By a Falun Gong practitioner from Liaoning Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) Since 1999, the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province has followed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to persecute Falun Gong. China's Department of Justice officials favored the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, and it was incorporated as a unit directly under the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice invested a large amount of funds into expanding the facilities, so they could oppress and mistreat the Falun Gong practitioners more severely. Perpetrators Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang and Liu Jing from Jiang Zemin's regime came to Masanjia to manipulate and carry out the persecution. They cruelly brainwashed and tortured the Falun Gong practitioners.

Over the past eight years, 4,000 Falun Gong practitioners detained at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp have personally experienced and witnessed physical torture and mental torment, as well as financial ruin. Masanjia Forced Labor Camp officials concealed and strictly blocked anyone from investigating its crimes. According to incomplete statistics, dozens of the practitioners were tortured to death, or disabled and traumatized at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. The Jiang and Luo factions set up this camp as an example for persecuting Falun Gong. The camp guards have committed tremendous crimes in this national, CCP-ordered atrocity.

Masanjia Forced Labor Camp Produces Toxic Arts and Crafts Products

Camp officials force the practitioners to do slave labor. The workshops there have mainly processed and produced toxic arts and crafts products for illegally-gained profit, many of them for export, over the past few years.

The raw materials for these products usually consist of noxious chemicals, colored plastics and adhesives. These raw materials include lead and benzene, and other health-endangering substances. Some give off an intense odor, which makes people choke, and which they try not to breathe in. Some people's eyes water, some become dizzy and nauseated, and some even vomit.

There is no specially-equipped workplace for working with these toxic products. No protective measures of any kind are in place to protect the workers from harm. All the forced labor is done in the same cells where the practitioners live. In the cells, there are two rolls of beds against two walls. In the middle of the cells there is a path for people to walk. A simple and low table was set up with small plastic stools and big paper boxes, on which there are many bowls and cans full of various materials, be they liquid, solid or sandy. More materials are added to the containers when needed. People all sit on the small stools to work. Dozens of people are crowded into this tiny space, and it is difficult even to turn around. One is not allowed to go to the toilet if he needs to relieve himself. Usually one needs to wait until break time, when everyone stands up to walk out of the cell. One also needs to wait in line according to the sequence of cells. Except during meal time, the Falun Gong practitioners are detained in the cells, such a terrible environment, day after day, year after year.

Under such oppressive, unsafe conditions, the camp guards force the practitioners to labor for the sole profit of camp officials. To meet deadlines for time-sensitive orders, they often force the practitioners to work late at night. The labor is high-stress, physically demanding, unsafe and toxic to human life - thus many practitioners have sustained not only physical injuries (mangled fingers, rotted fingernails, numb legs and feet) but also experienced skin rashes, breathing difficulties and vision impairment. Some practitioners' leg joints were injured so severely that they had difficulty walking, and some even became paralyzed.

According to the season, the guards at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp force the detainees to shuck corn or peel garlic. A great deal of the peeled garlic was delivered outside the camp. To increase profit, the guards disregarded food safety and sanitary procedures. To gain time for delivering orders, the same people who processed toxic products for export were also made to peel garlic at the same time. The unprocessed bagged garlic was emptied onto the contaminated work areas, or on the ground, which was covered with poisonous chemical residue and dust and gravel. After the garlic had been peeled, the cloves were placed into the same bowls and basins that previously contained toxic arts and crafts materials, and which had not been sanitized. From there the peeled garlic was placed into woven bags.

Tons of this garlic processed at Masanjia were delivered outside the camp year after year. We do not know who received these truckloads of garlic. The polluted garlic entered into society's food chain, being processed into food products and flavoring, endangering people' lives and health.

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), established in January 2003, pointed out that forced labor is not only a violation of the detainees' basic human rights but also brings the perpetrators tremendous profit, and therefore incites the guards and police officers to further abuse the detainees.

Officials at the Masanjia Labor Camp have recently requested that already-paroled practitioners who were out for medical treatment return to the camp for re-examination, or bring a statement issued by their local police stations to begin the permanent release procedures. Practitioners whom the camp officials designate "unqualified" for release will be held over in the camp. Practitioners who do not return will be regarded as escaped criminals. They are declared as "Wanted" on the Internet. The police will be in charge of hunting escaped practitioners.

In reality, these so-called re-examinations or procedural maneuvers are merely an excuse to continue the persecution and enslavement of practitioners. It also seems to be a method to mollify the Communist regime, and has been used under the excuse of ensuring the success of the recent 17th Party Congress or of the upcoming Olympic Games. As a matter of fact, all these decisions have nothing but a profit motive behind them. At present, being short on manpower, the perpetrators are expecting the return of these practitioners who are needed as workers for the upcoming corn harvest in October. The officials at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp have illegally made use of their power to enrich themselves with the practitioners' hard labor, and spare no energy in doing so.

Ever since the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp has been involved in a sinister economic operation--the CCP minions have supported and encouraged certain economic policies. The camp has an independent economy and accounting system, to ensure the employees' incomes. At the same time it has plenty of market experience to satisfy its customers.

Several family members of Masanjia guards have revealed the camp's tremendous profit from forced labor, and the allocation of tens of thousands of yuan as year-end bonuses. Each guard received a share of it. In certain months the bonuses were higher than the salaries. The Spring Festival scroll of "automatic wealth for guards, just like flowing water" posted on the camp gate revealed that the perpetrators shamelessly exploit the practitioners' hard labor to make huge profits.

We call on all good people and all righteous forces worldwide, as well as the legal and economic community, to take action to bring the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp to justice.

September 26, 2007

Posting date: 10/14/2007
Original article date: 10/14/2007
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Translated on 10/2/2007
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/9/29/163524.html

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