(Clearwisdon.net) At the end of May 2001, practitioners illegally detained in Team 12 of Wanjia Labor Camp requested their unconditional release, effective at the end of their terms. In response to their unlawful term extensions, several female practitioners began a hunger strike.

On May 24, Shi, the director of the labor camp, instructed several guards to detain all the female practitioners of Team 12 together with ten teams of male inmates. In each male team they put 4 to 10 female practitioners. Under the instructions of another director of the labor camp, Lu Zhenshan, the guards hung practitioners up, beat them, inflicted electronic shock, shut them in male inmates' cells, denied them sleep, and did not allow them to wash or change their clothes. They also enlisted male inmates to beat practitioners and hang them up. Many practitioners lost consciousness during these beatings. Also at the same time, guards sent 6 female practitioners to solitary confinement. They didn't allow them to speak, or else they would be brutalized even further. Some practitioners lost consciousness during the torture, and many sustained injuries to their faces.

In the middle of June, most of the female practitioners in Team 12 were heavily interrogated. At the end of the interrogation, all practitioners were slapped with extended sentences. Those who refused the extension were cursed and brutally beaten by prison guards. Policewoman, Li Jihong, in team 12, who is in charge of extending sentences, deliberately instructed male guards to beat and hang up the female practitioners who refused to accept the prolonged sentences.

In this round of torture, the 6 female practitioners previously detained to the solitary compartment were now forced into iron chairs for over a month. The chairs were painful to sit in and hurt ones bones after a period of time.

On June 20, Wanjia Labor Camp held a meeting to discuss the extended sentences. Over 400 practitioners in Team 7 and 12 were then taken to the prison auditorium. All the male and female police guards in the labor camp were present in uniform and all were armed. Twenty practitioners (10 in Team 12, 10 in Team 7) were then paraded into the auditorium with their hands tied behind their backs. At the end of this spectacle, some practitioners had their original sentences extended for an additional year, while many others had their terms extended three to six months. This "evaluation of term extensions", was conducted completely without the approval from higher authorities or with any legal or judicial process. Yet, all terms were final.

Practitioners Yang Xiuli, Chen Yali, Gao Shuyan, and others protested on the spot:"You can't treat us like that!" To this outcry, groups of male police guards punched and kicked them until they lost consciousness. The practitioners were then dragged into the solitary compartment in Team 7. That night, guards entered this particular compartment, hung the distraught practitioners up and then proceeded to beat them mercilessly. This beating resulted in the Wanjia Tragedy in which over 10 female practitioners were tortured to death.

After this shameful crime, Wanjia Labor Camp secretly released the practitioners detained over time. However, there are still practitioners detained in solitary confinement in Team 7. And there are also more practitioners detained in solitary confinement in Team 9 (a team for male inmates) not to mention all those being inhumanely persecuted in other places of the camp.

We hope that all the kind-hearted people will pay attention and help them.

Posting date: 8/26/2001
Original article date: 8/25/2001
Category: Eye Witness Accounts
Translated on 8/22/2001
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/8/21/15137.html

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