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Deaths and Injuries of Falun Dafa Practitioners Occurring From the Savage Treatment at the Baimiao Forced Labor Camp

May 20, 2004 |   By a Falun Gong practitioner from Henan Province

(Clearwisdom.net) There have been many cases of deaths and serious injuries of prisoners at the Baimiao Forced Labor Camp in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. The Baimiao Forced Labor Camp is one of the locations where the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners is particularly savage.

The Baimiao Forced Labor Camp established three divisions for producing goods in 2003, and so the slave labor commenced. Other than the group normally finishing the electrical controllers, the prisoners have to perform ten hours of labor a day. Sometimes the overtime extends the workday to more than twenty hours of continuous labor per day. The production jobs mainly involve handwork like folding pages and stapling them into books, peeling garlic, cutting paper, folding paper bags, and packaging monosodium glutamate (a flavor enhancer, also known as MSG).

The Forced Labor Camp consists of the Director, Deputy director, Secretary, and Political Committee, supported by the Administration Section, Education Section, the "610 Office" (1), Disciplinary Section, Production Section, and the Marketing Section. The minds of the guards in the Camp have been dangerously poisoned. The vicious treatment of the detainees at the Camp by the main supervising officers was looked upon as normal management. The savage beating and torture of Falun Gong practitioners were part of the regular duties of the guards.

Around February 2003, there were two extremely vicious cases of serious maltreatment that led to deaths. The leader and members of the First Brigade seriously injured Li Chao, a seventeen year-old youth from Zhongmou County. The reason for the guards assault upon him was that the youth did not have the physical strength to withstand the excessive demands of the slave labor. Li Chao continuously had a high fever. To conceal the real situation, and to avoid the hospital staff discovering the wounds from the vicious beatings, the head guard would not allow the youth to see a doctor. The condition of this young person deteriorated and he died in prison.

After this happened, the higher officials at the Camp tried to evade their responsibility in this matter by claiming that the young man died only after normal procedures were used to try to save him.

Shortly after this happened, the main leader of the work group of that section, following orders from the police, seriously wounded some of the other regular criminal inmates forced to work in the camp. The regular inmates retaliated and wounded the work group leader by splashing concentrated sulfuric acid on his face and breaking his fingers in a physical fight.

Because the senior officers in the "610 Office" assigned a "transformation quota" to the Camp staff, and even rewarded the section leaders and other oppressive officials bonuses as performance incentives, the leaders were allowed and even encouraged to continue their vicious treatment of Dafa practitioners detained in the labor camp. The senior officers never bothered to investigate the details of the vicious treatment.

The forced labor camp started a persecution campaign using cruel and savage means against Falun Gong practitioners in 2001, in order to force them to renounce their belief in Falun Dafa. Song Xu was the first to be tortured at that time. He was tied to a bed with each of his four limbs stretched in opposite directions, and then the bed was turned upside down. He was left stretched and painfully hanging in that position for as long as six hours. He was also force-fed and had some of his teeth were broken in the process. He was sexually abused by having a rod forcibly inserted into his rectum. He was also wrapped in a blanket, tied up with ropes and left in this position for a long time, while being deprived of the right to use the toliet. His body was greatly devastated by this.

Because Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Quan Peijun from the Shangjie Region defended his right to practice Falun Gong, he was arrested and hung up by ropes eight times. Both his arms and shoulders were severely injured. The authorities shocked him with an extra high voltage electrical baton, all over his body repeatedly for several hours at a time. The resulting sores on his chest became infected and he was covered in festering wounds from the burns created by the electrical shock.

In the middle of November 2002, Baimiao was ordered by senior level officers to torture Falun Gong practitioners with electric batons, beatings, and to prop their heads on sharp triangular iron pieces to prevent them from sleeping. Some of the practitioners had portions of their scalps ripped out during the torture.

Falun Gong practitioner Han Guoquan was forced to wear a helmet, had his shoes and socks removed, his legs tied together, and was shocked all over his body with a high voltage electric baton.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Yuanheng was subjected to electric shock with ten electric batons applied simultaneously for several hours.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Ming had his sentence extended for a year on two occasions for no reason.

The Baimiao Forced Labor Camp staff continuously extended the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners they held in detention.

The guards at the Baimiao Forced Labor Camp all knew that Falun Gong practitioners were good people, as it was well known that those who practice Falun Gong are exemplary people of high moral character. In order to avoid having to individually bear the consequences of the persecution in the future, they decided to torture practitioners collectively so that if anyone was held responsible for the wrong doings, everyone would have to bear an equal share. On the afternoon of April 23, 2003, a senior officer at Baimiao Forced Labor Camp directed the guards to conduct a criticism meeting regarding Falun Gong practitioners. On the afternoon of April 24, the original team leader of the Fifth Brigade with the other officers commenced torturing Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Quan Peijun and Zhang Yuanheng with extra high voltage electric batons, at the same time viciously beating them. Mr. Zhang Yuanheng shouted loudly "Falun Dafa is good!" as he was being tortured. His voice and the sizzling sound of the shocks from the electric batons could be heard all over the camp.

One night, on April 24, the original members of the Third Brigade consisting of ten police officers under the supervision of Li Xichuan, the ringleader of the "610 Office", commenced a new round of cruel and savage treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. The leader of the Main Brigade, Zuo Zhiguo, referred to this barbaric action as "Spring Thunder." The guards Ma Donghui, Ren Wanqiang, Liu Wei, Yang Weidong, and He Xianglong brutally attacked the practitioners. In an attack, the shins of Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Shucan were ripped open. He was subjected to electric shocks with six electric batons simultaneously. Both of his lower limbs were swollen and had severe bleeding under the skin. His legs went limp as all the muscles were seriously injured.

The police officers were even more ruthless in dealing with Dafa practitioner Xu Xieqia. When he first arrived at the camp, he was force-fed with a concentrated salt solution until his stomach bled. Thereafter he was deprived of sleep for a long time. Then, police officers Yang Weidong, Ren Wanqiang, Ma Donghui, and He Xianglong, under the supervision of Zuo Zhiguo, used four electric batons simultaneously to shock Xu Xieqia. After the electric shock, the criminal inmates Zhao Guosheng, Feng Jun and two others were ordered to severely beat him. They used thick electric cables to whip him till there were bruises all over his body. The criminal inmates used a blanket to cover his head so that he could not shout. He was beaten until he became incontinent. The original assistant leader of the Third Brigade, Liu Wei directly ordered the criminal inmates to commit acts of violence against Falun Dafa practitioners and in the future and he will not be able to avoid punishment for his crimes.

In the middle of the night, the Intermediate Brigade staff also began electrically shocking Zhang Zikun. Zhang suffered his scalp splitting open and a bone in his neck becoming fractured when he rammed his head against a wall due to the torture. After Zhang Zikun injured himself against the wall, the leader not only did not stop the torture, he shouted angrily: "That is nothing!"

The Forced Labor Camp directed criminal inmates to viciously attack Falun Gong practitioners. On August 28, 2003, practitioner Xu Xieqia and others were forced to watch a propaganda video entitled "Innocent Life", which was created to fabricate lies and incite hatred against Falun Dafa. After viewing the film the practitioners were forced to write down their impressions of the video, which was actually an exercise to force them to write that they agreed with the current political position against Falun Dafa. Xu Xieqia and Li Lemin refused to comply. As a result, criminal inmates Liu Jie, Lei Ming, Li Zongguo, Zhang Qian and two others pushed the practitioners down and took turns using a wooden club to beat them. Xu Xieqia was bleeding profusely all over from the beatings and could not walk normally. After guard Liu Wei learned about the beatings, not only did he not stop them he reminded Liu Jie to continue the assaults, but to be careful not to leave any visible injuries. All injuries should be internal ones. Therefore, on the next day, criminal inmate Lei Ming, covered the chest of Zhao Shucan with a pillow and rained blows on him. The "thud, thud" sound of the beating could be heard throughout the entire Brigade area. When the Judiciary Department conducted an investigation into the beatings and injuries, practitioner Xu Xieqia exposed the facts of the incident in his answers in a questionnaire, the police officers used the criminal inmates to retaliate and take revenge. Four criminal inmates were assigned to supervise each Falun Gong practitioner twenty-four hours a day.

The original instructor of the Third Brigade, He Xianglong, publicly declared that the criminal inmates supervising Falun Gong practitioners were allowed to beat them at will. Police officer He Xianglong even said: "Although these drug addicts and pick-pockets are bad, they can be used to viciously beat up and torture Falun Gong practitioners who are good people!"

The assistant instructor and guard, Liu Wei, was one of the main perpetrators in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the Third Main Brigade. He publicly declared: "Falun Gong practitioners are good people, but even good steel needs to be bent as needed!" Liu Wei declared to the criminal inmates that he oversaw: "You must be brave in your supervision," meaning "You may beat them at will, do not worry!"

The assistant instructor of the Fifth Brigade, Song Yanling, did not even spare Mr. Li Dianjun, who was nearly 60 years old and who was very weak after being on a hunger strike for 20 days. Mr. Li was so badly beaten that he was bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth.

In addition to the physical punishment, Dafa practitioners were forced to work for more than twenty hours continuously doing hard labor beyond their physical limit.

The police spared no effort to conceal their crimes, even to the extent of colluding with senior officers of the "610 Office" to hide the practices of vicious beatings and torture of the Dafa practitioners, and completely blocking all news from reaching the outside world or to the relatives of the victims. When the senior officials went to inspect the camp, the guards would force Falun Gong practitioners to say that they were not beaten, that they were speaking of their own accord, and that they had never been ill-treated. But when the senior officials left, they would immediately commence their vicious attacks on the Dafa practitioners. The original Third Brigade Assistant Instructor, Liu Wei told Mr. Xu Xieqia publicly: "You go and report! Tell them we have beaten you so that you will renounce your belief!"

The guards at the forced labor camp not only tortured Falun Gong practitioners, they also persecuted the family members of the practitioners by threatening them. The parents of Han Guoquan in the Fifth Brigade was so frightened by their threats that they kneeled in front of the guards, begging them not to harm their son.

There were other Dafa practitioners at the Forced Labor Camp that were persecuted: Quan Peijun (Staff member of the Changchen Aluminum Industry Company, Shangjie Region), Xu Xiaoguo (Resident of Guanxiang, Yingyang City), Fu Zhenyong (Elderly person, Retired staff member of the Coal Mining Machinery Factory, Zhengzhou City), Hou Jinyou (Farmer from Sima Village, Gaocun town, Yingyang City), Zhu Yunlong (Staff member of the Electric Cables Factory, Zhengzhou City), Hua Feng (Resident of Jinshui Region, Zhengzhou City), and Zhao Shucan (Staff member of the Department of Goods and Materials, Xinzheng City, residing at Hougaozhuang Village, Xindian Town)

What is reported here is only a small portion of the atrocities committed at the Baimiao Forced Labor Camp. The persecution occurring there is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Even senior officials in the same department feel that the "work methods" of the officers at the Baimiao Forced Labor Camp are too harsh. Those senior officials at the Public Security Department who know what the camp guards are doing feel that they are taking great risks with their own futures.

The guards at the forced labor camp do know that their criminal actions will bring heavy retribution. Every time they receive a phone call from overseas practitioners, they shudder. Whenever they receive mail from practitioners outside of China, they become very irritated and upset. On the one hand they want to earn bonuses for getting practitioners to renounce their belief. This pursuit of money allowed them to take harsh unconscionable actions against Falun Gong practitioners. On the other hand, the guards were also terrified of being shunned by society for their shameless and cruel actions.

We appeal to all righteous people to continue to phone and write letters exposing the wanton actions of the police officers at the Baimiao Forced Labor Camp and rescue the Dafa practitioners that are being persecuted there.

(1) "610 Office": a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.