What Was Seen and Heard in the First Labor Camp of Hebei Province

November 10, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net) The First Labor Camp of Hebei Province is located at Majiagou, in Kaiping District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. The female division of the camp detains Falun Gong practitioners abducted from different areas of China. Some practitioners are detained without any legal procedure. For example, Dafa practitioner Guo Yongzheng, an employee of the Huabei Oil Field, was tricked into going to the camp. A practitioner was sentenced to forced labor, simply because she told others that she regained her health after she started to practice Falun Gong. She is a handicapped person with a disability in one leg.

Because the number of Falun Gong practitioners abducted to the labor camp had exceeded the capacity of the female division, some practitioners had to live on the first and second floors of the hospital building. The labor camp head and police claimed that they were going to construct more buildings. They also said that in different parts of China, all places for incarceration, such as labor camps and prisons, are expanding and more new ones are being built. They boasted of "catching all the Falun Gong practitioners and totally eliminating Falun Gong."

The Falun Gong practitioners detained there were divided into groups. The officials assigned common criminals such as prostitutes, thieves, thugs and drug-addicts in each group to take turns monitoring the practitioners day and night. They also installed eleven surveillance monitors. During one period of time they did not allow Dafa practitioners to go to the bathroom. They had to relieve themselves in their room using washbowls or plastic bags.

The police beat and kicked the practitioners. They beat the practitioners with wooden boards, and shocked them with electric batons; they cuffed the practitioners' hands and chained their feet; and they savagely force-fed the practitioners.

Some practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest the detention. Dafa practitioner Ms. Duan Jinjin was chained to the metal railing at the turn of the stairs several times, and was cruelly force-fed. The tube was left inside her after one feeding, to be used for next feeding. When they force-fed Dafa practitioner Zhang Yuying, the food was forced in through her nasal tube but came out of her stomach through her mouth. Even in that dangerous situation, those police officers still would not stop! They kept on forcing the food into Zhang Yuying's stomach through the tube in her nose. Her stomach could not hold it, and she vomited it up through her mouth.

Some practitioners vomited after the force-feeding and were dragged back to be force-fed again. For some practitioners, when the white plastic feeding tubes were pulled out at the end of the force- feeding, the tubes were covered with blood. Some practitioners' noses and stomachs were swollen from previous force-feedings and the tubes could not be inserted again. Then the police and other people would force them to drink the liquid food. If the Dafa practitioners refused to drink, the police would pinch their nose, pry their mouths open and used a metal spoon to pry their teeth apart, forcing the food into their mouths. The Dafa practitioners' mouths were torn and bleeding.

Liu Xingmin was one of these Falun Gong practitioners I witnessed being tortured that way. Some were pushed down by several police officers, and then the thugs tried to force the tube into their noses. If the police still failed to insert the tube, they would then savagely beat the Dafa practitioners until they became exhausted from the beating.

Some practitioners had been on a hunger strike for a long time. The authorities came into their room several times a day to force-feed them. Policewoman Zhang kept saying, "This is fun!" while she was brutally force-feeding Dafa practitioners. She claimed that she wanted to have fun force- feeding Dafa practitioners. Later, after she had done it many times, she said she did not have fun doing force-feeding anymore; she was tired of it.

The savage and cruel methods the police used to torture Dafa practitioners included exposing the Dafa practitioners to the scorching sun or to driving rain. The ruthless methods also included tying the Dafa practitioners to the trees outside in cold winter nights, wearing only their underwear. The Dafa practitioners had to work during the day and then were exposed to the cold elements at night. Some were forced to stand for days and nights as punishments. Ms. Duan Jinjin was forced to stand for several days and nights. Her ankles were swollen to the point of becoming as big as her calf. Some were forced to stand facing a wall at night.

Zhang Ruiying was hung from a basketball goal under the scorching sun. Afterward they poured cold water over her. During one time period, all the Dafa practitioners who went on a hunger strike had to go to the dining hall, even though they did not eat, including those who had been on a hunger strike and had been force-fed for several weeks. Ms. Yang Lirong could not walk, but she still had to go to the dining hall. The police even would not allow others to help her. Under the strong protest from all practitioners, they permitted others to help Ms. Yang Lirong to get to the dining hall and then they forbade the help again. Yang Lirong could not stand. She had to squat down and finally fell on the floor.

The police forced Dafa practitioners to go to the dining hall even if the criminals had to carry these practitioners. When almost all of the Dafa practitioners went on a hunger strike, the police of the whole camp were called into action, and they also asked many strong male criminals standing by the tables in the dining hall. If any practitioner recited Master's teachings, she would be electrically shocked on her face, or they would drag her out for a beating.

One practitioner who had been on a hunger strike for many days was physically weak. A policeman in training kicked her down onto the ground. In this situation, if any practitioner said anything to ask them to stop the beating, the police would beat her before she could finish the sentence. One time, a police officer, about 1.80 meters (5 ft and 11 in) tall knocked a practitioner in her 50's unconsciousness with one blow of his fist. Some were hung up and beaten, while their mouths were stuffed with a dirty rag to keep them from speaking or crying out. During one period of time, Dafa practitioners on the second floor practiced the Falun Dafa exercises almost every day. Every day some practitioners were dragged out to be tortured or were tortured right there on the second floor. During the torture, the police would lock the steel door on the first floor and increase the volume of loudspeaker to cover their crimes.

During the period of brainwashing, the vicious people forced Dafa practitioners to view videos attacking Dafa day and night. They were forbidden to use the restroom and had to sit straight and still. If their hands or feet relaxed a little bit, or their eyes did not focus on the TV, the police and criminal inmates would use violence. If anyone did not watch the program, they would pull that person out and torture them brutally. When it was clear that forcing the practitioners to watch TV programs defaming Falun Dafa was in vain, they forced the practitioners to stand straight, overnight, facing the wall, and then interrogated them one by one. Finally the police let a group of collaborators [former Falun Dafa practitioners who have turned against Dafa due to brainwashing and torture] attempt to brainwash each practitioner on a one-on-one basis by applying beatings, verbal abuse and deceit. Sometimes these individuals used deceit, threats, violence, or even "gentle" tactics by kneeling down and holding a dish in front of a practitioner who was on a hunger strike, in an attempt to get diligent practitioners to renounce their belief in Falun Dafa.

Police also employed deceptive tactics to sway practitioners' determination, saying their family members suffered from the punishment as well, and that practitioners could not take care of their parents and children. In fact, both parents of some practitioners had already passed away, yet the police did not tell them and did not let the practitioners to go home to see for themselves. If anyone wavered or became brainwashed, the police pressured them to call their families and ask these family members to turn in Dafa books and materials.

Brainwashed persons have to face repeated examinations. The examinations contain further brainwashing material; even people who were illiterate had to answer these questions. Firm Dafa practitioners were put into small cells or solitary confinement cells. A small cell has only one single bed. Nobody is allowed to go in or leave the cell. Criminal inmates took turn monitoring the practitioners. Police lured the inmates with promises of a reduction in their sentence if they could make the practitioners quit their practice of Falun Dafa.

If some practitioners recited Dafa or practiced the exercises, police extended their incarceration periods. One inmate was about to reach the end of her term, but then the police forced her to monitor Dafa practitioners. When a Dafa practitioner began practicing the exercises under the inmate's watch, this inmate became so frightened that she fainted because of her extreme fear that the authorities would punish her by extending her sentence. Some practitioners were temporarily mislead by the authorities' implication policy, and stopped practicing their exercises so they would not bring additional burden to other inmates. The solitary confinement cell is dark and narrow, with only one small window for monitoring and passing food. This is an evil place used to wear down and destroy a person's determination.

The list of police who committed these crimes: Wei Qun (female), Wei Tao (male), Zhou Junming (female, team leader), Yan (female, team leader), Qing, Ge, Jia, Yang, Zhang, Zhang. Many more police officers whose names are unknown participated in the persecution. The young hospital head also participated in the persecution.

Persecution cases of Falun Gong practitioners who were illegally sentenced to forced labor

Dafa practitioner Ms. Li Ruiyun, female, lives in Yutian County, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. Her home was illegally searched, and her family's electronic devices, cart, and bicycle were confiscated by the Yutian County Police Department. They also took their friend's bicycle, which was stored in Li Ruiyun's home. They even took away all of the family's grain. After Li Ruiyun's mother in law, in her sixties, knelt down in front of the police, they left a small amount of the grain for the family. Because of holding on to her belief, Li Ruiyun was illegally sentenced to forced labor. She has a child that was left home alone.

Dafa practitioner Ms. Xu Shuying from Fengnan County, Hebei Province, was beaten at the Fengnan County Detention Center. Her hip, back and upper legs became black and blue. The beating caused a recurrence of her stomach disease. Even though she had difficulty walking, she was once again illegally sentenced to forced labor and put into Hebei Province's No. 1 Labor Camp (address: Kaiping District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province). In the hot summer two persons have to share one twin bed. Xu Shuying moaned throughout each night because of the pain. Later, she had to lie on the bed and could not take care of herself, but the labor camp still did not release her.

The police department and police station of Luannan County in Hebei Province unlawfully arrested female Dafa practitioners Jiang Lizhu, Zhang Lianzhi, Huo Xiujuan and Zhang Zhenqin and others. The authorities put them onto a vehicle to be paraded through the streets and suffer public humiliation. After being fined, these practitioners were sent to a detention center and cruelly force-fed there. Huo Xiujuan was handcuffed onto a "dead person's bed." The police force-fed her through a yellow rubber tube, which was thicker than a chopstick. They left the rubber tube in her stomach for several days and nights and used it each time for force-feeding. Huo Xiujuan was so choked that the blood and mucus came out of her nose and mouth, and her face was covered with blood and mucus. Later, she was illegally sentenced to a forced labor camp, where she suffered from beating, electrical shocking, being handcuffed, tied up to a tree by a river and being gagged with a piece of cloth.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/10/60364.html

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