A Record of the Savage Atrocities in the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province (1999-2001) (Part 1)
By practitioners in Heilongjian Province
(Clearwisdom.net) Editor's note: This article reveals the inhumane
persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in
Harbin City from 1999 through 2001. This includes individual and group torture,
forced-feeding, and imprisonment of female practitioners in male cells, among
other gruesome and inhumane methods. From the perspective of witnesses, it
unmasks the shocking murder case on June 20, 2001 and exposes the lies
fabricated by the Jiang regime. At the same time, this article reflects the
unparalleled feats of Falun Gong practitioners in resisting the persecution
under vicious circumstances. The Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in the western suburbs of Harbin City directly
reports to the Chinese Public Security Ministry. It is one of the locations
currently being utilized by the Jiang regime to torture Falun Gong practitioners
into recanting their belief. The camp began to illegally detain practitioners
near the end of 1999. At this time, the authorities of this so called
"ministry level" labor camp jailed practitioners in cells without
beds, forcing them to sleep on the concrete floors. Later, the practitioners
were instructed to cut wood and construct beds. The beds were covered with wet
grass and snow. Shortly thereafter, the people began to suffer from scabies.
They were not permitted to shower. By January 2001, the authorities had already illegally jailed over four
hundred Falun Gong practitioners in the camp. Jailers were brought in from other
labor camps and prisons throughout Harbin City, forming twelve teams. Some of
the buildings formerly used to detain male prisoners were shabby, rat infested one-story
buildings. Some people's faces were bitten at night.
These buildings had no toilet facilities and the windows and doors were worn
out. Zhang Bo, a vicious policewoman, took a leadership role in persecuting
practitioners. Group Torture: Before practicing Falun Dafa, Ms. Bai Lixia suffered from breast cancer. She
went into remission after starting the practice. Ms. Lixia was sentenced to
forced labor because she appealed to the central government. The cells in Wanjia
were hot and humid in the summertime, and the police forbade her from
practicing exercises. She was forced to eat soup made of rotting vegetables on a
daily basis. A guard named Meng Xiangzhi drastically increased her share of hard
labor. As a result, Bai Lixia's health deteriorated rapidly. There were open
pustules covering her body. In January 2001, Bai was transferred to group 12,
where the environment was even worse. Eventually she was unable to take care of
herself. She could neither eat nor drink, and passed black urine. Seeing Bai in
grave danger and not wanting to accept responsibility, the camp authorities let
her family members take her home. She had been illegally detained for more than
one year. Prior to practicing Falun Dafa, Ms. Cao Yingchun suffered from muscle
weakness. She recovered fully after starting the practice. When the Jiang regime
attempted to defame Falun Gong and Master Li Hongzhi, she went to Beijing to
appeal and clarify the true situation. Instead of hearing her appeal, the regime
illegally sentenced her to three years in a forced labor camp. In Wanjia, she
was not permitted to continue practicing the exercises, and her illness
returned. She became weak again. Eventually, she had trouble breathing and could
no longer speak. The camp authorities wanted to release her when she could no
longer eat on her own, but the local police station refused to take her, so she
was sent home to die. At home she started to read the books and do the exercises
again, and recovered her health. Discovering that she was healthy again, a local
policeman moved into her house to prevent her from travelling to Beijing to
appeal again. As her human rights were severely violated, Cao went to Beijing
anyway and was arrested on seven different occasions. When imprisoned in the
Wanjia Hospital, she was beaten and cursed at by criminal offenders. In August
2001, she held a hunger strike. She wanted to support those who almost died from
an incident of severe torture conducted in the camp on June 20. The hospital
started to force-feed her; the method used was a form of torture as
well. She became weak and fell down, suffering a serious injury. She could no
longer care for herself. The camp released her because they were afraid she
would die and didn't want to take responsibility for her death. Zhang Bo, a guard in the camp tried different methods in an attempt to force
practitioners to recant their faith. She frequently moved practitioners from
cell to cell. Each practitioner was closely watched by several
"Collaborators" [Former Falun Gong practitioners who have gone
astray due to brainwashing and torture.] or criminals who partnered with the
wardens to brainwash practitioners. The practitioners were constantly exposed to
defamatory materials about Falun Gong, were not allowed to sleep, and were often
barred from using the toilet. Zhang Bo attempted to use practitioners' family
members to pressure them into recanting their beliefs. She also targeted a young
practitioner through rumors and humiliation. Though she saw an easy target, her
tactics did not work. Since the mental pressure didn't work, the police
instigated the collaborators and criminals to hang practitioners Sun Jie, Du
Jing, Li Yuxia, and others from the ceiling with their arms bound behind their
backs. The police threatened to leave them hanging until they promised to write
a statement guaranteeing that they would renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Yang Xiuli was physically exhausted and in poor condition. The prison
guards prevented her from sleeping, and the abusers yelled at her, "We'll
give you two choices: either curse Falun Dafa or let your family members collect
your corpse." However Yang still refused to cooperate, and held to her
beliefs. On several occasions, Zhang Bo ordered inmates to search practitioners
several times a day. They even searched their underwear, and didn't treat them
with human dignity. On May 13, 2000, the practitioners practiced the exercises
and the police beat them badly, then forced them into undersized cells. On the
same day, at Zhang Bo's orders, the criminals removed food, bowls, daily
necessities, bras, bed covers, chopsticks, and underclothes from the
practitioners' cells. Many items were thrown out a window. The guards wanted
results, so they instigated the inmates to lock practitioners Ms. Wang Fang, Zuo
Xiuyun, and others to a radiator. The practitioners were not permitted to stand
or sit. Wang Fang felt dizzy, nauseated, and was sweating, but she was not
released until she became unconscious. Even sitting straight with legs crossed
would result in reprimand and intervention from imprisoned criminals or guards. Shi Yingbai, a vicious policeman, always checked the female and small cells
from the control room at night. One time, in a meeting, practitioner Chi Yumei
made a calm expression that indicated a differing opinion. As a result Shi
Yingbai beat her face and mouth with a baton over seventy times. The guards
would not allow the practitioners to buy anything from the grocery store in the
camp and wouldn't permit family members to visit the practitioners. They were
kept just outside the gate. Sometimes the practitioners were not allowed to
write letters for up to four months. Checking all of the outgoing and incoming
letters, the police proscribed the rights of communication and privacy, which
are protected by the constitution. On February 4, 2001, the local TV station went to practitioners' homes to
create propaganda films against Falun Gong. Practitioners were forced to do
heavy labor and if they complained the slightest bit, they were locked into
undersized cells. The undersized cells are extremely uncomfortable without room
to fully stand or sit. The guards made practitioners that had contracted scabies
knit apparel for babies. Apart from mistreating practitioners, the police also
extorted money from the criminal offenders by pocketing their daily necessities
or salary, and assigning overtime labor. They were mainly forced to make dental
hygiene products. However, among those criminals, some were suffering from open
wounds or venereal disease. Due to the extremely bad sanitary conditions in
Wanjia, the prisoners had few opportunities to shower. They had to share a bed
or sleep on the ground, and some of them were locked in humid, undersized cells
for long periods of time. Most of the prisoners had open wounds or sores. The
long-term mistreatment caused Li Yuxia, Tan Guizhen, and four other
practitioners to behave irrationally. 2. The torture in undersized cells: At least two hundred practitioners were locked in undersized cells from early
in the morning until late at night. Over one hundred were physically tortured
directly by police. On April 20, 2000, because of practicing exercises outside
at break time, the practitioners suffered beatings by policemen and female
inmates. Later, the abusers searched the cells and the practitioners for
Teacher's articles. The policemen forced to the ground those who refused to
cooperate. On April 26, when the camp was in darkness, policemen with electric
batons in hand went into group 7. Two male policemen would gang up on one female
practitioner. They dragged Zhong Hong, Wu Jiyang, Pan Xuanhua, and others into
the undersized cells in group 9. It was the first time that the camp locked
females into undersized cells, which were about 2 meters (6.5 feet) in length
and height, 1.5 meters (5 feet) in width and completely isolated from light. The
prisoners in undersized cells were not allowed to wash, change underclothes, or
speak. They were given only two meals per day, consisting of two or three sips
of gruel. They became weak from the undernourishment. The police gave them
neither water or bed covers. Wang Siguang, a vicious policeman, opened the
windows during the freezing winter weather. For three days and two nights Zhang Hong was locked in an undersized cell,
which was the smallest cell available. It was only 1.5 meters in length, less
then 0.5 meters in width and about 1.4 meters in height. She could neither stand
nor lie down and underwent a suffocating experience. Wu Jiyang is a female practitioner who recovered from thyroid gland cancer
through practicing Falun Gong. The police took her cotton clothes off and
strapped her to a metal chair in the lobby for ten days and nine nights. Ms. Pan Xuanhua, a fifty-six year old female practitioner, previously
suffered from serious diseases including nasal cancer and liver ascites. The
female police officers beat the aged woman badly and almost killed her, then
strapped her to a metal chair for seven days and nights. Wu Jiyang and Pan Xuanhua had swollen ankles that were as big as their
thighs. The camp authorities were worried that they would die, so the police
unlocked them from the metal chairs, but still jailed Pan in a small cell for
forty-five days and Wu and Zhang for thirty-eight days. After coming out of the
undersized cells, they were so much thinner that the others didn't recognize
them. From June 15 through the end of August, it was intensely hot outside. The
guards put practitioner Wang Fang, Gao Shuyan, and Pan Xuanhua in undersized
cells where the temperature was over forty degrees Celsius (one hundred four
degrees Fahrenheit). This caused intense suffering. On August 10, 2000, the guards intended to make practitioners who refused to
give up their beliefs, listen to material slandering Teacher and Falun Dafa. As
Pan Xuanhua and others raised an objection, the guards sealed their mouths with
tape, and locked Pan Xuanhua, Zhang Hong, Zuo Xiuyun, Wang Fang, Yang Xiuli, and
another practitioner in undersized cells. At that time Zuo and Wang were
suffering from open wounds, so the Wanjia Hospital invented a kind of
"medical treatment." The chief of staff, Ning Shaohui, had four male
inmates drag Zuo and Wang out of the cells, then cut their pustules using
scalpels with no disinfection or anesthesia. The screaming was intense. After
the torture, the abusers sent them back to the small cells again. The policemen
forced Pan Xuanhua, Zhang Hong, and Yang Xiuli to stand in small cells, but
three days later they assumed it was not tough enough. So, they handcuffed the
three women from behind and locked them back to back, making them stand together
with their arms unmovable. If they moved, the handcuffs would get tighter and
bury into the flesh. Their wrists were raw from being bound. One week later,
seeing that the practitioners still refused to yield, the wicked officer Wu
Jinying instigated the male inmates to lock them to the gate. Standing for
fifteen hours everyday, the practitioners' legs became seriously swollen. In
addition, the perpetrators tortured the practitioners using high decibel noise
to damage their hearing. On October 26, the camp authorities transferred the practitioners into the
small cells in group 7, which were specially built for torturing Falun Gong
practitioners. The jail was in a one-story warehouse, included eighteen cells,
each of which was less then three square meters (about thirty-five square feet).
It was very humid in the summer and in the winter frost formed on the walls and
water pooled on the ground. The paint on the heating radiator was irritating and
made it hard to breathe. When locking the practitioners in the small cells,
policeman Zhang Li threatened, "this is different from the small cells in
group 9. I assure you that you will have to crawl out in fifteen days."
During this period, Wang Zhonghua, a vicious officer, tried to coerce
practitioner Han Shaoqin to write a "guarantee" to stop practicing
Falun Gong, but Ms. Han refused to do so. So Wang ordered some collaborators to
hang her up by binding her arms from behind, causing her head to ache and making
her vomit. Han was jailed in a small cell for two months. On February 13, 2001, it was the Spring Festival period. On this traditional
Chinese holiday, the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp launched another round of
persecution against Falun Gong. About one hundred policemen dragged
practitioners into small cells. After beating them, the police tortured them
with instruments and sealed their mouths so they could not cry out. Liu Dongyun
said, "The police should not beat people!" Officer Shi Baiying pulled
her hair in response, and dragged her across the floor. The abusers swarmed
forward and beat her almost unconscious before throwing her into a cell and
forcing her to stand still. The police had Pan Xuanhua's face beaten and
distorted, making her feel numb on the back of the head for a few days. But it
wasn't over yet, as the police strapped her to a metal chair and beat her badly
again, forcing her to stay in the chair for eight days and eight nights. Wu
Jiyang suffered with broken pustules, constantly bleeding, that made her feel
cold and itchy. Even under these extreme physical conditions, the police still
handcuffed her to the door and made her stand there. Because the small cell was
cold and humid, Wu was in a state of unconsciousness with her buttocks covered
with pustules. However, the police strapped her into a metal chair for three
days and two nights until she fell unconscious two more times. Finally, she was
sent to a hospital. Right after this, the abusers had the practitioners in group
12 moved out, and dragged twenty or more of them by their hair into small cells
for seven day's of punishment and standing. Among the practitioners jailed
there, two or three were locked in a cell less than three-square meters (about
thirty-five square feet) in size. Practitioner Du Jing was beaten four times
within an hour because she practiced the sitting meditation. Sun Jingkui was
shifted back to the group after becoming unconscious during several hours in a
small cell. Being tired and hungry, she was unable to keep standing. The guards
didn't allow her to sit down until she fell on the ground. Using batons or
fists, the police also beat the rest of the practitioners in group 12 so hard
that they were sweating under the temperature of minus thirty-seven degrees
Celsius (minus thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit) in the freezing winter. They
dragged the practitioners by their hair and hit their heads against a wall. Some
of the practitioners were pushed into the yard and made to stand still and
suffer from the freezing cold, while others were hung by their arms in the male
prisoners' groups. Twenty-year-old female practitioner Zhang Hong was the one who suffered the
longest imprisonment in a small cell, a total of twelve months, more than half
of her 22-month term. Her term was extended for four months. She was also locked
in the dungeon for three days and four nights. Pan Xuanhua was locked in a small
cell a total of six times. Both Zhang and Pan were handcuffed to the door for
over fifteen hours every day, kept this way for thirty-five days with little to
eat, and imprisoned for four months and twenty days in small cells. Tan Guizhen
was locked to a metal chair for fifteen days and nights. Wu Jiyang was strapped
to a metal chair for ten days and nine nights. The practitioners that were
locked to metal chairs for fifteen hours everyday for one month included Zhang
Hong, Guo Hongyu, Tan Guizhen, Li Lan, Lin Xiuru, and others. Committing numerous criminal acts of torture, the guards and police have used
all means against those compassionate practitioners. This exposes the true face
of the "People's Police" of Jiang's regime. 3. Force-feeding As the Falun Gong practitioner's human rights were being deprived, they held
hunger strikes several times over the last two years. However, the camp
authorities then launched an even more brutal persecution against the
practitioners. In December 1999, Harbin City was in midst of a chilling winter. After a
seven-day hunger strike, the police dragged the practitioners to the yard and
forced them to sweep snow, or run. One practitioner was too weak to run at a
fast pace, so the police ordered inmates to drag her around the yard, then beat
and kick her. They also removed her coat so that she would suffer from the
freezing cold. The camp leaders instigated four or five inmates to hold the
practitioners in chairs for force-feeding, after which some victims were
bleeding from the nose or mouth. Those who refused to cooperate would be beaten
and kicked by prisoners or male wardens. On April 3, 2001, one hundred or more practitioners held hunger strikes for
unconditional release. The longest one held was Han Shaoqin, lasting
thirty-three days. During that period the inmates beat her black and blue. The
police head Shi Yingbai claimed, "I won't send you back home until you are
breathing your last breath." He commanded the policemen and male prisoners
to beat those who refused to take the force-feeding. Shao Ying, a delicate
female didn't protest the force-feeding, but the wicked jail doctor beat her and
threatened her in his lust, "I am going to beat your breasts." On one
occasion a male doctor asked her, "Will you eat or not?" Upon hearing
"No" he moved the tube in and out four times. Gao Shuyan, Wu Jiyang,
Zuo Xiuyun, and Shao Ying had already lost blood and had weak pulses, but those
inhumane people still forced them to take injections for up to ten days with
seven injections each time. The successive injections resulted in an
allergic reaction that made the victims feel extremely itchy. They washed force-feeding
tubes in the washbasin that was used for washing someone's scabrous feet. The
doctors also used tubes stained with blood for force-feeding with black powdered
milk, causing many people to have diarrhea. Upon hearing the report, the chief
of staff Hao replied, "Why did you refuse to eat? We don't want to torture
you like this." Gao Shuyan only weighed about twenty-five kilograms
(fifty-five pounds) and her body twitched after being force-fed. Wu Jiyang was
not released until she was on her last breath. In the middle of May 2001, Zhang Hong, Tan Guizhen, Jiang Yuhui, Li Juling,
and Yan Chunling in group 12 went on a hunger strike to protest the imprisonment
term being extended and demanded an unconditional release. Lead by Shi Baiying,
about one hundred policemen rushed into the building. The practitioners refused
to cooperate in the chaos. Zhang Hong, without eating for several days, was
eventually locked into a small cell with a male group. Seeing so many policemen
in black uniforms in the yard, the practitioners in the dining hall tried to
rush out to help the others. The police blocked the door and fiercely beat the
practitioners, making a mess inside. Finally the camp authorities dispersed the
practitioners into male prisoners' sleeping rooms. Each team consisting of seven
or eight practitioners was closely watched by male guards and inmates. At the
time, the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp started to brainwash the female practitioners
in male prisoners' cells. Policewoman Li Jihong tried to extend the practitioners' terms, but Zhang
Hong and others refused to sign. Li Jihong called two policemen, Li Min and Liu
Chungang, to hit Zhang Hong on her face with a pair of shoes, while two male
prisoners held her arms. Then they sent her back to the small cell and locked
her onto a metal chair. On June 20, Zhang Hong refused to write the
"guarantee." A vicious cop named Zhang took her to the male warden's
office and ordered several male prisoners to hang her up in different ways and
brutally beat her. Chang, one of the abusers, was tired and sweating, so he
shamelessly took off his shirt and held Zhang Hong to the ground. Riding on her
body, Chang bound her arms from behind and then shackled her to the heating
radiator. The female practitioners in the male prisoners' groups were not allowed to
wash. Some of them were forbidden to sleep for three days, and sometimes up to
twenty days. Some of them were locked in metal chairs. They couldn't even use
the toilet. The police abused the practitioners in different ways. Two examples
are, administering electric shocks while standing in water, and hanging the
practitioners from the ceiling with their hands bound from behind. Some victims
were incontinent and their legs were seriously swollen. Unless they signed a
"guarantee" to renounce their belief in Falun Gong, the camp
authorities kept them jailed in the male prisoners' cells. 2003-4-7
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/4/7/47885.html
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