(Clearwisdom.net)

We are a group of average citizens in Chongqing City. The Falun Dafa practitioners who we personally know all began practicing Falun Dafa because they wanted to improve their morality and have better health. True practitioners do not commit crimes, such as robbery, arson or murder, nor do they go to prostitutes or gamble. Practitioners do not take advantage of other people, and they do not compete for fame, profit or power. What practitioners develop is a higher moral standard. We do not understand why the authorities want to conspire against Falun Dafa. Throughout society, Falun Dafa practitioners are widely recognized as good people. Why do the authorities force them from their jobs, slander their names, arrest them and send them to forced-labor camps? How many families are deprived of happiness and peace by coerced divorces or separations? Why is this happening? The practitioners go to the Central Government to appeal and to try to reason with them with calm and compassionate hearts; they never cause trouble or endanger anyone. Yet, they are arrested and first sent to detention centers, then to brainwashing classes and eventually, they are sent without cause to a forced labor camp such as the Xishanping Forced-Labor Camp. Upon entering the forced-labor camp, the practitioners lose all their civil rights, even their right to live; they suffer all kinds of brutal tortures!

Forced-Labor Camp Guards Torture People to Death At Will

The guards of the Xishanping Forced-Labor Camp viciously torture the innocent, illegally imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. In November 2000 they established the so-called "Education Team" and the "Strict Control Group." Both exist to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. The number of guards in the Strict Control Group has increased from 10 to 30, and they asked other inmates, who were guilty of fighting, swindling or using drugs, to "help" and "monitor" practitioners. At first, three inmates were assigned to seven practitioners. Then, the ratios became one to one, two to one, and now, even four inmates monitor one practitioner. Under 24-hour surveillance, the practitioners are prohibited from doing the exercises, reading Falun Dafa books and talking. They are not allowed to have paper or pens. The monitors even follow practitioners when they use the toilet.

Far worse, practitioners have been tied up, handcuffed, hung up, beaten, deprived of food, force-fed, locked in dark rooms, and been given excruciating workloads and working hours.

[Note: Illustrations of some of the following torture descriptions can be found at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html and http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/2/3/18368.html]

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Just two examples of the torture:

One involves locking practitioners in dark, wet and vermin-infested rooms. The rooms are so dark that the practitioners can't see their own fingers. Approximately one-inch of water covers the stone floors, and the practitioners can hardly sleep there. Rats, centipedes and poisonous snakes are frequently present. Many practitioners have died while locked in these cells.

Dafa practitioner Han Yiming was locked in such a room for seven days. Kang Hong was imprisoned in one of these rooms for three days and three nights; inside he was shackled so that he could not move. The guards would not even unshackle Kang when he had to relieve himself, giving him no choice but to excrete in his pants. Three days later, when other practitioners were permitted to take him from the room, his limbs had begun to decay.

A second example of torture is handcuffing and binding. Practitioners are handcuffed to windows or bars, in bent positions in which they can neither stand nor sit. This usually lasts for several days, and their wrists bleed because of the prolonged friction. Binding is to tightly tie a person or even hang the person up. To make it tighter and more excruciating, the guards slip a stick into the ropes and twist it again and again so that the ropes cut deeply into the flesh. Those who were tortured with binding felt numb and cold in their arms for several months; some practitioners became disabled due to this type of torture. Dafa practitioners Kang Hong, Li Xiangdong, Han Yiming, Zhang Quanliang, Zhou Jian, Chen Jian, Li Chunyuan and Meng Xuetao are just a few of the practitioners that we know who have endured this type of torture. Several dozen others were severely harmed or disabled. This is why we are telling you about how forced-labor camp guards torture practitioners to death at will.

"Gates of Death"

The forced-labor camp is like a hell, and people have to go through the "Gates of Death" before entering hell. Going through the gates of death feels akin to peeling your skin, and one usually loses several pounds. Even though practitioners' determination to protect Falun Dafa remains unshakable, they still suffer greatly. The gates of death consist of the living gate, the ruling gate, the laboring gate and the brainwashing gate. The first three gates apply to all inmates, but Falun Gong practitioners are required to go through a special gate of mental torture, the brainwashing gate. Now, we will explain the four gates separately:

1. Living Gate - this can be expressed in one word "starvation." People are not provided with enough food and are kept in a state of starvation for a long time in order to weaken their bodies, minds and will power.

According to the rules, each inmate is given 100 Yuan for monthly living expenses. [The average monthly income of an urban worker is 500 Yuan. Prisoners must purchase their own supplies and food.] From this meager sum, the police skim 25 Yuan. According to the rules, meat should be provided twice a week, but even if they do serve meat, they use the cheapest meat from sick pigs. The amount of meat in a meal is so little that you can hardly see it, so the guards serve it as ground meat mixed in with small portions of Tofu or rice noodles. Thus, the inmates can barely sustain themselves, and on the blackboard one can frequently see the words "Hungry! Hungry! Hungry!" In one instance, inmates raided the kitchen. Dozens of prisoners rushed in and grabbed whatever food they could find. The police came and beat them with batons, but no matter how hard they flailed at them, the inmates kept swallowing, finishing everything within a few moments. They would have rather have died from the beatings than from starvation.

If people are too hungry, they occasionally will buy an "extra dish" at a very high premium. An extra dish is 10 Yuan each, even though inmates can barely find a few morsels of meat in it. Sometimes the police sell their leftovers for 10 Yuan each, and beer for 5 Yuan. (The market price for beer is 2 Yuan.) The food portions for the Falun Gong practitioners who are monitored by the "Strict Control Group" are only half the amount of the other inmates, and no extra dish is allowed, so their suffering is doubled. This is the first of the demon gates.

2. Ruling Gate - sadistic beatings and torture. People are frequently pummeled until they are half dead. The police punish people by making them stand for several hours, more than 10 hours, or even overnight. They swear at them, punch and kick them whenever they wish to. The team leader and group leader take turns directing the beatings, while their subordinates recklessly abuse practitioners and other inmates. They have also directed the general inmates to beat practitioners. Police Officer Chen Junfeng told the "monitoring" inmates, "I order you to hit their [Falun Gong practitioners] mouths with the bottoms of your shoes." Their "rules" are maintained with brutal beatings. The guards and monitors will beat practitioners for any reason: being late for the morning run or head count, walking too slow, not wearing a labor suit or secretly practicing Falun Gong exercises.They brutally beat those who dare to participate in group practice. Besides beating, there are many other tortures, such as binding. The camp officials call it "ruling with the law." This is the ruling gate.

3. Intensive Labor - Practitioners were forced to do backbreaking, hard labor for an extended period of time. They were even forced to work up to over 20 hours a day and they also were not given enough food to eat. Injuries that occurred while working were frequently due to exhaustion. The Jewelry Workshop and the Glass Factory (currently where the Education Brigade is) were nicknamed "Devil's Place" due to the high number of accidents that occurred there. The police would blame inmates whenever an accident happened for either violating operational procedures or intentionally inflicting injuries to themselves to avoid "reformation through forced labor." Some inmates were unable to endure the tortures any longer and attempted to escape. Once these people were caught, they were subjected to brutal beatings.

Practitioners used will power and higher level thinking to endure the above three different cruel, brutal maltreatments. No matter how hungry the practitioners became, none of them resorted to fighting for food; no matter how they were tortured, they would never hit back when beaten, nor did they curse back when they were cursed. The most difficult thing for the practitioners to endure was being restricted from reading Dafa books and being forced to write the "three statements" (statement of guarantee, statement of repentance, and statement of renouncement) against their will.

4. Brainwashing - All means were employed to try and force practitioners to write the "statement of guarantee" (promise not to practice Falun Gong), "statement of repentance" (admission of guilt) and "statement of renouncement" (promise to break all connections with Falun Gong). Those who refused to comply were sent to the "strict class," where they were not allowed to eat or sleep and they were forced to do hard labor. Refusal to write the "three statements" resulted in an extension of terms in the forced labor camp for either 3, 6, or 8 months. A policeman said, "If you do not change your mind, you will be sentenced to lifetime imprisonment." Tian Qin, the head of the educational department, said to practitioners many times at meetings, "You will never be able to walk out of Xishanping (forced labor camp) without writing the statements. If I don't do this, I will be fired." And this was what they did. Many practitioners' terms have been extended time and time again for holding true to the principals of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.

The Xishanping Forced-Labor Camp has set up an "Education Brigade" to be responsible specifically for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. They divided the captive practitioners into three categories: "lenient treatment," "general treatment," and "harsh treatment" in an attempt to sway Falun Gong practitioners' faith. The policemen are entitled to a bonus in connection with the number of practitioners they were responsible for. The so-called "assistants" (inmates who help to persecute practitioners) get term reductions in connection with their "results" in persecuting the practitioners. Every policeman working at the forced labor camp is responsible for certain numbers of practitioners. When these policemen are unable to get them to cooperate, practitioners are subjected to harsher treatment. The means that the vicious policemen use to torture practitioners gets continuously more inhumane.

Twenty-four-year-old practitioner Li Zetao was denied food and sleep and was subjected to brutal torture simply because he refused to write the "three statements." He was also forced to carry manure (from one place to another) 100 times a day. Whenever the policemen had a chance they would ask Li if he would continue to practice and if he would write the "three statements." When Li answered that he would continue to practice and that he would not sign the "three statements," they would then beat him severely. Other practitioners like Yuan Yugang, Zhang Zhengwei, Wu Deqiang, and Liu Minghua had similar experiences.

The brutal treatment of the practitioner was unable to shake their firm belief in the principles of Falun Gong: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. In spite of the inhumane treatment they received in the forced labor camp, many practitioners continued to practice and expose the crimes committed by the police. Practitioners Gu Jiushou, Zhang Quanliang, Lin Decai, Huang Guangmin, Cao Xianlu, Li Hongfu, Wang Guangning, Zhang Zhengwei, Bai Tianshi, Wu Qun, and Yan Xingpei were all subjected to harsh treatments for their steadfast effort to safeguard Dafa and expose the evilness of the persecution. These practitioners were forced to stand for extended periods of time, were denied food, and were brutally beaten for several months.

The guards tortured 67-year-old Yan Xingpei severely simply because he declared that the "three statements" he was previously forced to sign were null and invalid.

Practitioners Huang Guangming and Cao Xianlu have received continuous torture. Currently, their whereabouts are unknown.

Practitioner Li Hongfu has suffered multiple internal injuries as a result of being beaten continually. He is currently out on bail for medical treatment.

Practitioner Bei Tianshi had a concussion as a result of the beatings he received and also would frequently become unconscious and fall to the ground.

Practitioner Wang Guangning is severely disabled as a result of the torture he endured.

On August 12, 2000, practitioners Zhang Yougao, a professor from Chongqing University, and Tian Yicheng were meditating on the bed in their cell when suddenly the police dragged them to an office and shackled them both to the radiator. Other practitioners went there in an attempt to reason with the guards and demanded the right to practice and the release of the two practitioners. The police ignored this. In the morning when there was a roll call for breakfast, dozens of practitioners put down their bowls and chopsticks and sat in a circle to meditate, which shocked the guards on duty. The guards called to report to their authorities, and in the meantime, asked a few policemen and dozens of "assistants" to beat up the practitioners. They grabbed practitioners' arms, legs, and even their genitals and dragged them inside. When the practitioners continued to practice inside, they were then dragged outside to receive beatings. When the higher-level officials arrived, instead of stopping the guards from beating the practitioners they cursed and yelled at them. Tian Qin, the Head of the Education Brigade, punched, kicked, and cursed practitioners. Practitioner Gu Jiushou, a lecturer from Chongqing University, pointed out that instead of implementing the law, they were breaking it. He asked them, "Are you aware of the laws of jails? Policemen are not allowed to beat the inmates nor encourage other people to beat them. In addition, we are not criminals. I will take you to court. I will not take your "assistants" to the court, because you are the ones who gave the orders."

Liu Yalin, a 50-year-old practitioner and retired soldier has been resisting the persecution of Falun Gong with silence. No matter how the police or the "assistants" cursed at him or beat him, he did not say a word. He only kept his eyes closed. Once, a team leader named Xu thought he was unconscious so he decided to pour water on him and drag him outside to a tree. He called for a rope to hang Liu Yalin onto the tree to show everybody. When they were unable to find a rope, they used bamboo sticks and heavy leather shoes to beat him. When Liu continued to resist the persecution with silence, they dragged him to another tree in the back courtyard and forced him to put his arms around the tree and then shackled his hands together. Some other practitioners that were shackled onto the same tree were 58-year-old Bai Tianshi from Wangjiang Factory, Gu Jiushou, and Lin Decai. In particular, Gu Jiushou's term had been extended for another year for speaking up against the evils committed by the people working at Xishanping Forced-Labor Camp. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

On August 28, 2000, practitioners again demonstrated their courage and had another group practice with even more participants than the previous time. The police felt that they needed to resort to more brutal means in order to suppress the practitioners. They then used electric batons to shock practitioners; one could see the sparks coming out of the electric batons and smell the burning flesh.

Practitioner Wang Guangning, a teacher from Beipei Jianshan Secondary School, was shackled to an iron bar by the office for several days, unable to either sit or stand.

In the Education Brigade, in order to force Falun Dafa practitioners to write the "three statements," the guards employed means to defame Falun Dafa similar to those used during the Cultural Revolution such as Big Posters, Blackboard Newspapers, Huge Banners, and Loudspeakers. They thought that these tactics would pressure them to "admit to guilt or repent." To their surprise, practitioner Tian Yicheng stepped forward and demanded that the banner be taken down. When the police did not budge, practitioner Luo Yunfeng tore it down. Practitioner Wang Jianming also tore the wire for the loudspeaker and Zhang Jianfeng and many other practitioners wiped the articles that defamed Falun Dafa off the blackboard many times. As a result of protecting the name of Falun Dafa, they were brutally beaten by the policemen and their "assistants." In addition to protesting to the police, practitioners also wrote to the Central Government to file a complaint. However, the police didn't show any signs of reducing their persecution. Instead, they looked for the person who took the initiative in writing the letter and tried to prosecute him with "sabotaging legal facilities" and being "anti-government." For this, on September 20, 2000, 36 Falun Gong practitioners went on a hunger strike. Three days later, the police led a group of "assistants" to force-feed practitioners, inserting tubes into their noses until they were torn or swollen. They then used chopsticks to force open practitioners' mouths until their teeth loosened and fell out and their mouths tore and ulcerated. Practitioner Han Yiming, an art teacher of Xinan Normal University, went on a hunger strike for 21 days. For appealing, he was tied to the bed with a tube inserted in his nose so the villains could force-feed him whenever they wanted.

The news that Falun Gong practitioner, Li Zetao was tortured to death and others, including Yuan Yugang and Zhang Yuwei, were injured had been tightly blockaded. Four months later, the information was verified. Falun Gong practitioners strongly requested to find out the murderers and to hold a memorial meeting for the practitioners who had been tortured to death, but were turned down.

On September 19, practitioners went on a hunger strike again to protest. This time, the police took the advantage of force-feeding to carry out retaliatory ruthless tortures. Previously, they did force-feeding once every other day or at most once a day. This time, no matter day or night, they took turns ceaselessly force-feeding the practitioners, whose noses were injured and extremely painful due to the frequent intubations. Even the request of switching to the other nostril for intubations was rejected. The jail doctor, Chen Jianping fiercely said, "I'm not going to listen to you. I'll do intubations however I choose."

Falun Gong practitioners peacefully opposed these tortuous actions against them with different means. Some means included kindly clarifying the truth, questioning, appealing, or keeping silent. They have suffered through so many abuses and violent beatings, but they never "fight back when being beaten or insulted." Mr. Tian Yicheng is a very good martial artist. He never retaliated once against those who beat him so cruelly that he was injured to disability. Even his martial arts students were indignant about how he was treated. What mighty tolerance he displayed!

On September 19 practitioners went on hunger strike, and they also refused to wear the prison uniforms, as they are not criminals. They refused to go out for drill, nor to number off or answer the roll call--- they opposed silently. Later, they felt that completely remaining silent would not be good to clarify the truth about Falun Gong, so they decided to say two sentences everyday: At 8 a.m. every morning when all inmates congregate, the one on duty shouts: "Dress Right! Look Forward!" As soon as the word "Look" was spoken, all practitioners shouted together: "Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa!" During the night roll call, when practitioners were demanded to say: "Hello, Cadre!" they instead responded with: "Falun Dafa is good!" They have persisted in doing this everyday for 3 months. When policemen individually talked with them, practitioners would kindly explain to them the relationship between cause and effect, about rewards for good and retribution for evil. They told the policemen that Falun Gong was truly good and they persisted in practicing it because this was their beliefs and that they did not have the intention to fight against the policemen. They also quoted Teacher's words: "We are not against the government now, nor will we be in the future. Other people may treat us badly, but we do not treat others badly, nor do we treat people as enemies" ("A Brief Statement of Mine"). Through such kind of conversations, they explained many facts and some of the policemen were also moved.

People are awakening

Jiang's regime has imposed many groundless accusations against Falun Gong. It has sentenced tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners to forced labor "re-education" camps and jails and made them homeless. There are still a number of people who find it hard to believe the government's propaganda; however, people's eyes are discerning, and for certain matters, they are just forced to keep their resentment to themselves. As time goes on, more and more people are awakening. Below are some stories witnessed or heard in the labor camp, which can demonstrate this:

1. There is a common recognition about Falun Gong practitioners reflected from conversations in the labor camp; namely, Falun Gong practitioners are recognized as people who contributed positively in their workplaces or in their neighborhoods no matter what Jiang's regime say about them. Although the Jiang regime imposes many fabricated accusations against Falun Gong, people who learn about Falun Gong from their own experiences are still able to question some of the government officials' sayings and actions.

2. Professor Zhang Yougao of Chongqing University is now in his 60s. He has made quite a lot of contributions to the country in his scientific research area. Simply for persistently practicing Falun Gong he was sent to the labor camp and subjected to heavy labor in addition to the so-called "re-education." Following orders, his former Party branch wanted to expel him from the Party and held a discussion among all Party members in the branch about this issue. None of the attendees agreed with this. They said if a Party member as good as Professor Zhang would be expelled, then none of them were qualified for the membership.

3. Practitioner Tian Yicheng had previously practiced martial arts. He hardly found any match even among the experts. He had taught many students. After practicing cultivation and holding Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance as the fundamental principle, he never again hit others. In the forced labor camp, he had been subject to a long-term "strict surveillance." He was tortured so badly that he became disabled and had to take medication while outside the labor camp on bail. Learning that he suffered such tortures, one after another, his students wanted to take revenge for him. But he persuaded his students to be kind and tolerant. His response was highly and widely praised.

4. The labor camp used the real criminals to assist policemen to watch and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The criminals were given the title of "Assistant Re-educators." But because some of the "assistant re-educators" spent a lot of time with practitioners, they were thus moved by practitioners' noble and virtuous words and deeds. During the process of assisting with the "re-education," they tried to protect practitioners in secret. The policemen tried to make people believe that they had been bribed by the practitioners. This occurrence shows that the majority of people still have goodness in their hearts. Falun Dafa teaches the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and therefore will certainly receive many people's true recognition and will arouse strong sympathies.

5. The criminal inmates do not echo what the propaganda says; instead, they really want to learn more about Falun Gong. Once when practitioners were reciting Teacher's articles, one inmate was also able to recite part of it. Below is part of the dialogue.

Question: "Have you learned Falun Gong before?"

Answer: "No. I only knew about Falun Gong after I was sent here, to the labor camp."

Question: "Could you also recite our Teacher's articles?"

Answer: "I've read your Teacher's articles and I have some of them now with me."

Question: "Where did you get the articles?"

Answer: "From searching your fellow practitioners' bodies."

Question: "Didn't you hand them in to the policemen?"

Answer: "If they (policemen) saw it, I then handed them in; otherwise I would just keep them with me."

Question: "Why didn't you turn them in?"

Answer: "They (police) often asked us to criticize Falun Gong, but dare not read us the original articles. Out of curiosity, I would like to know what they say."

Question: "How do you feel after reading them?"

Answer: "Some issues are explained very well and I could instantly understand. Some of the issues are beyond my understanding."

Question: "Could you please return those articles to us?"

Answer: "No, I can't"

Question: "Why not?"

Answer: "You said that Falun Gong is good, but I won't accept it blindly; the government says it is not good, I will not echo either. I need to read them myself and make a conclusion. When I get out of here, I would like to read all of your Teacher's books. I will give my opinion after reading them."

This was part of a dialogue that was quite meaningful. This dialogue occurred in a tightly guarded labor camp. Many people do not want to blindly follow the government; they want to make their own decisions and learn about the truth of Falun Gong.

6. Police also admit that Falun Gong practitioners have good character. The police of the forced-labor camp followed orders to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. There were some policemen who understood in their hearts that Falun Gong practitioners are innocent. They had to admit that practitioners all have good character: they do not smoke, nor drink or gamble and they never speak dirty words.

All the facts demonstrate that Falun Gong practitioners are good people. No one is able to change the objective facts. Although the official radio stations, TV stations and newspapers have been producing so much propaganda to deceive people, and a large number of practitioners are imprisoned or sent to forced labor camp, in fact, the intelligent and thoughtful Chinese people who have gone through many political movements are not so easily deceived. People are awakening. The truth of Dafa will be eventually shown and those who persecute Falun Gong will be definitely tried and punished.