September 4, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net)

Because I persisted in my practice of Falun Gong, I was illegally imprisoned in the Drug Rehabilitation Labor Camp (Rehab Center) in the Taiping area of Harbin. There, I witnessed the cruel means used in that labor camp to persecute Dafa practitioners.

To cover up the truth, the cafeteria put a good meal ("peanut with stew meat" or "tofu with stew meat") on the menu every time the supervisors came to inspect. At all other times, salted vegetables and plain vegetable soup were all that there was available to us. To limit our consumption of salted vegetables, they sprinkled even more salt on them. Our mouths and tongues started to have terrible blisters from the excessive amount of salt. We were not allowed to have pickled vegetables during the winter. We first had to finish up the rotten cabbage and carrots.

When spring came, fresh vegetables were expensive, so we were then allowed to have pickled vegetables, which were already smelled putrid and were spoiled with mold growing on them. That was all we ate until after June 1. The pungent smell from the stinking pickles with maggots crawling on them disgusted us even before we ate. Even worse, the police did not allow the determined Falun Gong practitioners to eat in the cafeteria. They were locked in their own rooms, not allowed to go to the toilet, and had to relieve themselves and eat in the same room.

Every minute, we could be forced to take off our clothes for them to search our bodies and bags. We were not allowed to keep the Teacher's books, or pens and papers either. If we were caught in the possession of Teacher's books and refused to cooperate, we would be forced to get on the "Tiger bench" [Practitioners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 6 inches tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force them to remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioner's lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate the abuse].

The persecution intensified. Starting on November 2001, after the officers from the Rehab Center returned from the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp with all the torture techniques "learned", they started to isolate the practitioners who refused to cooperate in an empty room. A few people took turns trying to brainwash them 24 hours a day, not allowing them to sleep, until they were 'transformed'. Several cases lasted for almost 6 months. A lot of practitioners could not stand this torture anymore, collapsed and made statements against their consciences.

Right before the governmental summit, the Rehab Center had a few male police officers beat up practitioners. Many determined practitioners refused to greet these officers afterwards. The officers then grabbed their legs and dragged them out of their rooms with no explanation. Practitioners were put on the "tiger benches". If short of "tiger benches", the officers would drag them to the basement, bathrooms, storage rooms or other hidden places to torture them.

Their hands would be cuffed and hung up high so their legs could barely touch the ground, and then they were tortured brutally. Often in the middle of the night, I would hear miserable screams that made my skin crawl. Whoever screamed would get even worse torture.

Sleeping was not allowed and only one meal was given a day. They forced practitioners to swallow a huge amount of food at one time. They claimed that they could not starve you but you were no better off alive. An old man in his 60s was tortured like this for a week and his wrists, feet and legs were awfully swollen. He was not released until he agreed to what they asked for and had spasms and extreme pain in his legs afterwards.

The terrible persecution went on during the summit. On November 10, the meeting decided to hold a "Battle tough to resist". The head of the rehab center, Chen Guiqing, plus all the officers swore "100% transformation in three days!" After that, all staff had electric batons in their hands; they put all the determined practitioners into one room and started the torture. They made us sit in a row on small benches but Chen Guiqing came to the room and kicked away all the benches we had and made all the practitioners squat on the floor. No sleeping, one meal (one huge mouthful of food) a day, no going to the restrooms, and no moving at all; whoever moved would get beat up.

We were under surveillance by inmates convicted of prostitution, robbery and drug abuse. They forced us to write the "Separation Statement" [A statement to declare a separation from Falun Gong and promise not go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.] or sign the "Guarantee Statement" [A statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.] they had prepared. If we refused to sign, they would drag us to the basement, violently shave our heads and pour water onto us; or they wrapped a piece of cloth into a ball and stuck it into a practitioner's mouth and secured it behind the head; or they taped practitioners' eyes and cuffed their hands on the ground, making them half squat with their bare feet locked (immobilize) to an iron cage.

They'd open up all windows during bitter cold days, strip the practitioners and make them squat on an electric pan filled with water. Practitioners got electric shocks if they fell into the water (a lot of female practitioners received this torture while having their period). After all this, the staff and inmates still beat the practitioners like crazy, with bare hands and legs, electric batons, and custom-made beating tools. Lots of people's faces and necks were burned by the electric batons. Some people fainted from the beating, and cold water was poured on them in the bitter cold weather.

After all the torture, the inmates would grab practitioner's hands or feet and press them onto sheets of prepared 'transformation statements' and this was how they achieved "Above 90% transformation rate in three days". Only a few practitioners who fainted did not sign. These practitioners were taken upstairs and allowed to rest for a few days. They were then again taken down to the basement and tortured. This went on and on until practitioners were transformed....

A practitioner used to have nephritis and had one kidney removed. After practicing Falun Gong, she was cured and stayed healthy; hence she was very determined. During the 'second run' persecution, her whole body, including her head, was terribly swollen, for she received wounds all over. She could not walk or take care of her everyday life anymore. The officers forced her to put her fingerprint on a statement stating that the officers were not responsible for her death. This female practitioner resisted so the inmates pulled her away by her ankle cuffs and isolated her from the rest. She was never heard of again.

Another practitioner from Daqing named Ho Lihua was tortured until she could not control her bowel movements and could not eat and drink. She was unbelievably skinny but the labor camp would not release her because she refused to give up cultivation. Tang Zenye, another practitioner from Daqing, declared that the transformation statement he wrote during persecution was not valid; thus, he was almost tortured to death. The labor camp would not give up.

During this time, practitioners who made statements saying that their "transformation statement" was not valid were severely tortured. Police officers panicked about these statements and ordered the inmates to beat those practitioners. Whoever did the best job beating and transforming practitioners got the reward of 3 months sentence reduction. Inmates who refused to torture the practitioners would get punished.

Once an inmate could not bear to hit the practitioners anymore; she was slapped hard on her face and locked up in a bathroom with her hands cuffed to the floor. Under such pressure, all inmates would torture the practitioners by all means, not allowing them to sleep, to eat, or to go to the bathroom. One practitioner, Ms.Yau Tiemei, ended up with blood in her urine. Practitioners got their toes smashed if they fell asleep.

Ding Hongmei was stripped and beaten while totally naked and thus had wounds all over her. Sheng Xiaoyun was so severely pinched that she had lost all her skin between her legs; blood, muscle and fat all stuck to her underwear and made it extremely painful to take off her clothes. Some inmates even stuck their fingers into the practitioner's vagina and scratched violently. These most despicable means were used to make the practitioners give up cultivation.

The chief, Li Quanming, would walk toward the rooms and tell the inmates: "You can not beat them; instead, you should take care of them." Then he would ask the inmates to go outside and tell them a different story: "Beat them to death, using all your power. They will not be transformed if the beating is not strong enough." With this kind of pressure and luring rewards, the inmates were carefree when it came to torturing practitioners.

Practitioners from Weihe and Harbin, Liu Shangkun and Sun Xiumin, both lost consciousness during the beatings and they both wrote statements to protest being brainwashed. Consequently, both of them were given another round of persecution: they were handcuffed on the ground and given all kinds of torture for more than 10 days, ending up up with thick calluses around their wrists and severe weight loss.

Eventually they gave in and made unwilling statements. Practitioner Liu Shangkun's sentence was prolonged illegally twice and she is still in the Rehab Center. Practitioner Li Hongxia had gone through inhumane persecution many times and had lost a lot of weight, but she survived with her amazing endurance and did not bend at all; her sentence was prolonged for 3 more months.

The staff in the Rehab Center made us write "transformation statements" and subjected us to brainwashing. They forced us to slander Teacher and Dafa. Practitioners would receive more torture if they refused to cooperate-- group brainwashing, 17-18 hours a day forced labor, listening to and watching speeches and videos that slander Dafa at night, plus having to finish additional work while sitting on small benches after returning to the rooms. Many people had swollen faces, legs and feet due to malnutrition and little rest. A lot of them could not walk anymore and could not fall asleep at night due to severe leg pain. The staff claimed they were only pretending.

All theses facts that I witnessed illustrate the viciousness and brutality of the Jiang regime. To pay for their crimes, Jiang and his helpers will be condemned by history and put on the 'List of Shame'.

Posting date: 9/26/2003
Original article date: 9/25/2003
Category: Eye Witness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/9/5/56816.html

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