Several Letters from Masanjia Forced Labour Camp Give Persecution Details

The Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang brainwashes Falun Gong practitioners with force and torture, and brutally forces practitioners to give up their belief. Some practitioners have been tortured to death or disabled, or have lost sensation in their limbs. The torture methods the labour camp uses include the “stretching bed” (practitioners' arms are handcuffed to two metal beds and then the beds are pushed apart), “splitting legs” (practitioners are forcibly pushed down to the floor with their arms fully apart and handcuffed to the rails of a metal bed, then their legs are pulled in opposite directions), and the “big hang-up” (practitioners are hung from heating radiators with their two arms pulled far apart or with one arm handcuffed to the radiator). Other methods used include shocking with electric batons, including shocking of the breasts, locking practitioners in solitary confinement, and kicking and hitting people in the face.

As of 2010, over 150 Falun Gong practitioners are still being detained at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. Recently, several practitioners' letters were smuggled out, and the letters reveal how severe the persecution is. The following are the details.

First letter: “Intensive Persecution Group” Formed to Persecute Falun Gong Practitioners

In the room “Donggang” (a dark room used to persecute Falun Gong practitioners), an “intensive persecution group” was formed. Its members included Zhang Lei, Zhang Xiurong, Zhou Xiaoguang, Pang Bo, Zhang Lili, Zhang Jun, Zhang Huan, Zhang Zuohui and several other male staff. The director of the forced labour camp personally took charge of this matter. Here are some entries by a practitioner held in the forced labour camp:

October 20th: Today we had to begin to answer questionnaires (they are trying to learn how we think).

October 25th: Practitioner Zhu Xuemin was taken away and persecuted this morning. In the evening guard Zhang Huan talked about a notification of “set right the discipline” in the forced labour camp from October 21st to November 20th.

October 27th: Everybody took part in the flag raising ceremony at 10:30 a.m. and raised hands to swear the “eight praises and eight shames.” Zhu Xuemin was sent back from Donggang. Lu Liping was taken away to Donggang to be persecuted and didn't come back until October 28th.

October 29th: Liu Xiaoya and Li Jie were taken away to Donggang to be persecuted in the morning and in the afternoon, respectively. Liu Xiaoya didn't come back until November 1st.

November 1st: Liu Ronghua, Tian Yumei and Dong Ying were taken away to Donggang to be persecuted and forced to answer questions on paper.

November 2nd: Yumei came back in the morning and Liu Ronghua came back in the afternoon.

November 3rd: Dong Ying came back from Donggang. Li Chunhua and Li Xiuzhi had to admit their “mistakes” in front of the whole branch group and cursed Falun Gong. In the evening Li Xiuzhi fainted in the activity room.

November 4th: Chen Xiaoying and Xing Shufang were taken to Donggang to be persecuted in the morning and in the evening, respectively. Hua Yumin was investigated by the local case officer. Dong Yanhua was called in to “have a chat.”

November 5th: Ren Changxue was taken to Donggang to be persecuted in the morning.

November 6th: Xing Sufang was sent back to the newcomers section in the morning, and Zhang Xiaoyan was taken away to Donggang to be persecuted in the afternoon.

November 9th: Wang Lihua was taken away to Donggang to be persecuted.

November 10th: Bao Qingying was sent to Donggang in the morning and was punished by having to squat for half a day. Bao Qingying was born in 1948 and comes from Benxi.

Second Letter: Masanjia Intended to Extend the Persecution up to the Chinese New Year

From mid-October, a new round of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners started based on rewriting the three statements to renounce practising Falun Gong.

Zhu Xuemin is a Falun Gong practitioner from Wanghua District, Fushun City. She is 47 years old and has been in the forced labour camp twice. She refused to swear allegiance to the red flag on October 13th and was severely beaten by Zhang Lei. One tooth was knocked out. She was later tortured for two days and three nights because she announced that the three statements she had previously written were null and void. Her blood pressure rose to 200 but they didn't stop torturing her. Later on, she was made to do labour.

Lu Liping is a Falun Gong practitioner from Wanghua District, Fushun City. She is 41 years old. Because she resisted the persecution, her limbs were cuffed to a bed and her mouth was sealed with tape. Four or five guards beat and kicked her and grabbed her hair. Three days later she was sent to workshops to do forced labour. The perpetrators were Zhang Jun, Zhang Zhuohui and Zhang Lei.

Li Jie is a Falun Gong practitioner from Fengcheng, Dangdong. She was tortured for several days before she was sent to a brainwashing centre to be “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. More practitioners were forced to rewrite the three statements and criticizing articles. They were tortured and threatened that their sentences would be extended.

Liu Ronghua is a Falun Gong practitioner from Zhongshan District, Dalian City and is 47 years old. She was held in forced labour camps twice. Guards severely beat her and tortured her. She suffered from serious heart problems, and she was forced to write the three statements. She has been in Masanjia for over a year. Guards harshly beat her even when she had a blood pressure of 180. Since November 3rd, she has not been able to eat or drink. She had difficulty walking, yet she was still made to do labour.

Third Letter: Du Yuhong Suffered from Stretching Torture and Was Beaten while Hung up

Du Yuhong is 41 years old and was sentenced to one year of forced labour. She was severely tortured at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. When she first arrived there, she refused to cooperate and refused to give up her belief. She was taken away to Donggang and was tortured with a stretching bed. As a result she lost sensation in her left arm.

From November 16th to 30th, 2010, Ms. Du was taken to Donggang again to be persecuted. She was punished by being forced to squat for 7 days. They put earphones on her and forced her to listen to recordings that slandered Falun Gong. She fainted and was sent to a hospital and injected with unknown drugs. She ended up being forcibly “transformed.” She was also forced to pay over 1,000 yuan¹ for her 15-day stay at the mental hospital.

On November 24th, Zhang Lei beat Ms. Du with a wooden mallet, including her head. On November 25th, she was force-fed with salt; they opened her mouth wide with a tool and poured salt directly into her mouth. The tool damaged her mouth. On November 26th, police failed in trying to force-feed her, and her mouth was injured by the tool and was full of blood. In the evening she started to eat. Police punished her with the stretching bed torture and forced her to press her handprints to sign the three statements. On November 27th, Zhang Lili carried Ms. Du back to the cell. On November 29th, Zhang Zhuohui cursed Master and hit Ms. Du in the face. On December 1st, Ms. Du was hung up and beaten for a whole day. Her current situation is unknown.

Du Yuhong is in her forties and a Falun Gong practitioner from Shenyang. She was sent to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in January 2010. On March 31st, she refused to sit for a test or to answer any questions on the exam paper, to protest the detention. Guards Zhang Huan and Zhang Jun then tortured her. They pulled her hair, stretched her arms, hit her face, sealed her mouth with tape, and taped her right hand into a fist and then inserted pens inside it. In early April, she didn't recite the regulations and didn't sign the review book. She was locked in the storage room and tortured for three days. Then she was taken away to Donggang to be tortured by the stretching bed method. Guards Zhang Huan, Zhang Jun and Zhang Lei handcuffed her hands to two different beds and then pulled the two beds apart violently. By the end, her hands were injured and she was incontinent. When she was freed, guards then used awls to prick her and kicked her in the chest. After she was tortured for 20 minutes, she was released and brought back to the cell. She could not get any sleep because of the pain all over her body, which caused her to constantly tremble. Her left hand became swollen and four fingers on her right hand were injured. Her left arm was disabled. Zhang Lei threatened her not to tell anyone.

Other Letters

Huang Yaqin is a Falun Gong practitioner from Fushu. She is 63 years old. She was sent to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in April 2009. She has not been “reformed.” She was sent to Donggang and was punished by forced squatting, and she was not allowed to go to the toilet or eat for a whole day. But they didn't get what they wanted from her. Guards then handcuffed her arms behind her back and pushed her down to squat until she vomited uncontrollably. She was then forced to write the three statements.

Dong Ying is a Falun Gong practitioner from Jinzhou. She is 56 years old. After she was taken away to Donggang, four or five guards ordered her to squat down, but she refused. Several guards grabbed her hair. They beat and kicked her, and forced her to squat for two days. They then took off her pants, leaving her with only underwear on. They forced her to sit on the cold floor until her legs twitched.

Yu Jie is from Shahekou District, Dalian City. She is 52 years old. On the second day she was in Donggang, she was tortured by the stretching bed method. She was handcuffed, and then ropes were tied around the handcuffs. She was tied to a bed with feet tied to the rails and fixed by a big metal bar. Several guards pulled the ropes upward until she passed out from the pain. After she woke up, she was forced to write the three statements. Then she was forced to read the statements out loud in front of the team. To prevent her from changing her mind, she was made to stay at Donggang for another two days. When Zhang Huan saw an unhappy expression on her face, he beat her again. Now she is not able to walk properly with her right leg.

In order to cover up their crimes, the forced labour camp made another rule: those who have completely “transformed” can get a reduction of their sentence of up to 30 days; those who are “transformed” under torture can get a sentence reduction of 15 days. Reduction of sentences cannot be done after November 25th.

On November 11th, Kou Yunping was taken to Donggang and didn't come back until the 15th.

On November 15th, Lu Liping was taken to Donggang.

Ren Changxue is a Falun Gong practitioner from Wanghua District, Fushun City. She was born in 1952. In 2009, more than ten policemen, including Zhang Zhongsheng, covered her head and sealed her mouth, and took her to the local police station. Two plainclothes policemen bashed her in the face and injected blue liquid into her. Zhu Xuemin was arrested at the same time and suffered from similar torture. Both of them were taken to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp on October 18th, 2009. They were severely tortured with the stretching bed method on October 25th and November 5th, respectively, at Donggang.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/1/10/234717.html