The Severe Torture I Suffered in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp, Changchun City (Photos)
By Liu Hongwei from Jilin City, Jilin Province
(Clearwisdom.net) On December 24, because very few practitioners were
willing to give up their beliefs, Jilin Province made arrangements across the
board for all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners to be moved. All
steadfast practitioners detained in the Tonghua, Baishan and Liaoyuan Forced
Labor Camps were transferred at the same time to Changchun City's Chaoyanggou
Forced Labor Camp in Jilin Province. When the practitioners arrived at the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp on the
afternoon of December 24, 2001, they saw a row of prison guards, all in helmets
and with military belts tied around their waists. The practitioners discovered
why later. In order to effectively cope with these practitioners from the three
labor camps, the deputy Party secretary of the province Lin Yanzhi had
personally issued an order to torture those practitioners who remained
steadfast. We witnessed a scene of uncontrolled violence right then and there. The
prison guards gathered all the practitioners and body-searched them. If they
found some of Teacher's articles, the practitioners who were carrying them would
be cruelly beaten. The sounds of the beatings and the verbal abuse could be
heard from far away. After being body- searched, the practitioners who had come
from the three other labor camps were sent to different divisions. I was sent to
Division 1. (Re-enactments) As I entered Division 1, the criminal leader and several other criminals
rushed me and kicked and hit me. They also wanted to punish me further by
forcing me to do "body folding(1)." I refused to submit to them and
firmly resisted their abuse. A criminal then grabbed up a bed board and smacked
it against my back. They only stopped beating me when I fainted. When I regained
consciousness, the prison guard Li Jun saw that nothing serious had happened to
me, so he snuck off, pretending he didn't know anything. Afterwards, I found out
that the transferred practitioners from Tonghua, Liaoyuan and Baishan were all
subjected to varying degrees of torture. (Re-enactment) The persecution continued. Prison guard Li Jun ordered the criminals to move
the mattresses away. Except for meal times, practitioners were forced to sit on
the bed boards in the same posture from 3:00 a.m. until midnight. If anyone
moved even slightly, he or she would be beaten mercilessly. I sat there for
three days in a row. Criminal Zhou Weichun also forced the practitioners to
smoke. When he came to me, I firmly resisted and was therefore beaten severely.
Criminal Zhao Zhu smacked me in the throat with his palm, and I had difficulty
talking. On January 12, 2002, the new brainwashing center for the Chaoyanggou Forced
Labor Camp was built. All the practitioners were moved into the new building,
where I was assigned to the newly organized Division 3. The perpetrators in the
prison's new building intensified the abuse and torment against practitioners,
particularly after March 5, 2002. On that date, practitioners in Changchun had
tapped into the cable TV network to show a video program explaining the truth of
the staged Tiananmen Self-immolation Incident. Countless people who had been
deceived by the government's lies and propaganda were able to learn the truth
about Falun Dafa. Jiang was furious, and he pinpointed Jilin as the key
province. Beginning on April 6, 2002, Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp undertook a
"hundred-day fortification fight." Wan Yanwei, the labor camp chief,
gave a speech to mobilize all the employees in the camp. The atmosphere was just
like during the Cultural Revolution. Slogans were posted in hallways, which
echoed with curses. The prison guards instructed the criminals to mercilessly
beat the practitioners. The prison guards themselves also participated in the
abuse. During that time, the sounds of shocks from electric batons, beatings,
cursing, and sad, shrill cries filled the whole building. (Re-enactment) Liu Hongwei demonstrates how guard Li Jun mercilessly beat him
with an electric baton and the handle of a pickaxe in Division 3 Since my transfer to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp, my whole body had
been covered with scabies. I could not even keep up with the group when walking.
In the morning on April 6, 2002, I was led to the prison guardroom. As soon as I
got there, prison guard Li Jun asked if I had decided to abandon Falun Gong. I
told him that I would not give up my faith even if I had to die for it. At that
moment, I felt more pressure and fear than I had ever felt before. Four prison
guards grabbed me, cuffed my hands behind my back, and kicked me to the ground.
Then they used electric batons to shock me. Yet, Li Jun thought that still
wasn't enough. He went to Division 2 and borrowed a pickaxe handle from prison
guard Liu Xiaoyu. Seeing that I would not give in, they shocked me with electric
batons and, at the same time, used the pickaxe handle to hit me extremely hard.
After more than 20 minutes, unable to stand the torture any more, I wrote the
"Three Statements." One prison guard read them, then tore them into
pieces and said that they were not a "written repentance" and that I
would have to rewrite them. I was so completely disheartened that I wrote the
"Three Statements" again. All I wrote, however, was that I still had
"selfishness" in my personal cultivation. The prison guard did not
force me to write another statement. A few days later my mind cleared. How could
one be a human being and not follow "Truthfulness, Compassion,
Forbearance"? Life would become meaningless for that person. I began to think about myself and ponder the issues from a practitioner's
point of view. I also searched inside myself and realized that on every level,
there was the issue of letting go of life and death. "If a cultivator can
let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstance, evil is sure to
be afraid of him. If every student is able to do this, evil will of itself no
longer exist." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)" in Essentials
for Further Advancement II) Due to my lack of righteous belief, righteous
understanding and righteous thoughts, the evil had used this loophole. After
that, I regained my senses and again began to recite the Fa and sent-forth
righteous thoughts. A few days later, Division Chief Chen Lihui saw me and asked, "How do
you feel?" I replied, "I was forced to write those 'Three Statements.'
They are invalid." After that, I refuted all of the so-called statements of
repentance that I had written. The prison guards then treated me as one of the
steadfast practitioners again and put me on the "strict management"
team. In the cafeteria at mealtimes, I could see some practitioners who had been
subjected to torture. Because the whole labor camp carried out their actions in
unison, all of the unyielding practitioners had suffered from savage abuse,
mistreatment and torment. In each division there were several practitioners who
had been beaten so mercilessly that they were unable to walk. Some practitioners
had to be held up by two other people, or several people supported the arms of
one practitioner. Some practitioners' heads were bandaged; still other
practitioners' legs were fractured from the beatings. After going through this
unforgettable lesson, my belief in Dafa was strengthened. I recited the Fa every
day and sent-forth righteous thoughts. I continued to tell the facts about Falun
Dafa to offer salvation to living beings. Right after Chinese National Day on October 1 and prior to the 16th
National People's Congress, the prison guards assembled their strength again to
start another round of frenzied abuse and mistreatment. The Chaoyanggou Forced
Labor Camp started their second "fortification fight." Many
practitioners had insufficient understanding of the Fa, and some gave in to the
pressure to write the Three Statements. During this period, I once singled out
the class prison guard Wang Hexing, telling him of my determination to safeguard
Falun Dafa. I was then abducted to the prison guards' room. Prison guard Li Jun
said that my term was almost over, and that I should write the statement of
repentance so that I could go home! Faced with the evil persecution once more, I remained calm. I sent forth
righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors that occupied them in another
dimension, and at the same time I told them that it was impossible for me to
write a repentance statement. Several prison guards ran over and tied my hands
and feet together onto a long bamboo pole. I could not move. Then they used an
electric baton to shock me on my rectum. Compared with the torment I suffered on
April 6, this was more severe; however, I did not feel tense. The whole time, I
kept looking into the prison guards' eyes and silently sent forth righteous
thoughts in my heart. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil
force that was behind them in another dimension. Then prison guard Wang came to
ask me, "What is Falun Gong?" I said, "It is the orthodox Fa."
He asked, "What do you think of Falun Gong?" I replied, "It is
more important than my life." Hearing this, he said that since I had said
that, why didn't I say it loudly? Immediately I shouted, "Falun Dafa is
more important than my life!" After they heard this, they beat me again,
and then found two criminals to get ready to carry me back. By then I had lost
consciousness. Several criminals hauled me back. Liu Hongwei demonstrates how in Division 3 he and other
steadfast practitioners were forced to "Sit on Small Stools." After going back to Division 3, division chief Chen Lihui used another method
to torment practitioners. He didn't allow us to sleep. For three days and nights
we had to "Sit on Small Stools" with our backs straight, hands on our
knees. We had to keep the same posture at all times. If someone made the
slightest move, he or she would be severely beaten. During those three days and
nights, we only slept for about four hours. Realizing the direness of this
situation, I located some prison guards on my own and pointed out the
seriousness of these abuses to them. At the same time, I told them with
compassion that no matter what one does, he or she is ultimately responsible for
his or her life forever. They also were afraid that if they pushed too hard,
more issues would come up. Hence, they reduced the number of hours we had to
sit. We had to sit from 5:30 a.m. until 12:00 midnight. We sat like this, every
day, for nearly two months. The "fortification fight" was then called
off. In December 2002 the prison guards started the so-called "third
fortification fight." This time they gathered all the steadfast
practitioners. The labor camp chief, Wang Yanwei, came and made a speech. Unlike
the two previous efforts, this campaign was all in the form of
"teaching." This time around, when they set up classes and started to
brainwash us, and I frequently remembered to search inside myself and send forth
righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. Before going to the classes, the
division chief of all the prison guards Chen Lihui told me, "If you do not
reform, you will never leave through this door." At that moment I thought
that it certainly wasn't up to him. Originally my jail term should have expired
in early October, but the prison guards extended my term by over 50 days. On December 11, 2002, I walked out of Changchun City's Chaoyanggou Forced
Labor Camp and once again started to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. This is what happened to me because of Jiang's ruling that, "Killing a
practitioner is nothing and will be called as suicide." My story is only
one of many. In China, many more have suffered even more severely. Changchun
City's Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp enforcers alone have the deaths of 18
practitioners on their hands. Many more are still suffering from unbelievably
savage torture. I hope that all kind-hearted people will find out about these atrocities and
the wickedness of this persecution so that they will no longer be deceived by
Jiang Zemin's lies. Notes: (2) "Sitting Board" requires the person to put both
hands in his or her lap and sit on a bench 18 hours per day with a straight
back. Use of the restroom is limited. Because of the long hours spent sitting on
hard benches, practitioners' buttocks develop large, painful sores.
Practitioners cannot even urinate normally because of the pain. There is seldom
proper ventilation or sunlight, and practitioners locked up for a long time
often contract scabies, which are unbearably itchy and painful.
Liu Hongwei demonstrates how the criminals in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp
beat him into unconsciousness.
Liu Hongwei demonstrates the "Sitting Board (2)," a torture
that he was subjected to every day in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp
(Re-enactment)
In Division 3, prison guard Li Jun and other guards shocked Liu Hongwei inside
his rectum. These same abusers also used rope and a wooden club about 2 meters
(6 feet) long to tie practitioners' hands and feet together to torture them.
(The person being torture is not Liu Hongwei)
(re-enactment)
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/23/84843.html
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