Authorities from Wangcun Forced Labour Camp, otherwise known as Shandong Province Second Forced Labour Camp, have kidnapped and persecuted Dafa practitioners since November 1999. On September 17 2000, male Dafa practitioners from every corner of Shandong Province were gathered together and dispatched to the Wangcun Forced Labour Camp. The first group consisted of over 70 people. As of September 2002, more than 1,000 practitioners have suffered from physical and mental torture at the camp.
I. Physical Torture
On September 17, 2000, the male practitioners were gathered at the third branch of the Wangcun Forced Labour Camp at the foot of Xibao Mountain. The practitioners asked for permission to study the Fa [principles of Falun Dafa] and do the exercises, but the guards denied their request. From then on, a regime of persecution against Dafa practitioners began.
1. "September 20th Incident"
At around 8:00 p.m. on September 20 2000, Dafa practitioners who were in the same class with Ma Jialin recited Teacher Li's articles. The guards slapped these practitioners on the face and goaded the criminals to punch and kick them. When asked who the leader for the recital was, Dafa practitioner Song Xiaodong stood up. Assistant team leader Zheng Wanxin ordered the guard to put him in handcuffs and drag him out of the class. Immediately, all of the practitioners in the class stood up and recited "Lunyu" (preface to the main text of Falun Gong, Zhuan Falun) together. Then all of the practitioners in the team started to recite "Lunyu" and went to the lobby to ask for Song's release. Zheng Wanxin had no choice but to release him. At around 10:00 a.m. a group of armed guards stormed in with electric batons and handcuffs. They took away six practitioners in handcuffs. These practitioners were sent to different branches. They all suffered brutal beatings, electric shock abuse and were hung from the ceiling. They were covered with bruises and bled at their wrists, where the handcuffs cut into their skin.
On September 21, Dafa practitioners again demanded their release. By noon, over 50 people began a hunger strike to resist the persecution. The guards responded by dragging all of the Dafa practitioners who were on the hunger strike to the yard for "training," including some practitioners who were force-fed and had a tube inserted through their noses due to an earlier hunger strike. On September 25, more than 50 practitioners were still on the hunger strike, but the guards still continued with the "training." That day at around 9:00 a.m., the guards started to drag people out from among the practitioners. Practitioner Mr. Ma Jialin was the first one dragged into the office and tied to a chair with his hands behind his back. Seven to eight policemen were wearing leather gloves and holding electric batons. They each applied an electric batons simultaneously to Ma Jialin's body for the whole morning. In the afternoon, the guards changed to higher voltage electric batons and continued their torture until Ma Jialin fell unconscious and was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment. Among the practitioners who went on the hunger strike, more than 30 suffered electric shock or other brutal tortures.
The practitioners' screams of pain from being shocked with electric batons could be heard from morning until night. Practitioners Liu Hongwei, Song Xiaodong and Sun Lianzhi were very firm, even after the electric shock torture. They were separately detained for more than 40 days. Duan Yulai was separately detained for more than three months and shocked nearly everyday. He was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment when he bled profusely from the feeding tube being inserted too often.
2. Practitioner Mr. Zou Songtao died as a result of severe torture.
The torture imposed on Dafa practitioners by the forced labour camp guards intensified day by day. They even claimed, "It doesn't matter whether or not we have a dead person in the labour camp." Team leader Zheng Wanxin allowed the guards to implement extreme measures against the practitioners.
All of the Dafa practitioners who were kidnapped into the forced labour camp after October 2000 were dragged away and subjected to electric shock and other abuses and tortures if they didn't agree to write the "guarantee letters." ["Guarantee letters" are documents the practitioners are forced to sign which state they are sorry to ever have practised Falun Dafa, will never practice it again, will never again associate with other Dafa practitioners and will never go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa]. A dozen practitioners, including Zhao Jiashui and Jiang Weidong from Jinan City, suffered these kinds of tortures. Mr. Zhao Jiashi in particular was beaten severely and bled from his mouth. Because most of the practitioners refused to write the "Letter of Regret" or the "Letter of Separation", Zheng Wanxin decided to find a firm practitioner and make an example of him. He singled out Qingdao practitioner Zou Songtao (29 years old, Master's degree holder) at a meeting. Zheng tried to force Zou to write the letters and threatened, "Your only option is death if you don't write them." Zou Songtao was tortured so badly that he died at the beginning of November. His wife Li Yunhe was forced to leave her home to avoid the persecution. We have not yet received any news of her whereabouts. Another Dafa practitioner is taking care of their little daughter.
3. The continuous persecution of Dafa practitioners.
Sitting on wooden stools: Dafa practitioners are forced to sit on tiny wooden stools, only a few inches off the ground, in the corridor for about 16 hours per day. Some have been tortured like this for 70 to 80 days. Their buttocks became bloody and developed calluses. Moreover, they had very limited water to drink. Whenever the guards found them talking or moving, they would be forced to stand on the stools while facing the wall. Later, Dafa practitioners were routinely forced to sit on the stools while facing the wall.
Sleep-deprivation: This is one of the most commonly used torture methods the guards subjected the Dafa practitioners to. They deprived steadfast practitioners of sleep for long periods of time. If the practitioners became sleepy, the guards would splash cold water on their faces, use instruments to tickle them, force them to stand still for a long time, and have two people hold them up to walk in the corridor. Some Dafa practitioners were tortured this way for two to three months. Their goal is to muddle the practitioners' minds and weaken their resolve.
Torture in solitary confinement: One is put into a small, windowless cell. There is only one special, single wooden bed with six positions for handcuffs and shackles. Those who resisted would be handcuffed and shackled. Some practitioners were handcuffed to the bed diagonally so that they could neither sit, squat nor lie down. Meanwhile, the guards would subject the Dafa practitioners to other forms of torture. Many practitioners including Man Jun and Wang Shaoqing were tortured this way. Man Jun was confined in the "small cell" for more than three months. While the practitioners are isolated, guards and collaborators [former practitioners who have turned against Dafa due to brainwashing and torture] would apply all kinds of torture against the practitioners.
Hung up with hands separated: The guards would cuff practitioners' hands separately on the frame of a window or on the end of bed, with their feet barely touching the ground. Now and then the guards or collaborators would slap the practitioners on the face or poke them in the ribs with some instrument, causing excruciating pain.
Punching and kicking, using a wooden board to beat them on the face and body and stomping on their toes: Many Dafa practitioners have suffered from this form of abuse to varying degrees. Guard Wang Xinjiang routinely slapped practitioners in the face, and he also hit them on the head with books or wooden boards.
Public humiliation: To persecute Dafa practitioners, the guards used all kinds of ways to humiliate them by forcing them to stand at one site to be viewed in front of many other practitioners, or be paraded to each class. Guard Zhao Yongming paraded Jiang Mingzhai (58 years old) to each class to be publicly humiliated. The collaborators, under the instigation of the guards, spat into Jiang Mingzhai's mouth and later stuff a dirty sock into his mouth. This long-term torture has sapped Jiang Mingzhai's strength and clouded his mind.
Dafa practitioner Li Deshan from Dezhou was tortured to death in August 2002. The death came as a result of these inhuman tortures of sleep-deprivation, brutal beatings, being hanged and beaten, being force-fed with water and alcohol, and public humiliation.
II. Mental Torture
The forced labour camp authorities continually try to force the practitioners to write the "Three Papers" (one to guarantee to give up practising Falun Dafa, one to repent, and one to reveal the names of other practitioners and denounce them). This is one of the chief methods that they use to try to wear down practitioners mentally and force them to give up cultivation. Others are described as follows:
1. Compelling practitioners to watch a series of television programs that distort the facts and spread many false rumours against Falun Gong. They also forced practitioners to read articles fabricated by the authorities that slander Dafa in order to deceive practitioners.
2. Ordering several collaborators from Beijing's Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp, Hubei Huanggang Forced Labour Camp and Changchun Forced Labour Camp to come to the labour camp to make some kind of "report." They also forced practitioners to repeatedly watch slanderous videos. Earlier, they had forcibly taken some practitioners to Beijing's Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp for brainwashing, attempting to undermine the practitioners' righteous belief in Dafa.
3. Using books and other materials to slander Falun Gong and Falun Gong's founder, to drill the fabricated rumours and lies into the practitioners' minds repeatedly.
4. Sanctioning those collaborators to do so-called "experience sharing" and "help sessions." These people used all kinds of lies to wear down the practitioners.
5. Allowing the collaborators to write articles and put on performances to slander Falun Gong's founder and defame practitioners.
6. Forcing the practitioners to view videos, listen to "seminars," to attend meetings and other kinds of activities that slander Dafa. Following these activities, the practitioners had to write endless reports, citing "feedback," "understandings" and "criticisms."
7. Setting up a system that fostered conflicts. The guards not only used the collaborators to monitor the practitioners, but also set up a spying system. Every class had one or two "spies" who were there just to observe practitioners' actions. Then they would report to the labour camp authorities. Each team has a head spy, such as Song Weizhong. These head spies are responsible for reporting information and proposing new means of persecution.
III. Monetary Punishment
Ever since the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners began, certain sections in this forced labour camp have become very wealthy. In addition to funding from Jiang's criminal regime, every practitioner who is detained in this forced labour camp has to pay many "fees."
The food this forced labour camp provides is of very poor quality. Supplies for daily necessities sold by this camp are very expensive, but practitioners have no choice. The police had already physically and mentally tortured some practitioners before entering the labour camp. If one is not well enough physically, the labour camp should refuse to accept this person. To get around this, the local police authorities sent gifts and invited labour camp personnel for dinner so that the camp would accept those practitioners. All these bribes cost the labour camp a lot of money, making it necessary to recoup the expenses, so the labour camp forced the practitioners to pay for these costs.
Since the beginning of 2001, forced labour camps in various regions sent groups of Dafa practitioners to undergo the so-called "help" sessions. These sessions last about 10 to 30 days each. Every practitioner then has to pay the camp from 3,000 to 5,000 Yuan [the average monthly income of Chinese workers is about 500 Yuan in urban areas and 200 Yuan in rural areas]. Furthermore, the labour camp also invited the local "610 Office" personnel and people from different work units to live in the hotel owned by the labour camp. [ The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems]. Sometimes, practitioners have to pay over a thousand Yuan per day. This has become one important source of income for the lawless police in the labour camp. At the end of 2001, some practitioners' family members bribed the leaders in the labour camp so that they would release some of the practitioners to serve their prison terms outside the labour camp, or for medical treatment, or even cancel the forced labour terms, and for other requests. In addition, since the beginning of 2001, the labour camp ordered the collaborators to work for "income," such as winding wires, modifying clothing and stringing beads for jewellery. Although this kind of work does not constitute hard physical labour, the workload is heavy and the hours are very long. When there is demand to produce large quantities and fast approaching due dates, they had to work until 11:00 p.m. or later. Division No. 11 arranged for the young and vigorous with good vision to do this work, and the weaker and older people were ordered to carry water and bring food. The labour camp has received a lot of income from this scheme. In the name of "making improvements," they renovated their own housing quarters, improved the beds, installed new security equipment, and added more instruments of torture. The wardens were also promoted because of this. The forced labour camp officials are growing fat based on the practitioners' sweat and toil.
Wangcun Forced Labour Camp has persecuted over a thousand practitioners in the past two years. Because of their persecution, 1/3 of the practitioners have symptoms of illness, quite severe in some cases. The persecution also traumatized Dafa practitioners Guo Jiapeng, Zhang Peng, Wang Tongliang, Zhang Zhi, Zhang Xueqiang, Sun Guangming, and others, to the point where they cannot take care of themselves. Furthermore, practitioners, Zou Songtao, and Li Deshan have lost their lives.
These facts demonstrate that the so-called "transformation" attempted by the forced labour camp authorities is completely evil. The vast majority of practitioners firmly resist all sorts of persecution at the forced labour camp. No matter how frenzied the evil is, the practitioners refuse to yield. Some compromised for a while, but immediately stated that the brainwashing they had been subjected to is invalid. In July 2002, several dozen practitioners declared that the "three papers" they had signed were invalid. On July 30, 2002, when the forced labour camp was having the semi-annual "awards ceremony," one practitioner stood up in the presence of everyone and shouted, "Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa" and exposed the words of the labour camp director as lies. Team leaders Liang Junling and Shan Yewei were subsequently transferred as a result.
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/11/2/28364.html
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