The Atrocities Behind The Term "Civilized Management" at Tuanhe Labor Camp in Beijing

By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Since Jiang Zemin's regime started their persecution of Falun Gong in July 20^th of 1999 until the end of 2003, more than one thousand Dafa practitioners have been detained at the Tuanhe Labor Camp in Beijing. The guards instigated criminal inmates to torture Dafa practitioners. Many practitioners suffered mental disorders caused by the torture. Others became physically injured and maimed.

Tuanhe Labor Camp tried every trick to boast that what they were doing exemplified "civilized management." They used picture exhibits and "Labor Re-education News" to spread their lies. They invited Dafa practitioners' family members to visit the camp, organized holiday celebration parties between labor camp deputies and those who were transformed and their family members. They wanted people to believe that they were conducting "Revive and Rescue by Education and Persuasion." Many Dafa practitioners' families had been deceived by such propaganda, resulting their hostility towards Falun Gong.

The camp guards used two types of criminals as their tool of persecution. One type was the so-called Teaching Assistant (TA) [a collaborator] which refers to those former practitioner who renounced their belief in Falun Dafa and became accomplices of the guards aiding them in torturing practitioners. They used slander and lies to deceive Dafa practitioners in order to shake their firm belief in their principles. The other types of criminals were career criminal inmates specially chosen by the guards. They would openly beat and torture Dafa practitioners under the encouragement of the guards. They cooperated with the Teaching Assistants to physically break down Dafa practitioners' will.

Falun Gong practitioners would be immediately isolated and brainwashed upon their arrival at the Tuanhe Labor Camp. The camp assigned two Teaching Assistants [collaborators] to each Dafa practitioner. The collaborators would start by setting interview traps in order to identify practitioner's attachments, omissions and contradictions in their logic. They would exploit practitioners' weaknesses with deception in order to disrupt their righteous thoughts and to stir up their human attachments and desires. In turn, they would attribute the tortures suffered by the practitioners, the implications suffered by their relatives, the mental tortures, the economic and financial losses to Falun Gong and to the practitioners themselves. They would use practitioners' attachment of sentimentality to lure practitioners with promises of an early release if they were transformed. On the other hand, if practitioners refused to answer questions and cooperate with the assistants and guards, they would immediately torture practitioners with various physical punishments such as "military standing drill" and "military squatting drill." Some practitioners' legs became swollen and some even fainted on the spot.

Each day they started physical punishment from 7:00 am in the morning. It went on until 11-12 at night before practitioners were allowed to go back to sleep. For those practitioners who dared to speak up for Dafa, they would be further punished with forced standing or the military sitting posture drill until 2-3 in the morning before being allowed to sleep. They forced practitioners to wake up again at 5:40 am. No one was allowed to even fall asleep during the day; no naps were allowed during the noon hours either. The guards used both psychological and non stop tactics to overwhelm practitioners. Coupled with long duration physical punishment, this resulted in very little rest and sleep time. The purpose was to reduce the time and energy available to study the Fa, allowing the guards and assistants to physically and mentally break down and wear out the practitioners.

The brigade, the education and administration departments, all the way to the guards conspired with each other. If practitioners did not obey them, then the guards would order the inmates to harshly discipline them. In addition to all the so-called rules and regulations, everything practitioners did such as brushing their teeth, eating meals, going to the restroom, changing their clothes, sleeping, conversing and even walking around were under a strict probation and close supervision by the criminal inmates. They would be punished by forced military style standing and squatting from 7 in the morning all the way until 12 midnight. For those practitioners who refused to renounce their belief or protested with hunger strikes, the guards would take that as a serious offense and subject them to severe disciplinary action. The practitioners were sent to the "Consolidated Training Brigade" for harsh punitive supervision or to the "Perseverance Assault Class" (strict monitoring class) for high-pressure handling. The authorities would added another 10 months to practitioners' labor camp detention. If the practitioners still did not renounce their belief, then they would be released and sent to the local "610 Office" (brainwashing program) for further torture.

Guards used the career criminals against determined Dafa practitioners. These criminals had already committed unspeakable crimes in the society, and they became even more evil and brutal under the coercion of the labor camp guards. They were handpicked from several hundred inmates by the guards. Instantly, their role changed from criminals to being called "supervising personnel" who would tyrannically abuse Dafa practitioners. They were 100 percent obedient to their masters. Under the orders of the guards they could openly beat and brutally torture Dafa practitioners. In spite of the fact that one could not readily find a single torture instrument at the Tuanhe Labor Camp, behind the scenes these criminals would beat, kick, and use any item that could physically injure or maim a human, such as water, ice, urinals, steel bed frames, and small chairs. Shoes were even used as an instrument of torture.

They would use the mop handles to beat practitioners, toilet plungers to jab practitioners' faces and mouths, plastic brush sweepers to poke their face, steel wire fly swatters to slap their faces and jam into their mouth, shoes to strike them, cold water to pour over their body or down their backs. The criminals were ordered to drag practitioners outside in the middle of winter and have snow rubbed onto their bodies after stripping off their clothes, force feed them with water, force them to lie in the urinal filled with water, force them under the bed, prohibit them from going to the restroom until they urinated into their pants, pour water under the bed so that practitioners were forced to lie in urine and water, tie practitioners to small chairs and not allow them to sleep or go to the restroom until they urinated in their pants. They applied sleep deprivation by waking practitioners up at 5 in the morning and forced them to do military standing or squatting until 12 at midnight- sometimes even until 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. Sometimes, they would be forced to withstand 18-20+ hours of physical punishment without dozing off. Even their meals reduced in order to starve them. Each meal provided contained only one small piece of corn bread with a vegetable for lunch and dinner.

In the "Perseverance assault class" practitioners were provided with only one piece of corn bread and a small amount of vegetable for each meal. However, the "Consolidated Training Brigade," would only give one, and more often than not, half (sometimes just one-quarter) piece of corn bread and a few spoonfuls vegetable soup with a few leaves of the vegetable. They would rather dump the leftover bread and entrees, often in large quantities, into the garbage can or toilets, instead of letting Dafa practitioners have any of it. This is the so-called "civilized management" proclaimed by Tuanhe Labor Camp. If you asked the guards why a law enforcement unit would coerce criminal inmates to violently assault practitioners or openly break the law while carrying out their lawful responsibilities, they would persecute you further.

Under the severe pressure, combined assaults, and physical punishment carried out by the labor camp guards and collaborators against Dafa practitioners, some practitioners could no longer withstand and remain unwavering amid these inhumane atrocities. They signed Repentance Papers against their conscience because they were either afraid of being further tortured, or could no longer endure it. Before such "transformation" these people's health had improved and their ailments had disappeared because of their practice of Falun Gong. But after they were "transformed" their previous ailments reappeared, often with new illnesses. One elderly man around 60 years old immediately felt a headache and dizziness after he signed the Repentance Paper. He was diagnosed with having high blood pressure near 200 mmHg. He was shocked at that moment since he had never had high blood pressure. Many young men used to be very healthy and strong, but after their "transformation" they often got sick and needed to take medications and shots. Practicing Falun Gong improved people's health and saved the government a large amount of medical expenses. This is such beneficial news for the people and country. Yet the labor camp guards, under the orders from Jiang's regime, fervently demanded the "transformation" of practitioners. This resulted in them getting ill, and having pain and suffering. Their families also suffered together with them. The government must now provide medical expenses for them. Yet the guards receive bonuses and rewards for this. Those who were transformed not only suffered the pain and anguish of illnesses, but they suffered immense mental grief as well as spiritual trauma. Some suffered nightmares, uttered strange words, made strange noises, and exhibited night terrors with screaming and shouting. Some became mentally disordered or just stared blankly in a daze. Some were ran themselves against walls, and others were driven to insanity. Tuanhe Labor Camp is indeed an evil den.

June 17, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/7/6/78780.html

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