Behind the Loud Music at Shuanghe Women's Labour Camp

On May 13, World Falun Dafa Day, 2002, Falun Dafa practitioners detained in Shuanghe Women's Labour Camp of Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province made banners stating: "Falun Dafa is Good," and "Falun Dafa is the Righteous Fa."

They hung them from their windows or displayed them in the lobby to commemorate and celebrate the tenth anniversary of Falun Gong's introduction to the public.

Shuanghe police reacted as if they faced a formidable enemy. For each of eight practitioners to be taken to solitary confinement, four or five policemen or women were called to duty. Some practitioners are often placed in these confined spaces. The room, approximately five square metres, is completely sealed except for a 3 inch by 2 inch hole in the door, providing the only light or ventilation. As further punishment, even this hole will be closed, making it pitch dark. The room offers no protection from the extreme heat of summer or the extreme cold of winter. In this harsh environment, Falun Dafa practitioners endure the cruel torture of the iron chair. In the cold winter, practitioners suffer day and night, with their bodies close against the freezing iron. In addition to causing unbearable pain, this torture can disable a person. With personal hygiene forbidden, practitioners could not bathe, brush their teeth, or even change their clothes. Each day, practitioners were provided with one small (3.5 oz) bun in the morning and one in the evening, with a small cup of soup without any oil. When there was no room in the compartments, the police handcuffed practitioners to stand in the house serving hot water for several days and nights; or handcuffed their hands behind them and chained their feet on the ground for many days.

The practitioners who suffered this torture included young women in their 20s or seniors in their 50s. How could they survive for 33 days?

Whenever Shuanghe Women's Labour Camp played music loudly; the practitioners detained in the compartments would know that the guards of the labour camp were hiding the cries of practitioners being brutally tortured. Practitioners are silenced while electric shock, beating, kicking, and more malicious methods are used to torture them. After one night of torture, one previous healthy female practitioner suffered a mental collapse. It's very difficult for a practitioner to walk out of Shuanghe Women's Labour Camp intact.

Although guards reported to the inspectors that every meal has meat, food for Falun Dafa practitioners in the Labour Camp consisted only of dark bread and a cup of soup with some cabbage leaves. For several days after April 24 2002, the food had a bad smell, and some people felt dizzy, had stomach aches or diarrhoea. All felt it was hard to wake up from sleep. The criminals manage the dining centre. If anyone complains about the food, their sentence would be extended.

Falun Dafa practitioners have no human rights here. Although the practitioners are tightly locked up, the guards are still highly alert. Every 3 to 5 days they will thoroughly search us, even including tearing up the comforters, too, and search inside. After tearing up the comforters, they don't provide needles and threads for us to repair them. They said it's more convenient for them to search this way.

We hope compassionate people in the world can give us support and help save the Falun Dafa practitioners who are still suffering all the torture in the solitary compartments.