My Sufferings in Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province

On the evening of December 29, 2001, when I took truth-clarifying literature to a fellow practitioner's home, I was abducted by four policemen from the Harbin Public Security Bureau. They had been waiting there to arrest Falun Gong practitioners. They pounded my head with handcuffs, violently kicked my lower legs, and then cuffed my hands. They also took from me 1900 Yuan [Approximately 4 month salary of an average urban worker], 2 credit cards, a wallet, my Identification certificate and an address book. Since they found from my ID that my residence is in Xiangfang District, they asked Xiangfang Public Security to handle my case. Without any legal procedure and documents, and while withholding my money and personal belongings, policemen Liu Yulin and Jia of the Political Security Section took me to Xiangfang Sub-bureau. That night I was tortured during the interrogation. The policemen tortured me using various brutal means such as punching my face and by forcing me to stand with both legs spread out past the tolerable limit. Policeman Ding violently kicked my private parts, and I was kicked again while down on the ground. They did not obtain the information they wanted from the interrogation, so they locked me up in Xiangfang Detention Centre.

During my detention, I was interrogated three times, about a week apart. Each time they tried to force me to tell them my current address, but I refused to tell them. Policeman Liu Yulin said that if I told them my address, they would let me go back home to spend the Chinese Spring Festival with my family. I knew that he was just trying to deceive me. Because they were unable to get any information from me, they beat me barbarously. In one interrogation, my nose was beaten so badly that it bled for 20 days. After 70 days of detention, the police signed a labour camp "re-education" document and sent me to a forced labour camp.

The first time they sent me to a forced labour camp was on March 15, 2002. However, the labour camp refused to accept me because when they examined me, I was found to have high blood pressure (240-140 MM/I). The chief of the Detention Centre, Li, and policeman Zhang Yuntao ordered me to take medicine to reduce the high blood pressure. I did not pay attention to their scheme because I knew that my blood pressure would not be reduced. On March 28, 2002, I was sent to that Labour Camp again. This time Chief Li and policeman Zhu convinced the clinic of the labour camp not to measure my blood pressure. Thus, I was placed in the labour camp, and since that time nobody has dared to mention curing my high blood pressure.

During the period of intensive "training" at the labour camp, the police prohibited practitioners from talking. Restricting talking is one of their harsher control means. They set this rule for the purpose of prohibiting practitioners from discussion among themselves, and spreading Falun Dafa. But since many inmates had understood that practitioners are truly good people, nobody gave trouble to the practitioners. In the labour camp, the living environment was extremely bad. Our meals were always corn bread and vegetable soup and there was never enough for us to get full. At one point, I had not changed my clothes for 8 days, and fleas covered my body. Our quilts were too thin to keep us warm at night. I did not have a coat with me, so I just wore a shirt and a sweater. I was shivering each night when I woke up. Only after four days of shivering did a guard agree to lend me a worn-out coat. I suffered severe back pain every day. When the wooden pail for urine placed inside the cell was full, the cell guards would prohibit us from urinating again that night. Li Weijun, a 61-year-old practitioner, had to endure the pain of not urinating for many nights.

In the afternoon of April 5, 2002, I was put into a police van and driven to Harbin Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. All of us were forced to squat in the passageway of the van. We were cuffed together in pairs, and forced to hold both hands on our heads. If we refused to do so, the police would kick our heads with their leather boot heels. I suffered brutal kicking three times and felt as if an iron hammer had beaten my head. They assigned me, as well as 10 other practitioners to the Third Team, a rigorous control team where practitioner Ju Yajun had stayed before he was tortured to death. Every practitioner was closely watched and "accompanied" by two inmates. We were not allowed to talk or walk around. If the inmates did not do as ordered, the police would abuse them. There were a total of 35 practitioners assigned to the Third Team. Almost all inmates could see that Falun Gong practitioners are good people. Although they still put us under close surveillance, they showed us admiration on many occasions. None of the people around us were against Falun Dafa, though they did not start practising Falun Gong. Some of them even said that they would start to practice after they were released.

Previously, many practitioners in the labour camp suffered painful scabies. One practitioner's two hands were unable to move. On April 17, the medical officials applied plaster to his hands. Currently he still has difficulty reading.

The 15th of every month is the visiting date for relatives. It was said that without signing any document, practitioners were allowed to visit their family members. Since Falun Dafa practitioners kept creating a good environment, the guards progressively gave up many of their more brutal tactics. Even the head of the labour camp agreed that Truth-Compassion-Tolerance is good, and that Falun Dafa practitioners are good, although he still used very rigorous means to closely control us.

The labour camp also had political study class. Our "homework" was to copy down rules and regulations. Following the sentence "the labour transformation system is built based on law," I added the statement "actually it is illegal." The next day all practitioners were allowed to quit copying the sample document. Practitioners were asked to sit beside other inmates and to watch them copy the rules.

The plot to slander Falun Dafa in a political study class has since failed. The class ended up being cancelled.

One form of punishment was locking practitioners up in "small cells." [For an illustration of the methods used to torture Dafa practitioners, click torture methods]

Usually, they would be allowed out after two days' detention. Two practitioners assigned to the Second Team, Gao Ke and Gong Wenyi, started a hunger strike when they were sent to this labour camp. The guards forced them to stay in "small cells," and force-fed them every day. Practitioner Wang Jie from the Third Team were locked up in a "small cell" for 4 days because he refused to wear a labour camp badge. He started a hunger strike the next day while he was confined in the small cell.

The above has been compiled from the brief pieces of information that I have learned.