NEWS -- Dec. 18, 2003 Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net
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Chinese authorities are sending prison and labor camp directors to
the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp and other camps like it to learn more
"effective" torture methods.
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LOS ANGELES (FDI) -- In the 1960s, Chinese leaders visited
model communities to learn new and better agricultural and industrial methods.
Today, Chinese authorities are sending prison directors from around China to
study model labor camps that have reportedly been effective in "reeducating" or
"transforming" Falun Gong practitioners through torture and brainwashing
methods.
The Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in China's Hebei Province is
one such camp that has gained recognition for its ability to force Falun Gong
practitioners to renounce their beliefs through torture. Because of its evident
success, Chinese authorities are routinely sending prison and labor camp
directors from around the country to Gaoyang to learn more "effective" torture
methods.
In addition to the rounds of prison directors, authorities
have also sent to Gaoyang many Falun Gong practitioners who have repeatedly
resisted torture, evidently hoping that the more radical methods used at Gaoyang
would work where others failed.
Ms. Cui Suzhen, 61, was transferred from a labor camp in
Shijiazhuang City to Gaoyang because authorities were unsuccessful in forcing
Ms.Cui to discontinue her practice of Falun Gong. Ms. Cui went on a hunger
strike in order to protest her illegal detention and the persecution of Falun
Gong in China.
According to reports from those who were held at Gaoyang, on
three separate occasions the labor camp guards force-fed Ms. Cui large
quantities of human excrement. The guards also continuously beat her, shocked
her with electric batons, used pliers to pinch her skin and crush her nipples,
and buried her in snow for extended periods of time.
Ms. Liu Haiqin, a former employee of Handan City's Bureau of
Finance was transferred to Gaoyang from a labor camp in Shijiazhuang. Because
she refused to sign a "transformation statement" renouncing her practice of
Falun Gong, Ms. Liu was handcuffed and forced to squat for sixty hours, all the
time suffering shocked by the guards with cattle prods (electric batons).
Ms. Song Jiaxian is a 39-year-old Falun Gong practitioner
from Chengde. Gaoyang guards tortured her with a technique called "tying the
ropes". Victims report that this torture consists of a rope wound tightly
around the neck and arms while the arms are forced up behind the body making it
very difficult to breathe. The pain generated from this torture is so severe and
intense that victims often lose control of their bodily functions. Guards
applied this torture to Ms. Song 14 times, leaving both her shoulders
dislocated.
Survivors of the Labor Camp say the women's section of
Gaoyang employs a variety of torture techniques on Falun Gong practitioners,
including extreme sleep deprivation, electric shocks, electric shocks while the
victim is submerged in water, inserting needles under their fingertips, burying
them alive to the verge of suffocation, stuffing used sanitary napkins into
their mouths, and hammering nails into their toes.
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NEWS -- Dec. 18, 2003
Falun Dafa Information Center,
www.faluninfo.net
Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about),
is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal
principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Practiced in over
50
countries world-wide, Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture.
With government estimates of as many as
100
million practicing Falun Gong in China, China's then-Communist leader, Jiang
Zemin, outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999 (report).
Since that time, Jiang's regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn
public opinion against the practice while imprisoning, torturing and even
murdering those who practice it. The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified
details of 841 deaths (reports
/
sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. In
October 2001, however, Government officials inside China reported that the
actual death toll was well over 1,600. Expert sources now estimate that figure
to be much higher.
Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than
100,000 being sentenced to forced labor camps, typically without trial.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA
INFORMATION CENTER -- Gail Rachlin 917-501-4441, Levi Browde 914-720-0963,
Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, or Christina Chai 917-386-5068. Email:
contact@faluninfo.net, Website:
http://www.faluninfo.net/