the wall and shocked her face with an electric baton while pressuring her to denounce Falun Gong.

3. Four or five prison guards pushed a practitioner to the ground on her back. They pulled her legs up and forced them over her head. They also pushed needles into her fingertips while covering her mouth to prevent others from hearing her screams of pain.

About 42 guards now work at the labour camp.

Guards from the third group:

Zhang Jun, group leader
Zhang Zhuohui, director
Zhang Huan, leader of a subgroup
Zhang Lei, in charge of forcing practitioners to give up Falun Gong
Huang Haiyan, leader of the second subgroup
Zhang Xiurong, works on forcing practitioners to give up Falun Gong in East Section
Zhang Lili, works on forcing practitioners to give up Falun Gong in East Section
Wang Danfeng, in charge of logistics
Guan Liying, involved in abusing practitioner many times
Ren Hongzhan, general re-education officer
Wang Xueqiu and Yu Xiaochuan, in charge of the classes for "new students," where practitioners newly sentenced to forced labour were detained. The labour camp would detain them together for brainwashing before they were sent out to their subgroups.

Other sections:

Wang Xiaofeng, leader of the camp's administration office
Wang Naimin, director of the camp administration office. He abused an practitioner and shocked her breasts with electric batons not long after the persecution of Falun Gong started

Shao Tong, commissioner

Zhao Yonghua and Yuan Suzhen. They practised before but turned against Falun Gong. They have now been hired by the labour camp to brainwash practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/3/23/220266.html