Ms. Tu Xiaomin Recounts the Persecution She Endured in Huhehaote Women's Forced Labour Camp

Huhehaote Women's Forced Labour Camp is located in the south of Shuaijiaying Village in the Saihan District or Huhehaote. It was built in 1993 and currently consists of three divisions.

Officials at Huhehaote Forced Labour Camp torture Falun Gong practitioners ruthlessly. Below, we will recount Ms. Tu Xiaomin's ordeal while held in Division 1.

Ms. Tu Xiaomin is a 48-year-old middle school chemistry teacher from Daozhen County, Guizhou Province. She began practising Falun Gong in October 1997. After the persecution began, Ms. Tu was arrested and detained many times, which led to her husband divorcing her.

On October 13th, 2007 at 8 p.m., Liu Xuedong and other officers from the Konggang Police Station in the Shunyi District in Beijing arrested Ms. Tu from her sister's home in Beijing where she was living temporarily. They took her to the police department and then ransacked her home. Shunyi District Police Department officials sentenced Ms. Tu to two years of forced labour.

She was transferred to the Beijing Forced Labour Dispatch Division on November 8th, 2007. Later in the day, when she refused to submit to a urine sample for a medical examination, four male guards from the Shunyi District Custody Centre in Beijing handcuffed her arms behind her back, stripped off her trousers, and forced her to go through the test. (For details, see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/4/26/96755.html)

Officials from the Huhehaote Women's Labour Camp bought about 40 detainees from the Beijing Forced Labour Dispatch Division on January 24th, 2008, to be used as slave labour. They were handcuffed in pairs and placed in vehicles. Ms. Tu was one of them. Below is her own account of her experience at the Huhehaote Women's Labour Camp:

I was transferred from the Beijing Forced Labour Dispatch Division to the Huhehaote Women's Forced Labour Camp at around 8 p.m. on January 24th, 2008. Practitioners Ms. Wu Zhanhua and Ms. Li Cuixiang were held in Division 1 with me.

Brainwashing

We were called into the office of Division 1. Lu Junqing, deputy head in charge of persecution, asked me, "What do you think about Falun Gong?" I said, "It is very good." She locked me in a so-called "psychological consultation room" where drug addicts watched me around the clock. There was no bed in the room, so I slept on a wooden chair. The small chair prevented me from straightening my legs, and it was very cold.

Later on I learned that Falun Gong practitioners are not immediately sent to different divisions like the inmates, but instead are first held in solitary confinement cells and strictly forbidden contact with others except for the collaborators¹ and designated inmates. They are assigned to a division only after writing guarantee statements to renounce practising Falun Gong.

From then on, different people came to me daily to try to "reform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me, and they pressured me to renounce my belief.

Detained in a warehouse

After 11 days, Lu Junqing saw that I ignored her bombardment, so she sent me to a warehouse. It was cold and damp in the warehouse; there was ice on the windows, and an odd, stale smell filled the air. I lay a bedroll on the floor. Once, when a group of people visited the labour camp, the guards and inmates were nervous and told us not to make any noise in the warehouse.

At 8 a.m. on February 17th, 2008, Lu Junqing again asked me what I thought of Falun Gong. I told her I would never change my mind regarding Falun Gong and that she should give up trying to "reform" me. She got mad and said, "From now you, you'll stand there and repent!" I said, "I will not stand." She grew furious and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

At noon, Lu Junqing replaced inmate Li Qin with drug addict Xia Congling to watch me. Xia had brutally beaten many practitioners; for instance Li Cuixiang, the night before in the warehouse.

Upon entering the warehouse, Xia demanded that I stand up immediately. She grabbed my hair and starting hitting and kicking me. She also put me in a headlock and nearly choked me. Then she and Li Qin knocked me down. My glasses were twisted, and my face and hands bled.

Another drug addict, Chi Yanxia, joined them. I struggled to get up several times to go to the toilet, but they would always pin me to the ground. I was hungry, thirsty, and cold.

As it grew dark I again tried to get up. Xia opened the door and made sure no one could see me and then took me to the toilet. They did not want anyone to see my injuries.

Returning from the toilet I saw Lu Junqing sitting inside the office and asked, "When can I sleep?" Chi Yanxia immediately grabbed my hair and dragged me into the warehouse. Xia Congling jumped off a bed and joined Chi. Duty inmate Yu Shuangzhi heard the commotion and shouted, "Beat her to death! Hang her up!" Xi,a tried to shove a filthy rag into my mouth to prevent me from shouting. My mouth, face and lips were scratched, and my lips were swollen.

Yu Shuangzhi woke me up at 5 a.m. on February 18th, 2008. Chi Yanxia arrived later, and the three of them beat me. They pinned me down and put one foot on my stomach. Xia rammed my head repeatedly against the floor; they pinched my nose shut. Xia also choked me, nearly suffocating me.

Lu Junqing came to the warehouse. Instead of stopping the violence she shouted, "Bring a big towel and silence her." Xia said, "What's the big deal if one person dies? We have an annual death quota." They eventually stopped beating me, only because the inmates woke up and started moving around. I was on the ground and could not move. Lu Junqing yelled at me and kept kicking me.

It took several months for me to slowly recover. For a long time I had a deafening ringing in my ears. My upper right teeth were damaged during the beating; one molar broke.

When I saw Lu Junqing again I told her, "They nearly suffocated me! You must take responsibility for my life and safety from now on." She reluctantly said to Xia Congling in front of me, "Do not hit her." That made them much less violent toward me.

Xia Congling and Li Qin took turns watching me and made me wash and use the restroom at times when I would have no contact with others. As soon as I stepped out of the door, the division head or inmates assigned to watch me would tell everyone in the hallway and the toilet to go back to their cells. Xia Congling would scream at me if I even looked at or smiled at someone. My hair gradually turned white after living under such great pressure.

My schedule was different from everyone else's. I was made to get up at 5 a.m. and could only go to bed at 11 p.m. or midnight. Xia Congling was often on night duty and would purposely make all kinds of noise as soon as I would try to sleep.

Collaborators including Yuan Aiwu came to brainwash me, forcing me to watch slanderous DVDs and read books. Lu Junqing made me mop the floor in the hallway, which is about 90 metres [295 ft] long, tile by tile, once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. Xia Congling often found fault with me and made me do it over again.

Solitary confinement in the "activity room"

After two months of detention in the warehouse I was transferred to the activity room for solitary confinement. Drug addict Chen Meihua watched me. They later locked me in the washroom because I refused to write guarantee statements. Chen Meihua was ordered to stay in there with me. She blamed me for the persecution and came up with various ways to torture me.

Inmate monitors

I was held in the activity room until mid-June 2008 when my family came to visit me. Lu Junqing finally ended my solitary confinement and assigned me to a class. I was then sent to do forced labour in the workshop but was still monitored 24 hours a day and forbidden to talk to other practitioners.

The officials came up with another system to isolate practitioners by assigning two inmates to monitor one practitioner at all times. If any practitioner violated this policy, the inmates would be punished, making them retaliate against the practitioner. Whenever a practitioner wrote something, the inmates would come and look at it. Practitioner Ms. Wu Zhanhua once wrote a letter and the inmates tried to snatch it. Ms. Wu refused to let them have it. They tore the letter to pieces while struggling to get it. It was commonplace for them to conduct body searches, or to rummage through all of the practitioners' personal items, to find Falun Gong articles.

I told Yuan Mengqin, section head in charge of disciplinary actions, about the violence I experienced, but she stopped me after only a few sentences. She was aware of the persecution and all of the atrocities taking place with silent approval and even encouragement from the officials.

I filed an administrative lawsuit with the Beijing City Court while held at the Beijing Labour Re-education Dispatch Division and also reported the persecution to the Xiaoheihe Procuratorate in Huhehaote, Neimenggu Autonomous Region. I have not received any response so far, and no one, no institution, has taken any responsibility for the serious violation of Falun Gong practitioners' rights!

The labour camp established a special division in July 2009. Practitioners are now held in solitary confinement, subjected to brainwashing, and pressured to write guarantee statements.

Huhehaote Women's Forced Labour Camp:
Main numbers: 86-417-5692972, 86-471-5150937
Sun Jinyan, camp head: 86-471-5692968, 86-471-13354716789
Mu Jianfeng, political head: 86-471-5693088
Yuan Mengqin, Administrative Section head: 86-471-5692969
Lu Junqing, head of Division 1: 86-471-13947190287, 86-471-3392682
Division 3: 86-471-3392684

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/2010/8/27/228881.html