The Cruel Torture We Suffered in Kaiping and Gaoyang County Labor Camps, Hebei Province

By a Falun Dafa Practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

I was fortunate to obtain Falun Dafa in 1998. One year later, because Jiang and his regime began to persecute people who believe Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance, my little home was never peaceful again. My employer and the police constantly tried to force me to write the "Guarantee," [to stop practicing] or "Understanding" statements; otherwise they would send me to a brainwashing class. Since there was no other way to express my heartfelt voice, in July 2000 I went to Tiananmen Square by myself to practice the exercises and show everyone that Falun Dafa is peaceful. I was arrested by police in October 2000, who separated me from my infant who was still nursing, in direct violation of their own rules. I never could have imagined what it would be like, as I started life in jail. It was so dark, as if no light of day shone there.

I witnessed how the wicked people persecuted Falun Dafa practitioners, both mentally and physically. The labor camps strictly monitored steadfast cultivators who refused to give up their belief. They used the lure of sentence reduction to encourage common prisoners to torture Falun Dafa practitioners. These labor camp prisoners cursed Dafa practitioners, would not allow us to talk, nor communicate with the outside world. They would not let us use any paper or pens, and secretly withheld our written appeals. They even destroyed those appeals that we had written in our own blood [in an extremely severe situation, and with no other means of appeal, the practitioners had used their own blood as ink] , on the several occasions that we tried to expose their mistreatment.

Since January 2001, more than one hundred practitioners went on a hunger strike in protest, and requested that they restore the reputation of Falun Dafa, restore the reputation of our Teacher, and release all the innocent Falun Dafa practitioners. On January 16 and 18, 2001, the Kaiping labor camp police inhumanely tortured us. At midday on January 16, 2001, Camp Director Xu brought a group of policemen to the female third [prisoner] team. The Falun Dafa practitioners in the 12^th group were the first to be handcuffed and dragged outside. Upon seeing this, we shouted, "You are not allowed to persecute Falun Dafa disciples!" Then a gang of policemen ran into our room, filling it. Our thermoses were kicked and broke, our water bucket was kicked, and as it fell, water spilled all over the floor. Falun Dafa practitioner Lu Guie was the first to be dragged out, over to near the vegetable garden. She was wearing cotton-padded pants, but due to her being dragged on the ground, even her underpants had holes in them. Several policemen lifted her up while joking, then threw her down hard. They continued, up and down like that many times, and kept slapping her face. After that, policeman Wang Xueli tied her backwards to a tree, in a very painful position, which caused her arms to hurt for several months afterwards. Later, when she showed her torn clothes to team leader Zhou Junming as evidence of mistreatment, the police hurried to take away her clothes so there would be no evidence left. After Lu Guie, we were all dragged out one by one. On that day, there were many Falun Dafa practitioners hung up by their wrists on to the trees around the vegetable garden and exercise yard. It was extremely cold winter weather, and over 10 of us were left to hang from the trees outside overnight!

The next day, the labor camp ignored the fact that most Falun Dafa practitioners were on a hunger strike, and forced us to participate in intensive military training, which lasted 7-8 hours per day. One 63-year-old lady who had hypertension had been on the hunger strike for 10 days, and nonetheless still had to participate in the training. On January 18, practitioner Hao Jianling was hung from a tree in the exercise yard. When practitioner Fu Weiping and other fellow practitioners asked why she should be treated like that, several policemen led by Wang Xueli threw the practitioners to the ground, kicked and beat them, and then dragged them one by one into a room to be shocked by electric batons. Hao Jianling was shocked by three electric batons at one time, and as a result, large blisters formed on her face, and large clumps of her hair fell out. She was dazed after that mistreatment, and they locked her in a solitary confinement cell. In order to cover up their crime, they did not allow Hao Jianling's family to visit her during this time period. Fu Weiping's lips were severely swollen due to the electric baton shocks, and she could neither eat, walk, nor urinate on her own, due to wounds on her legs and feet. In January 2001, police officer Wang Xueli used an electric baton to shock practitioner Qi Yuna (female) to the point that her heart stopped beating, simply because she was practicing the Falun Dafa exercises. She stopped breathing as well. In a panic, the police sent her to get emergency medical treatment. As Qi awoke, she heard Wang Xueli say, "If she dies, I have to go to jail." Police officer Yan Hongli who was standing nearby, replied, "Don't worry! I will give false testimony to the effect that she died of a heart attack."

At the end of May 2000, the Kaiping labor camp transferred a large number of steadfast female Falun Dafa practitioners from the female team to the male teams, and started more strict controls. The policewoman in charge, Yan Hongli, ignored the fact that most of us had been on a hunger strike for almost a month, and were very weak, and nonetheless forced us walk in 'training sessions'. As soon as she saw us rest even a bit, she would force us to continue walking. Over 10 of us continued to hunger strike after being transferred to the male team. Once after being force-fed highly concentrated salt water, we were all vomiting and having diarrhea. Due to the tube feeding, Li Yanxiang had such a severe belly ache that she was sweating until the next day because of the pain. Together, we all refused the force-feeding the next day, and we told them it that it was dangerous to force-feed us. But they did not care. Yan Hongli nonetheless brought in a group of common prisoners with no medical training who force fed us daily, one by one. The labor camp used two male prisoners to forcefully stick the tubes in us. These two male prisoners had no common sense regarding sanitary procedures, and used the same disposable plastic tubes repeatedly. Sometimes the tube even had traces of blood left on it.

In June 2001, several other practitioners and I were transferred to the Gaoyang (County) labor camp. On the way there, we heard that it is the cruelest place in Hebei Province. Upon our arrival, we felt the chill of terror. Several police officers and some prisoners ordered us to strip naked and they conducted body searches. They broke apart our bedding in order to search it. That evening they put on a pretend, so-called "welcome" for us who had been transferred from Tangshan. But by the second evening, they put us in the midst of horror. It was a thunderous evening with pouring rain, and they took those of us who had been recently transferred there to the front gate. The fifth team leaders Yang and Li (male) and Wang (female) brought a group of hired thugs, among whom were policemen carrying long electric batons, and took us one by one to a small room. They tried to force us to curse our Teacher, or write "guarantee" statements [to stop practicing Falun Dafa] and threatened that if we didn't, they would shock us with electric batons. Because I had been on a hunger strike for over a month and was very weak, they tried to force me to stop the hunger strike. I understood their purpose, and did not budge a bit. Finally, after more than 100 days of hunger striking, I was taken out for medical treatment through my family's effort. The police officers in Gaoyang County labor camp torture Dafa disciples often. The police there always carry emergency drugs in their pockets. If they shocked any Dafa practitioner into a coma with their electric batons, they would put one pill into their mouth to revive them. When one Falun Dafa practitioner declared that her "regret letter" had been written under coercion and was null and void, the police handcuffed her to a ring on the ground of the exercise yard. For 7 entire days she was baked by the sun during the day and bitten by insects at night. Falun Dafa practitioners here have to do heavy labor work, such as carrying sand bags. They were constantly forced to bake in the sun! In the brainwashing class, practitioners were forced to get up at 5 AM and go to bed at midnight. They were forced to listen to propaganda slandering Falun Dafa, and were constantly cursed at or beaten.

It has been three years. The bloody persecution is ongoing. More and more people in an increasing number of countries know the facts about this persecution. The world's people are calmly pondering all these facts. Some prisoners in labor camps even started cultivating Falun Dafa, because they saw the compassion of Falun Dafa practitioners! We hope that all kind hearted people will rethink all these questions, no longer be deceived by the lies, and remember Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance, so they can have a wonderful future!
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2002/9/8/36258.html

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