The Brutal Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners at the Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan, Hebei Province

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioners illegally detained in Kaipingg Forced Labor Camp are under brutal mental and physical torture every day.

The guards at the labor camp have forced practitioners to continuously watch DVDs that slander Dafa and Teacher. They force everyone to package 90 bags of cotton swabs every day. They deceive practitioners by promising to reduce their prison terms if they complete the tasks, so that the guards can get profits from their labor. The guards use the money to take vacations in Hainan.

Besides these abuses, the labor camp even skims from the meager 86-yuan allotment of monthly food costs for each practitioner. For months and years, they only let practitioners have pickles for breakfast and dinner. For 6 months, the lunch was bok choy boiled in water. The so-called "meal upgrade" is adding a few pieces of tofu or a few slices of fatty meat. Sanitary conditions are extremely poor. When the detainees eat, there are usually birds flying above the tables, flies hovering over the bowls, dogs running around, and some inmates are still working, causing dust to fly everywhere. Sometimes the steamed buns are dark and moldy.

Under such poor conditions, if practitioners get sick they are forced to see doctors, and the medicine they have to take is almost always expired. The labor camp even assigned inmates to watch and see if practitioners swallowed the medicine. If practitioners refuse to take the medicine, they would be criticized as "having a mental problem." If they don't get well in the labor camp, practitioners are transferred to hospitals in the city or district. In addition, practitioners have to pay for their own medical bills.

Practitioner Ms. Chen Xiurong was sent to a male team for an IV infusion because of back pain. During the process, they added a liquid drug to the IV which caused Ms. Chen to pass out. Consequently, she was sent to Kaiping Hospital for emergency treatment. Ms. Chen was ordered to pay for the 270-yuan emergency cost.

Several practitioners had high blood pressure (as high as 220) or cardiac disease. Such ailments all fall within the "severe illnesses" defined by labor camps as incurable in the short term, which should entitle them to leave the labor camp for hospital treatments. But Kaiping Labor Camp refused to process the paperwork. One practitioner had severe cardiac disease, yet she was not allowed to leave the labor camp for treatment. She was even forced to write statements that she would take full responsibility for the labor camp's failed treatment.

Those practitioners newly brought to the labor camp are detained in small cells first. Then those former practitioners who had been "transformed" take turns to "transform" them, until they write the Three Statements. If practitioners refused to write the Three Statements, they are subjected to "Strict Treatment": limited use of the bathroom, sleep deprivation, and being forced to stand for long periods of time. This strict treatment is enforced 24 hours a day by inmates under orders from the guards. If the inmates refuse to comply, the guards threaten to deduct their points or lengthen their prison terms. Some practitioners were detained in conference rooms without heaters for more than one month. If the forced "transformation" attempts were not successful, they would be punished by being forced to stand for one day and one night, and restricted from going to the bathroom, among other abuses. Practitioners' feet became swollen because of prolonged standing.

If practitioners held a hunger strike to protest the persecution, they would be subjected to brutal force-feeding. The tormentors handcuffed practitioners' arms behind their back, to a chair. Several people would hold the practitioner's head and insert tubes through their nose. Then they would feed, little by little, some black material from a small container; all the while chatting with each other. It takes 40 minutes to finish the forced-feeding, which is more painful than delivering a baby. Moreover, in the winter, they would place practitioners in rooms with the windows open and only allow them to wear one sweater. Practitioners often have to sleep on the ground on a cold wooden board.

The guards use all kinds of means to pressure practitioners to "transform". Some practitioners were forced to stand for five days and five nights. Steadfast practitioners who refuse to "transform" are detained on the third floor. They are isolated from the outside world for a long time and are not allowed to have contact with anyone. Practitioners are even deterred from so much as going near the windows. Sometimes the guards would take practitioners outside in the middle of the night to let collaborators have a go at "transforming" them. These practitioners would be brought back before dawn. Other practitioners were sent away under the cover of darkness to labor camps in Gaoyang, Baoding or Shijiazhuang for more severe persecution.

One practitioner who appeared to be in his 20s, held a hunger strike for more than 8 months. He was sent to a female team so that those collaborators would "transform" him. They seduced him with all kinds of good food, until he was "transformed". Sometimes guards would take collaborators from a female team to a male team to work on "transformation".

Once, a practitioner was reported by inmates for reading Teacher's articles. When there was no one in the room, the guards checked the practitioner's belongings and found the articles. They detained the practitioner in a little dark room for more than three days. No one knows what kind of persecution that practitioner experienced. After coming back, the practitioner was very thin and had dark circles around both eyes. All those detained in little black rooms were threatened not to disclose anything that happened to them after they came back.

Another practitioner was deceived into renouncing Dafa, after which, the guards had her "transform" other people. One night soon after that, she suddenly suffered a mental collapse. She would bow to anyone she met, and kept saying, "I'd rather be a demon so that you can become a Buddha ..." Later, she disappeared from the labor camp.

A practitioner newly brought to the camp was forced to write the Three Statements. After writing the statements, the practitioner became mentally ill, crying all day long (but there were no tears) and murmuring all the time. Later, this person also disappeared from the labor camp.

A practitioner on the third floor was detained for an unknown period of time. One day in April, while the person on duty was not paying attention, she ran to the window and shouted to practitioners going to the dining room, "Falun Dafa is good! Fellow practitioners do not forget your duties in history. What are you afraid of? You should validate Dafa!" Immediately, guards and inmates on duty covered her mouth and dragged her away. After that people heard her shouting for several days, but then she disappeared and no one knows her whereabouts.

On the night of May 21, 2005, a steadfast practitioner from the third floor was sent to the labor camp clinic. The practitioner was watched over by four guards and two inmates 24 hours a day. It was clear that this practitioner had been severely persecuted.

As for those "surveys" by higher level officials, they are just a formality. If anyone speaks the truth, the guards coerce them one-by-one until what is they write fits their requirements. Any discrepancy would lead to strict treatment and all freedom would be deprived, including even the right to speak with others.

These are just a small portion of the crimes in Kaiping Forced Labor Camp. Undoubtedly, more brutal persecution has been committed in secret, the facts of which are not yet exposed.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/2/6/148435.html

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