(Clearwisdom.net) The fourth brainwashing center in Xinyang City, Henan Province, has been operating for over two weeks, and kidnapped Falun Gong practitioners have suffered from inhuman torture there. Due to extended periods of torture, some practitioners suffered mental breakdowns.

Government organizations mainly use three ways to capture practitioners:

Deception

Through the street residents' committees and liaison offices, using the pretense of "asking to come for a conversation," practitioners are deceived into coming to their offices. Immediately upon their arrival, practitioners are then taken away by "610 Office" personnel. [An agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems]

Threat of Implication to Work Units

The "610 Office" uses so-called "government documents" and requires work units who have good profits to send all employees who are Falun Gong practitioners to brainwashing centers. Work units are not permitted to refuse. Each practitioner has to pay 3,000 Yuan [the average monthly income in China is about 400-500 Yuan] as a fee to pay for their own brainwashing. In order to avoid situations where practitioners are not sent by work units to the brainwashing centers, the "610 Office" uses the "chain guarantee system." Namely, each work unit's leader must guarantee to deliver the practitioners on time to the brainwashing centers or else incur some punishment.

The units must also simultaneously leave two other employees [who are not practitioners] to accompany each practitioner and to sign a "contract." In this way, they are considered to be the "guarding personnel" who are responsible for helping to monitor and control practitioners. If the practitioners run away, the office holds the guarding personnel responsible. The "610 Office" threatens the personnel with the possibility of losing their jobs and thus forces them to directly participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Direct Arrest

Without any legal procedure, three parties, namely the police, the department of public security in the work units and the "610 Office" agents unexpectedly arrive at practitioners' residences and arrest them.

Practitioners Who are Captured All Suffer the Following Persecution:

  1. Loss of Personal Freedom
  2. Once they are arrested and locked in the brainwashing center, practitioners are monitored by police, authorities from the "610 Office" and "clampers" [people from work units who accompany and monitor practitioners all day]. The practitioners are not allowed to talk. They are subjected to solitary confinement. They are not allowed to casually walk around and are forbidden to meet family members while alone. A police officer stays nearby to monitor them.

  3. Personal Persecution
  4. At the brainwashing centers, guards first inspect the physical conditions of the kidnapped practitioners in preparation for different physical and mental tortures. For 24 hours a day, these guards take turns to "enlighten," "talk with" and "educate" those practitioners who refuse to give up their beliefs, and who persist in practicing Falun Gong. They also do not allow practitioners to sleep. This is done in the hope that practitioners will break down and write a "repentance letter" under the undue pressure when they are not in a clear state of mind.

  5. Mental Torture
  6. Except during meals, most of the time practitioners are forced to watch videos and read articles that contain fabricated rumors and slander Falun Gong. Every practitioner has to write "understandings" and "reports." If they do not meet these requirements, practitioners are not allowed to sleep. They are tormented like this every day.

  7. Implication
  8. If the kidnapped practitioners do not give up practicing Falun Gong, people from the work units who accompanied the practitioners are not allowed to go home either. Therefore, these people blame and vent their resentments toward the practitioners. This adds further pressure upon the practitioners to give up practicing Falun Gong. The captors use both persuasion and threats. Besides these, the "610" agents also go to practitioners' parents and relatives to ask them to come and "help" to coerce the practitioners. The "610" scoundrels also threaten that if the practitioners refuse to give up practicing, their children's chance to go to school will be affected, and their family members, and parents will be laid off. All this is done in order to place enormous mental pressure on the practitioners. At the same time, family members suffer severe mental stress as well.

  9. Additional Harassment

The ways the "610" personnel deal with practitioners who refuse to give in to their threats are to send practitioners directly to forced labor camp without going through any legal procedure; demand the practitioners' work units withhold their salary, or take away their jobs. They also send people to monitor the practitioners' houses. The practitioners are actually put under house arrest in disguised form as their families are harassed. They cannot live a normal life.

The illegal brainwashing classes by Xinyang City's "610" Office usually lasts for about two months for one session (after one session is over, if the practitioner remains steadfast, the term will be lengthened). Because they suffer from long-term mental torture, practitioners in the brainwashing centers become emaciated. Some of them even lose the ability to live like a normal person. The mental and physical tortures that Falun Gong practitioners withstand in the brainwashing centers are difficult to describe in words. This kind of persecution is ongoing.