(Clearwisdom.net)

Since the year 2000, the Baimacheng Forced Labor Camp in Hunan Province has been persecuting a large number of Dafa practitioners. As a result, many died, some were maimed, and thousands were psychologically impaired from the brutal torture in the camp. To date, the practitioners imprisoned in the labor camp are still being inhumanly treated.

For the last few years, to make Falun Gong practitioners give up their belief in "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance," the Baimacheng Forced Labor Camp formed a special team, made up of officers from the Military Force, Special Branch and inmates, to carry out the persecution work. They have used a variety of techniques to severely punish the practitioners. In June 2002, another special team called the "Will Breaker" was formed for the same purpose. Their strategy was to break the will of practitioners. They typically selected the following methods:

First, the victims are physically tortured, either through extended hours of standing, suspension or interrogation. Then, they are put through a brainwashing class, which lasts for about three months. If the victim still refuses to give up practicing Falun Dafa, the torture level is intensified. The object of the whole exercise is to break the practitioners' will.

To restrict Dafa practitioners' freedom of movement and communication among themselves, guards and even certain convicts were encouraged to beat up anyone found talking or greeting each other. One, and often more duty officers would carry out the punishment. Hence, Dafa practitioners in captivity are always suffering from bruises and injuries all the year round.

Hanging from the ceiling is another punishment applied to Dafa practitioners. In May 2001, because the camp officers slandered the founder of Falun Gong, Dafa practitioners protested by going on hunger strike. About forty practitioners that went on hunger strike were chained together, wrist to wrist and ankle to ankle, and with their limbs stretched apart, they were suspended in the main hall for over two hours. When they were released, all of them fainted and suffered from shock. After reviving them, the officers tied their arms painfully behind their backs and continued to hang them up and beat them at the same time.

A few common forms of punishment are:

• Hung above the ground with the wrist of one arm bent over the shoulder tied to the wrist of the other arm twisted from behind the back.
• Hung above the ground with both wrists tied above the head.
• Hung by the elbows with both arms tied behind the back and body suspended just above the ground.
• Hands and feet cuffed behind the back for days.

Practitioners who go through the hanging torture barely come out alive.

When using an electric baton on a victim's most sensitive areas a special type of skin oil is first applied to enhance the conductivity of the electricity. The result becomes terrifying and brutal. After the application, some practitioners went into convulsions, some passed away and some experienced a lot of other physical side effects as well. Practitioner Ms. Chen Xingtao from Yueyang County was burned, with blisters all over her body when a high voltage electric baton was used on her in this manner.

Physical torture is by far the most common. Regardless of the age of the practitioner, the officers have often forced the victim to sit on the leg of an inverted T bench for hours on end. If the person refused, they strap him up, have him beaten, and shock him with an electric baton. Long hours of sitting on the leg of an inverted T bench cuts the flesh deep into the buttocks, resulting in great pain and inflammation of the wound.

6. Forced feeding

To protest the long periods of punishment Dafa practitioners often go on hunger strike. When they do, the guards use a device made of bamboo, normally used to feed buffaloes, to force-feed anyone who goes on hunger strike. One officer grabs the victim's neck while another dragged the person by the hair and forced the victim on the ground. They would then force open the victim's mouth and start force-feeding rice congee through the bamboo pipe. Many practitioners have had their teeth broken, their mouths and noses bloodied, and sustained other injuries. They choked practitioner Zuo Shuchun of the Changsha City Bus Company to death in this manner.

When supervisors come around visiting, the practitioners would be hidden in isolated cells where no one could see their condition. If they refused, they were tied up, hung, and electrically shocked, forced to sit on the T bench, or even force-fed with various drugs. For the last few years, large numbers of practitioners have become physically disabled, and some permanently impaired due to drug poisoning.

Many Dafa practitioners have personally experienced the above tortures. The level of torture applied to the victims at the Baimacheng Forced Labor Camp in Hunan province has actually been escalated at present.