Intense Persecution in Masanjia Labour Camp Causes Practitioners to Suffer Mental Collapse

On March 21, 2002, I was kidnapped by the authorities and forcibly detained on the first floor of the maximum security section in the Masanjia Labour Camp. At that time, there were quite a few Falun Dafa practitioners detained there who were on hunger strike, and many others were resisting the persecution through other means. However, due to the severe and prolonged abuse, some practitioners could not endure the maltreatment and suffered from mental collapse. At least six to seven of them became mentally traumatized as a result of the abuse inflicted upon them during their detention. The following is my personal account of the system of abuse I observed and how a perfectly healthy woman was tortured to the point of mental collapse.

The woman's name is Qi Zhenrong, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Benxi City. Qi Zhenrong was transferred to our cell on March 24, 2002 from the cell next door. In 1999, she was arrested without legal procedure. In 2001, after holding a hunger strike for 78 days she became critically weak and sent home. Later, she went to Beijing to appeal for the restoration of Falun Dafa's reputation where she was illegally arrested again and sent to the Masanjia Labour Camp. She had been on hunger strike for over two months at the time she was moved into our group. The guards handcuffed her, shackled her onto a metal bed frame and brutally force-fed her by inserting a tube through her nose. After the forced-feeding, they cruelly did not bother to remove the tube. Qi Zhenrong could barely breathe.

When she requested the guards to remove the nasal tube, both the guards and doctors refused. Instead, they used the matter to attempt to force her to stop her hunger strike. "We won't remove the tube if you refuse to eat, no matter how much you hurt." Qi Zhenrong replied, "I am not even afraid of death! I will never ask you again to remove it, no matter how hard it is to endure." She kept silent for two days. At night, when Yan Ying (a cellmate who was directed by the guards to monitor Qi Zhenrong's behaviour) was distracted, Qi Zhenrong removed the nasal tube herself. The head guard on duty became very angry with her for doing that. They just could not let her sleep comfortably. The head guard handcuffed her onto the bed frame. Qi Zhenrong started to cry and begged, "Don't do this to me, don't handcuff me. I feel sick." Cellmate Yan Ying expressed sympathy, "I have been staying with her for a month. She never asks for anything and never causes any trouble. Over the last two days, she really had trouble breathing. Please give her a break. Don't handcuff her again." Security officer Gao Hanzhi said, "I don't want to handcuff her either, but this is an order from the head guard." Qi Zhenrong was handcuffed onto the bed for the third day and could not move. She cried herself to sleep. Yan Ying felt uncomfortable about her behaviour, so she didn't sleep at all and watched her. In the middle of the night, Qi Zhenrong suddenly sat up and asked for water, which she had never done over the last two months. Yan Ying brought her the water, which she drank, and helped her to lie down. Qi Zhenrong could not sleep anymore. With eyes open, she seemed to be searching for something. Then suddenly, she burst into loud laughter that awakened everyone in the room.

All of us could see that something was not quite right with her. We greeted her and called out her name. But her face showed no reaction. She shut herself down completely. Knowing that she had been very determined in her hunger strike, avoiding both food and water, we brought food and drink to her to test her state of mind. She ate and drank willingly without offering any resistance or remembering her hunger strike. It appeared that she was becoming confused and her mental state was becoming unbalanced.

The next day, when the head guard reported to duty, Yan Ying and I told him how she became mentally traumatized after being tortured. Yan Ying said, "Everyone has a limit for suffering. We should not have pressured her more since she was at her limit." Security officer Gao Hanzhi observed her situation and said, "She was rock solid before. Now, she accepts any food and drink whenever you give it to her. This is not a good sign. Now she lays there motionless. Why do we have to handcuff her? I can't do this anymore." He left without handcuffing her.

Yan Ying, the cellmate chosen to monitor her, was then replaced by Bian, a collaborator [former Falun Gong practitioner who has gone astray due to brainwashing and torture]. She tried several methods to verify whether Qi Zhenrong had indeed suffered a mental collapse. In the past, one of their evil methods was to torture practitioners in front of Qi Zhenrong to terrorize her. But this time Qi Zhenrong was unable to show any emotion.