Crimes Witnessed at Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp

Because I practised Falun Gong, I was sentenced to forced labour twice.

Persecution Witnessed during the First Detention Period

I was first detained at the Nanmusi Women's Labour Camp from 2000 to 2002. Many practitioners were also detained there at the time. Some practitioners who were deceived by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agreed to give up practising Falun Gong. Practitioners who remained steadfast in their belief were subject to all kinds of torture.

In July or August of 2002, as the number of practitioners decreased, three sections were re-organized into two. The change also occurred for two other reasons. First, the former section leader Li Jun had been dealing with practitioners for a long time and was reluctant to manage them in a strict way, so a new leader was assigned. In addition, several practitioners forced into being "transformed" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] came to realize their mistake and wrote solemn declarations to reinstate their belief in Falun Gong. The prison officials wanted to prevent more people from regaining their determination to practise.

The new section leader Li Qi was in charge of the Education Division in the labor camp. As soon as she came on board, she gave a speech and compared practitioners to people who do "Yiguandao" (a type of qigong). She said that even though practitioners are honest and kind, since we are detained, we must have committed a crime. She told us not to forget that we were "inmates." She had all of the practitioners sit in place, forbade walking around and only allowed us to use the washroom twice a day.

Li also subjected us to military training. Under the baking sun, regardless of our age, every practitioner was ordered to march, with prison officials conducting the training.

Some steadfast practitioners refused to cooperate, and as a result, they were dragged out by the drug addicts under Li's direction. Two inmates held one practitioner's hands and dragged her along, forcing her to hop on one foot. When she refused, she was beaten by the inmates under the guards' direction.

After my release, I heard from practitioners that after a particular CCP congressional meeting, the persecution got worse. Steadfast practitioners were held in solitary confinement, deprived of sleep and tortured by other inmates.

Persecution Witnessed during the Second Detention Period

1. Extended hours of hard labour and beatings

On July 30th, 2004, I was detained at the Nanmusi Women's Labour Camp again. This time I witnessed even more severe persecution. Every day we were forced to sit under the scorching sun to select pig fur. We were not allowed to look around, while guards and inmates verbally abused us at will. After dinner, we were moved to the building of the No.7 section, where all of us were forced to continue working in the hallway on the second floor, knitting and selecting pig fur in the dim light. We had to work at least until midnight before we could go to bed, and we were often forced to work around the clock in order to finish our quota. One time, we had to skip sleep for three days and nights. We had one block after another of pig fur on our hands. It seemed to be never-ending. Collaborators¹ cursed at and beat a steadfast practitioner, and they didn't allow her to use the washroom. The inmates abused her at will, since they were doing so at the guards' direction.

Guard Zhang Xiaofang was especially vicious. She often kicked practitioners and cut their hair with a pair of scissors to humiliate them. One time, she cut a practitioner's ear, which immediately started bleeding. One practitioner, who was in her 50s, tried to escape, and ended up being beaten and detained in solitary confinement, where she was forced to squat every day for long periods of time.

One steadfast practitioner was forced to squat by her bed from 5 a.m. until 3 a.m. the next day, when the guards finally allowed her to go to sleep for a short while. Both of her hands were handcuffed from behind onto the bed rail above her head. Drug-addict inmates and collaborators also beat her freely every day and burned her with cigarettes. She was forced to squat over long periods of time for more than two months.

2. Deceit and brainwashing

Eventually the No. 7 section was dissolved, and we were grouped under the No. 8 section, and Li Qi was the section leader. Since she had been dealing with practitioners for two years at that point, she probably came to realize that force and violence were not effective.

Unlike what I saw during my first detention two years prior, she now had a room set up to be used for "transformation." Walking up the stairs into the entrance of the No. 8 section, there were flowers on both sides. There was a TV and a couch in the hallway on the second floor. It seemed really cozy.

The practitioner who had been forced to squat for more than two months had become emaciated. Her feet were numb for a long time, and her legs were covered with bruises. Since she was not allowed to use the toilet freely, she ended up soiling her pants. When the section leader saw this, she seemed shocked and shed tears. This episode deceived many practitioners and confused them. Some practitioners who had made it through an extremely difficult environment while detained in the No.7 section, even including the practitioner who had been forced to squat for more than two months, were eventually "transformed" here. After surviving a very violent environment, their wills were broken when they came to a environment where things looked relaxed on the surface.

In this section, there was an "initial transformation room," which was for practitioners who had recently stopped practising Falun Gong. Some people living there used to be practitioners, but later turned against Falun Gong. When they defamed Falun Gong, the things they said were even more terrible than what was spoken by the guards.

Later, we were transferred to another section, where we were forced to work long hours to make money for the labour camp.

Being detained at the labour camp twice gave me some insight into the evilness of the communist regime. For those who were detained at a relatively young age, they may have been a bit naive at the beginning, yet after a while, they became very cunning, cold, even brutal. Those drug addicts or other prisoners were sent to the labour camp to correct their behaviour, yet they simply became exploited for heavy labour. Their working hours could last for several continuous days and nights. Furthermore, prisoners were used to persecute practitioners. They abused practitioners in order to reduce their terms, but their own moral baselines sunk in the process of doing so.

Note

1. "Collaborators": [former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.]

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/4/24/222114.html