Persecution in Fanqiang Labor Camp

(Clearwisdom.net) Beginning on October 1st, 2003, the 2^nd Squadron and the Newcomers' Squadron of the 4^th Brigade in Fangqiang Labor Camp, Jiangsu Province began a new campaign of persecution targeting Falun Gong. The goal was to force unlawfully detained Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief in Falun Gong using any means necessary.

The labor camp launched their new round of persecution upon 11 Falun Gong practitioners who demonstrated a firm belief in Falun Gong: Wu Jun, He Guoping (from Kunshan), Chen Xiaoxing (a newspaper correspondent), Li Xilong (from Changzhou), Chen Pangen (a professor of Suzhou University), Dou Wenqiang (college student, from Pukou of Nanjing City), Hu Chunqing (from Suzhou), by depriving them of sleep for 24 hours a day to try to force them to give up their belief.

Policemen who are in charge of forcing practitioners to renounce their belief and other collaborators [former Falun Gong practitioners who have renounce their belief under severe pressure and torture and now actively persecute their fellow practitioners], together with some prisoners, were divided into three groups to cover 24 hours of each day (each group still had an 8 hour working day). Some special rooms were set up for torture. The windows and doors were covered with newspaper or bed-sheets to avoid being witnessed and exposed to the public. They continued to use inhumane mental and physical persecution and torture in an attempt to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief.

Sixty-seven year-old associated professor Chen Pangen from Suzhou University and Hu Chunqing, a Master's student in the Bridge Design Program at Suzhou, had been cursed at and beaten daily by the camp wardens. Some practitioners were beaten to the point of losing control of their bowels and bladder. They were not allowed to wear pants, and instead had to wear shorts after midnight while they were doused with 16 basins of cold water.

Liu Jufang is a farmer from Yixing, who had his Adam's apple pinched and injured, and therefore could not speak. Despite this he was watched and tortured by a criminal named Zhu Yanlong, who was put in jail for the second time for theft.

Hu Chunqing's ear was pinched, torn, and deformed. The guards used cigarette butts to burn, needles to stab and various other methods to torture Falun Gong practitioners.

Policemen brought female Falun Gong practitioner Gao Yulan from Judong Labor Camp in Fangqiang Labor Camp. They threw her in with male prisoners to create an environment of terror. They directed male criminal Ju Dachun to strip Gao naked and allowed him to sexually abuse her as he pleased. Their actions caused complaints from some policemen who still had a conscience, and also sparked indignation from other prisoners within the camp who learned of this situation. This incident was reported to the Jiangsu Provincial Committee for Discipline Inspection and the Provincial Department of Forced Labor Education because it was clearly a criminal act by the authorities. However, the incident was swept under the rug and no specific action came out of it.

The authorities at the labor camp call their persecution and torture "help and education." The guards persecute and torture practitioners without constraint. They also threaten practitioners after they leave the the camp. Their behavior tramples on human rights. They knowingly used this labor camp, where Falun Gong practitioners were detained, as a place where they can perpetrate any crime without fear of being held responsible by the law.

Falun Gong practitioners come from different walks of life, and they pursue a higher moral standard based on the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." However, precisely for this reason, many of them have been detained, sentenced, and sent to forced labor camps, detained in jails, or detained in mental hospitals although they have no history of mental illness. Practitioners have even been framed with fabricated charges such as "disturbing the social order." In those places, the authorities commit crimes in their attempts to brainwash practitioners to renounce their belief. They deprive practitioners of sleep for extended periods, and force practitioners to study propaganda that defames their practice and belief. The propaganda involves forcing practitioners to repeatedly watch films that falsely depict Falun Gong practitioners as murderers or committing suicide, which are not part of Falun Gong's belief. They try to force the practitioners to write opinions on the films and say something against their belief. Some policemen even instigate regular criminals to curse and beat Falun Gong practitioners. Those policemen, who were in charge of brainwashing Falun Gong practitioners, put great effort to invent ways to persecute and torture Falun Gong practitioners for personal gain.

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