Falun Gong Practitioners Injected with Unknown Drugs at the Banqiao Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin

Guards from the Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin have followed the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP)’s orders to persecute Falun Gong practitioners for many years. When the prison guards attempted to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith, they openly threatened practitioners by shouting: “Not going along with being "transformed" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] will result in you being tortured until you have mental disorders.”

In addition to using various means of torture, guards from the Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp put drugs that attack the central nervous system, hormones and other unknown drugs into practitioners’ food and drinking water, causing mental disorders, their being lethargic and unresponsive, blindness, numbness in their lower limbs, hypertension and heart disease, and other conditions.

Following are the persecution facts about some practitioners who were given unknown drugs at the Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp.

Practitioner Ms. Zhao Dewen, 52, was from Beichen District, Tianjin. She was arrested by local police at her home in early 2001, and sentenced to one year of forced labour. She suffered severe persecution at the Banqiao Forced Labour Camp. She was brutally tortured by the guards after being force-fed sex hormones, resulting in severe bleeding. She died at the labour camp on June 3rd, 2003.

Practitioner Ms. Zhou Xuezhen from Beichen District was arrested at her home at the end of 2000 and then sentenced to forced labour. During her detention at the Banqiao Labour Camp, the guards stripped off her clothing, and then tied her in the barn and let the mosquitoes bite her until she fainted. They kept her in a solitary confinement cell and forced her to take unknown drugs. After she began displaying symptoms of a mental disorder, she was released.

Ms. Zhao Binghong, a worker from Dagang Oil Field, was tortured until she had a mental disorder, and was no longer aware of anything. She even ate faeces and drank urine. Even though her condition was so fragile, the guards would not stop persecuting her and frequently instigated criminals to torture her, until she was covered with cuts and bruises. Despite her terrible condition, they would not release her until her detention term expired.

Ms. Chen Yumei is a practitioner in Dagang District, Tianjin. She was arrested on November 14th, 2008 and detained at the labour camp for one year and three months. She was subjected to all kinds of torture while there. For more than two years, they tied her to a bed and stretched her limbs out in different directions. The guards ordered over 20 criminals to torture her. They forcibly injected her with unknown fluids and drugs. They also deliberately injected air into her body, endangering her life. Finally, Ms. Chen Yumei was tortured until she showed symptoms of a mental disorder, and only then was she released.

Ms. Bai Hong, 53, is a former employee of Heping District Quangyechang Institute of Health in Tianjin. She was detained in the winter of 2002. In the middle of November 2002, the guards and drug addicts brutally beat her at the labour camp. At night, they stripped her clothes off and threw her into the barn. Ms. Bai went on a hunger strike to protest. The guards fastened her arms and legs to a bed and at night put her in the narrow walkway between two rows of houses. They stripped her and threw her down onto the cement floor. They hit her with her own clothing and shoved her in front of a big dog cage, threatening to put her in the cage with the dogs. She was tortured until she suffered a mental collapse.

When she was arrested in November 2001, Ms. Wang Jingxiang was in her fifties. She was sentenced to forced labour. During her detention at the Banqiao Labour Camp, she was subjected to mental and physical torture. The guards put unknown drugs into her food, resulting in memory loss and mental disorder.

Ms. Muxiang Jie suffered brutal torture at the labour camp. In early April 2001, in order to force her to give up her belief in Falun Gong, the guards handcuffed her arms and legs to a bed, while two criminals punched her and forcibly injected her with unknown drugs. The abuse and drugs resulted in severe damage to her mind and body.

At the time of her detention, Ms. Wang Yuling from Dagang District was in her fifties. The guards injected her with unknown drugs, causing blindness and numbness in her lower body.

Ms. Ma Zezhen is from Wuqing District, Tianjin. When she was arrested and taken to the camp, she was in good physical condition, could walk a long way, and could even carry a 100 pound sack of beans. In 2001 the guards started torturing her. They ordered criminals to force-feed drugs to her twice a day. Each time, several criminals punched her and pinched her nose to force-feed her. They force-fed drugs to her for two years, resulting in her physical condition worsening, and she had difficulty walking.

The following practitioners were also persecuted:

Ms. Yang Xiuying, in her sixties, was arrested on New Year's Eve 2001 and was later sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour. During her detention at the labour camp, the guards beat her many times and shocked her with electric batons. They also detained her in metal cages, pulled her hair, put her in a barn and forced her to pick beans all night long, depriving of her sleep. They choked her by wrapping a quilt around her head. As a result, Ms. Yang’s thumb was broken and one foot was crippled. Guard Yang dragged her to the courtyard, tied her to a tree and then had a dog bite her.

Ms. Chen Ruiqin is from Ji County, Tianjin. She was detained at a labour camp from 2001 to 2005. Ms. Chen was arrested and taken to the camp again in March 2006 and suffered severe torture. Once, a guard ordered a group of inmates to beat her until she was unconscious. She was tortured until she was nearly blind.

Ms. Li Shumin, a head nurse from Tianjin Second Medical College Hospital, in her thirties, was detained at Banqiao Women's Forced Labour Camp in 2001. In November 2002, when she protested the terrible conditions and excessive workload, guard Han Jinling shocked her with several electric batons. She was tortured to death.

Under the instigation of the guards, the following inmates are involved in the persecution: Jie Qiao, Wei Hong, Bai Yun, Feng Yi, Wang Lili, Wang Henghuan, Xiao Yuliu, Kang Na, Liu Yonghai, Guo Hui.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/4/14/239005.html