The Persecution of Practitioners in Urumqi City, Xinjiang Autonomous Region

Several brainwashing centres were set up in Urumqi City between June and September in 2011. They are run by officials from the Urumqi Political and Legal Committee, the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), local police in the Tianshan District, Shuimogou District, Saybagh District and New Town District in Urumqi. They are mainly located in remote areas.

The brainwashing centre run by officials from the Tianshan and Shuimogou Districts is located in Midong District in a rural area of northern Urumqi, while the brainwashing centre run by officials from the Saybagh and New Town districts is located in Shuixigou Township, Dabancheng District in southern Urumqi.

Staff working in these brainwashing centres were assigned by the Political and Legal Committees and the 610 Offices from each district. They work with the local police and neighbourhood committees to arrest practitioners without any legal procedure or providing an arrest warrant.

After practitioners are brought to the brainwashing centre, they get locked up in individual rooms with two hired “teaching assistants.” The teaching assistants are there to monitor them. Practitioners are forced to watch videos defaming Falun Gong every day, and have to write negative statements about Falun Gong. They are also forced to read distorted information and lies about the practice. The “teaching assistants” constantly urge practitioners to renounce their belief with threats and deception. Practitioners are constantly physically and mentally abused, and are often subjected to sleep deprivation.

Personnel from the provincial and the city 610 Offices, police and other governmental departments such as the Social Sciences Institute, who are specifically trained in brainwashing techniques, regularly visit the brainwashing centres and give instructions to further persecute practitioners. Officials in the brainwashing centres have to achieve a certain quota of practitioners that renounce their belief.

A new brainwashing centre was set up in Urumqi in early October.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/10/26/248357.html