Ms. Wang Ya and Ms. Zhang Zhifen Tortured in Chongqing Women's Forced Labour Camp

Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Wang Ya and Ms. Zhang Zhifen are being tortured at the Chongqing Women's Forced Labour Camp. They are in critical condition.

Zhao Yuanyuan, a guard in the Education Section of the forced labour camp, and guards Han Lu, Yang Yi and Zhu Yu ordered several inmates imprisoned for drug addiction, thievery and prostitution to monitor and torture the two practitioners. The inmates included Wang Chun, Tang Hongxia, He Xiaoping, Huang Xiaoli and Ran Congping.

The guards locked Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang in solitary confinement and deprived them of sleep and basic personal hygiene. The practitioners were also given very little food. The inmates assigned to monitor the practitioners took turns to beat them around the clock; they also used many other torture methods.

Zhao Yuanyuan has led the efforts to torture Falun Gong practitioners at this labour camp. She was previously the team lead of a special unit established to persecute Falun Gong practitioners who refused to be “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] in Division No. 4 of the labour camp.

Ms. Wang Ya

Ms. Wang Ya, 47, was the president's secretary at Chongqing University and later the community director of the Daxigou Community in Yuzhong District, Chongqing. When she was at Chongqing University, she was known to have poor health. In 1996, she started practising Falun Gong. Soon thereafter, she became healthy. Following Falun Gong's principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, she was considerate and kind to others. As a result, her colleagues, friends and neighbours said that she was a capable, modest and helpful person.

Since the Chinese communist regime started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Wang has been imprisoned several times--for a total of 7 years--because she refused to renounce her belief in Falun Gong. Most recently, she was arrested on May 4th, 2012, when she stepped out of her younger brother's home. Policemen Liang Shibin and Liu Ling from the Domestic Security Team of the Jiangbei District Police Department in Chongqing made the arrest. This is the third time she has been incarcerated in a forced labor camp. Her family and friends are very worried about her safety.

Rampant Persecution at Chongqing Women's Forced Labour Camp

Between September and October 2011, practitioner Ms. Xu Zhen was tortured to death at the Chongqing Women's Forced Labour Camp. Guards ordered over a dozen inmates to beat her, force-feed her salt water, and stick fingers and objects into her private organ. When she fainted due to pain, they poured cold water to wake her up and then continued torturing her. The guards threatened, “We'll beat you to death and count it as committing suicide.”

In addition to subjecting practitioners to severe physical abuse, Chongqing Women's Forced Labour Camp officials also extorted money from practitioners and their families and forced practitioners to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong.

Some of the worst human-rights offenders at the forced labour camp are Gan Lin, director of the forced labour camp; Sun Tao, political commissar; Yu Xiaohua, deputy division manager; Tao Xin, team lead of the “Transformation Team”; and “Transformation Team” members Yang Yi, Bi Mei, Jia Zheng, Gao Hong and Xin Lisha. The inmates that have participated in beating and torturing practitioners include Chen Linmei, Qin Fang, Zhang Jun, Deng Min, Tang Hongxia, Lu Cun and Chen Yalin.