Brutal Torture Methods Used in the Shayang Forced Labour Camp in Hubei Province

In its isolated environment, practitioners at Shayang Forced Labour Camp are brainwashed and forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong. Those who succumb to the pressure and renounce their belief are sent to other brainwashing centres in Hubei Province and other provinces to spread the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) propaganda and try to get other practitioners to renounce their belief. Guards at the labour camp also physically torture practitioners using various methods.

Forced to do strenuous exercises

Practitioners are forced to do strenuous exercises for several hours at a time, and are not allowed to have enough to eat or drink. They are also not allowed to wash themselves or their clothes and are denied the right to sleep. If practitioners do not do the exercises correctly, they are forced to do more until the guards are satisfied. The aim is to physically wear them down, and often results in practitioners feeling dizzy, nauseous and throwing up.

In their cells, practitioners are forced to sit on the edge of the wooden beds with their backs straight, legs closed, both hands on their knees and look straight ahead. They are then made to memorise the prison rules. If they want to move, they have to request permission to do so. Otherwise, they will be beaten and shouted at.

Placed in solitary confinement or the strictly controlled team, and force fed

If practitioners refuse to co-operate with the guards, they are placed in solitary confinement or assigned to the strictly controlled team, where they are forbidden from using the toilet. Practitioner Liu Deyu from Jingmen was tortured to death here. Guards use various tools to pry open practitioners' mouths to force feed them, and they sometimes intentionally push a spoon down a practitioner's throat to make it easier to pour the food down. Many practitioners have had their jaws broken and lost their teeth as a result of the force feeding.

When a practitioner who was in solitary confinement shouted, "The labour camp persecutes Falun Gong practitioners," Ouyang Daixia, the deputy team leader of the 9th team, rushed over and slapped the practitioner several times until her mouth and nose were bleeding. A prison doctor later injected her with unknown drugs. She was then tied to a death bed¹ and tortured. While in isolation, practitioners are forced to do hard labour. Many practitioners who are new to the camp have to work from 8:00 a.m. until dawn the next day to finish their quotas. Some practitioners' fingers bled and were in great pain, but they still had to continue with the work the next day.

Shocked with electric batons

Guards sometimes use electric batons on practitioners while they are hung up off the ground. Zheng Dejun was tortured this way by guard Wei Peng from the 3rd team.

When a practitioner ripped down a poster slandering Falun Gong, Sun Hong, head of the 2nd section of the 9th team, reported them to a person called Zhou, the Political Commissar of the labour camp. Several guards then dragged twelve practitioners into an office at around midnight. The practitioners had their hands tied behind their backs, while guards used electric batons to shock their inner thighs. The screams that could be heard were horrifying.

Guards used a method called "Carrying a Sword on the Back" to torture a female practitioner. The practitioner was handcuffed, with one hand placed behind the back and the other hand pulled over the shoulder. The guards kicked off her shoes and ordered her to kneel on the floor. A male guard then stepped on her heels and used an electric baton to shock her lower back, hands and feet for several hours. The guard only stopped when they were tired. Liu Qiuhong, the prison doctor, is on call to deal with practitioners who lose consciousness while being tortured.

A female practitioner from Xianning City was shocked by guards for over ten hours. She was left with large burn marks on her back, and other wounds are all over her body.

Luo Fenying from Huangshi City, Li Zhihui from Xiangfan City, Dong Shijun from Jingzhou City, Hong Yueying from Lichuan City, Dong Dengzhi from Jingmen City, Fan Changhua from Yichang City, Han Lihui from Shiyan City, Zhu Shouqing from Xiantao City, Wan Guifang from Jianli City, Huang Qiuzheng from Xianning City and Cao Xiangfen from Daye City have all been tortured with the use of electric batons.

Forced labour

Practitioners are forced to work in the fields and in the workshop. They also have to collect the rubbish, clean up excrement, dig in the muddy fields or break rocks. When practitioners are to harvest the peanuts, they have to collect eight to ten bags of peanuts, with each bag weighing over one hundred pounds. If practitioners cannot complete their work, they are forced to stand in strenuous positions until 2:00 a.m. and are not allowed to eat or sleep.

Ms. Chen Meifang was ordered to shell over ten bags of peanuts every day by guards from the 2nd team. The skin on her fingers were split open and bleeding.

Beatings and sexual assault

Guard Wei Peng from the 3rd team once forced Ms. Zheng Dejun to stand in a strenuous position for 24 hours and was shocked with electric batons.

A practitioner from Wuhan City was tied to two beds, with her four limbs separated. A drug addict then inserted a dirty toothbrush between the practitioner's legs, causing her private parts to become infected.

A drug addict was ordered to brutally kick an elderly practitioner between the legs. She had to lay on the bed for over half of a month, and had problems going to the toilet.

A young practitioner's hands and legs are deformed due to the beatings she received. She is not yet 20 years old.

A twenty-year-old female practitioner from Shiyang was tied naked to a death bed for several days. She developed mental problems as a result.

Terms extended at labour camp

Practitioners who remain firm in their belief at the end of their sentences have had their terms extended. Ms. Zhou Guoxiang from Chibi City in Xianning initially had her term extended by three months, which was then extended to half a year. She was later sent to Chibi Detention Centre and has been held there for over a year.

Injected with unknown drugs

The article "I Was Tortured With Poisonous Drugs by the Shayang Forced Labour Camp in Hubei Province" was published on September 8th, 2006, and provides detailed accounts of a practitioner being injected with unknown drugs at the labour camp. The article can be found at: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2006/9/8/77771.html

Those responsible for the persecution:
Yuan Qigui, party secretary and superintendent of Shayang Forced Labour Camp
Fang Huakun, head of the 610 Office
Yu Bangqing, head of the Education Section of Shayang Forced Labour Camp
Zhang Xingfu, former commissar
Lu Wenjun, head of the 9th team
Wei Peng, deputy head of the 9th team
He Bingrong, deputy head of the 9th team

Note

1. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/9/27/230213.html