Eyewitness Account of the Brutal Tortures Used at Guanshan Forced Labor Camp in Changtu County, Liaoning Province

By Yang Yifan (pseudonym)

(Clearwisdom.net) As a Falun Gong practitioner who experienced first-hand the brutal tortures used at a Guanshan Forced Labor Camp, I know what it means to be sent to a forced labor camp in China. In the camp I heard some prisoners say, "I'd rather get a three-year jail sentence than three years of forced labor," because a jail sentence has a definite expiration date while a forced labor term does not, as the police can illegally extend your term [in the labor camp]. During your forced labor term, any labor camp police authority can unreasonably extend your term, with any excuse. Usually, a person with a one-year term won't be released until two years later. If you want to get out early, you'd have to bribe the labor camp officials. If someone is wrongfully detained or protests the illegal actions of the labor camp officials, and all brutal tortures of the labor camp fails to make him submit, all such people would then also be sent to the labor camp. People sent there had their residence identification [the equivalence of Social Security Number in the U.S] cancelled. From then on this person permanently disappears from society. No one knows if this person is alive or dead. When people lucky enough to have survived Guanshan Forced Labor Camp talk about their experience, they have an extremely frightened look on their faces, as if the horrific memories from years ago are still fresh in their minds. To avoid being sent to the Guanshan Forced Labor Camp, some people harm and disable themselves. Such methods, however, failed to save them from their misery. I saw with my own eyes a person whose leg(s) were broken in police beatings and he was then hauled into a police car by several people and sent to Guanshan Forced Labor Camp. All people sent there were full of despair, no exemptions.

Right after the prisoner gets out of the police car inside the camp gate, he faces a group of thugs, each of them holding the handle of an iron pick. Before the victim even steps through the door, he has to suffer a brutal beating from these thugs with their pick handles (called "awing rods"). When the first round of beating is over, before the victims can even wipe away their blood, they are all taken into a room where they are ordered to give up all their money and belongings, including articles of everyday use. They can't even keep their belts. After this group looting, the victims suffer a second round of brutal beating. Already desperate, in the late afternoon they are forced to kneel on the ground and be beaten for a third time. Some people were beaten to the brink of death on the first day. The rest became lethargic and develop abnormally slow reactions. Like draft animals, they are forced to do unbelievably heavy labor everyday. Some were worked to death and those who lived were so exhausted they threw up blood.

It is said that this brutal torture is the best way to destroy the mind of those who are "against labor re-education." This opinion is also condoned by authorities from the Judicial Bureau of Liaoning Province, which is the superior authority for this Guanshan Forced Labor Camp. Most of the police officers there are of "low-down" demeanor. They carry a "54" pistol around their waist at all times and lead a German shepherd dog with them. If they ever encounter a different voice or the least protest, they would immediately pull out their pistol and shoot that person, with no scruples at all. Since there is a death quota for Guanshan Forced Labor Camp, how the prisoner died would have nothing to do with the police. If you want to live, there is only one way out: you have to have enough money, and you won't be released until you give them money. There is no law in the labor camp. What exists is only violence and money. It is hard to investigate how many innocent people were killed there. In order to cover up the true circumstances in the labor camps, all people in Liaoning Province who dare to protest are sent there. Guanshan Labor Camp became the concentration camp for all labor camps in Liaoning Province. All different voices and protests are suppressed here and [the victims] are physically and mentally destroyed. Here, countless, wronged ghosts cry day and night.

When Jiang's regime fails to bend the mind of determined Dafa practitioners, they send them to Guanshan Forced Labor Camp and brutally torture them. One example is practitioner Chen Yong from Dalian City who was tortured to death.

We call for just and kind-hearted people around the world together to end this brutal murder!
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/2/26/25614.html

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