The Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp Is a Den of "Lies, Cruelty and Violence"

By Falun Dafa Practitioners in China

(Clearwisdom.net) The Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp is a den of evil. The facade of a "civilized institution" which the authorities have tried to create is a lie.

Most Falun Gong practitioners moved to the Beijing Forced Labor Camp Detainee's Allocation Department are cursed at and surrounded by drug addicts and police officers.

When arriving at the Women's Forced Labor Camp, practitioners are first greeted with smiles and fake concern. The stark comparison between the cruel treatment at the Allocation Department and the "warm concern" at the labor camp manipulates some practitioners' fears, and causes them to let down their guard. One veteran Falun Gong practitioner was treated cruelly at the Allocation Department, but at the forced labor camp she was treated warmly at first. The brigade head said, "You have come home. Please lift up your head." That practitioner accepted their brainwashing that day. The brigade head tricks many with this contrast between cruelty and kindness.

At the first brigade of Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp, new arrivals are first isolated. Then three or four collaborators (1) surround one practitioner to brainwash her. Each day from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., collaborators try to confuse that practitioner with deviant ideas and distorted logic. After several days of brainwashing, if that practitioner refuses to give up her beliefs, she is forced to work long hours. She will only be allowed to sleep at 2 a.m. and then forced to get up at 5 a.m. While taking advantage of their fatigue and using psychological tricks, the police officers hypocritically say that they are greatly concerned for the practitioners. At the same time, the brainwashers try every way to persuade practitioners to give up the practice. Some practitioners are deceived by these tricks.

One collaborator named Li Yueqiu is quite successful at deceiving Falun Gong practitioners because of her former influence among some of them. Li Yueqiu was brainwashed by the police and then helped to brainwash other practitioners. She came up with some outlandish ideas to confuse Falun Gong practitioners. She makes use of the fact that she once met the founder of Falun Gong. At the same time, Li Yueqiu appears to be kind and does not waste food. This has won her the respect of the drug addicts. After Li Yueqiu's deviated ideas were exposed, she turned to distorted interpretations of the teachings of Falun Gong in order to cause confusion.

When all these hypocritical methods fail, the officers then reveal their vicious natures. The first torture they use is sleep deprivation, while forcing practitioners to stand for long hours. Such torture may last for 6 to 7 days. While standing there, practitioners are forced to keep their noses touching the wall, with their hands spread out. If one can no longer stand, drug addicts will curse and push the practitioners around. A full day of intensive brainwashing followed by a whole night of standing is the standard routine. Some practitioners were forced to stand in more difficult positions, such as bent over with the head down while raising the arms up behind (flying the airplane), or arms tightly touching the wall, etc. Police use such tortures to wear down the practitioners' will.

During the periods of torture, the group head will secretly order the drug addicts to beat up practitioners. If that practitioner resists with righteous thoughts, then the group leader will pretend to uphold justice. She might slap the drug addicts on the face or threaten to punish the drug addicts who beat up practitioners to show that the police are fair. Actually, this is just a trick make the camp appear to be "civilized."

The labor camps organized "special groups" to torture Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to renounce their belief. Police select strong drug addicts to torture these practitioners day and night at the former location of the second brigade. The first brigade is located right below the rooms used by the "special group." Thus, the beatings and curses can be heard by the practioners in the first brigade. According to drug addicts in the first brigade, the guards shock practitioners in the second brigade with several electric batons at the same time. Practitioners in the first brigade hear unending cries of pain. The cries of pain combined with the grins of the police officers generate an especially terrifying atmosphere. It has been said that many practitioners in the former second brigade never touched a bed during their long detentions. Many practitioners heard the name of Chen Fengxian, who is a determined Falun Gong practitioner, but they never had a chance to see her.

Even those who succumb to the brainwashing do not have it easy. There is repeated brainwashing and coercion by drug addicts, who monitor, isolate and threaten them to maintain control over the practitioners.

At the fourth brigade of the Women's Forced Labor Camp, officers frequently force practitioners to watch videos made to slander Falun Gong. Then practitioners are forced to write down their thoughts. This is repeated four times a day. The second brigade once allowed communications between practitioners. As a result, many practitioners realized that accepting "transformation or brainwashing" is wrong. After that the second brigade was disbanded.

The First Brigade has the heaviest workload. Each day they work from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m., without any days off. Some days the work hours are even longer if there is more work to do. If there is no work to do, the police would force the practitioners to watch videos that defame Falun Gong and force practitioners to write down their thoughts afterwards. The first brigade has been using secret methods to monitor steadfast practitioners, while reporting their words and actions. Another underhanded way the first brigade tries to deceive practitioners is manipulating group discussions while working. Collaborators are used to guide the discussion by spreading misleading thoughts to confuse practitioners.

The Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp is a den of lies, cruelty and violence. Let us expose its atrocities together.

(1) Collaborators: Former practitioners who have given up Falun Gong under pressure and have become assistants to the persecutors.

September 29, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/9/30/85372.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version