(Clearwisdom.net) The Heilongjiang Province Women's Labor Camp, formerly known as the Harbin Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Center, is an interim "transformation station" set up as a provincial labor camp for the brainwashing of Falun Gong practitioners. Most of its wardens participate in the systematic persecution of practitioners.
Since its establishment several years ago, this labor camp has been active in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, forcing them to watch videos and read books slandering Falun Gong and even to give answers on their test papers that slander and defame Falun Gong. They also deprive the determined practitioners of sleep. These high-pressure tactics are ongoing. Team captain (now the warden of the labor camp) Zhang Ping, administrative department head Yang Yushan (in charge of extending prison terms), and instructor Ning Lixin have been in charge of directing police officers Niu Xiaoyun, Zhang Yushu, Liu Zhujie, Zhao Wei and Li Quanming to participate in the persecution.
In July 2002 when practitioners first entered the labor camp, they would be brought to the conference room, stripped of their clothes, and subjected to the so-called "security exam" totally naked. This was to search for Falun Gong articles written by Teacher that the practitioner might have brought and also for any money that they might have. Later on, these security examinations on the determined practitioners were carried out in front of everyone on the team.
The determined practitioners were not allowed to sleep and were subjected to intensive brainwashing until 11-12 p.m. and again at 4 a.m.. This could last as long as three months. Some practitioners who refused to co-operate would be taken to a storeroom and handcuffed to the shelves for nine days. Some practitioners who refused to recite the labor camp regulations would be required to stand with their hands cuffed to a radiator behind their backs in such a way that they could neither squat nor stand up straight, and they had no room to move their head or shoulders. After a while they would lose consciousness.
After November 12, 2002, the persecution intensified. The head of the labor camp, Chen Guiqing, made it clear that day at a meeting, "The determined practitioners must be transformed by whatever means available." After the meeting, Zhao Wei, the former general team captain and now the captain of the third team, Li Quanming, the former second team captain and now the fourth team's instructor, instructor Ning Lixin, the third team's instructor, Niu Xiaoyun, the fourth team captain, Sun Baolian, Zhang Yushu and Liu Wei personally directed the extensive persecution of the detained Falun Gong practitioners. At the same time, the police under their command, Sun Yanxiu, Liang Xuemei, Zhang Liwei and others stepped up the mental torment on those who had been brainwashed.
The police took each of the determined practitioners down to the basement, one by one, to be tortured. Their methods included the following:
Cold torture - All the windows were opened to the bitter cold winter of northeastern China, and the practitioners' coats were then removed. Some were forced to sit in an ice-cold washbasin or on the cement floor splashed with water. To prevent them from sitting normally, the police tied up their legs. Some were handcuffed to a special instrument of torture called the "iron curtain." It is extremely painful to squat on it, and one would be numb from the waist down after the handcuffs were released.
Some were humiliated by having their heads shaved. Practitioners who refused to wear the prison uniform would be tied to a metal chair for as long as 15 days. One practitioner was bound onto a metal bed a number of times for refusing to wear a chest card.
Some practitioners were forced into a tank full of water with their hands cuffed and legs bound. To prevent them from speaking to one another, the police stuffed old bags into their mouths and taped them shut. Many practitioners' mouths became swollen, ulcerated and infected, and practitioners suspected that the bags had contained a toxic substance. An unidentified particulate matter, in the shape of sesame seeds, was found in the bags.
Some practitioners, their eyes and ears taped closed, were shocked with two electrical batons for over four hours. The longest session lasted eight and a half hours, until five batons ran out of charge. The chief culprit, Zhao Wei, and police officers Wang Dan, Zhang Xu (male), Zhang Haipeng (male), Yu Kun, and Shi Yanjiang (male) took part in the persecution from the outset. The cruelest was Wang Dan, who shocked the arch of the foot, the breasts, and the genital areas of the practitioners. The methods used were mean and despicable. Zhang Xu (male) is also guilty of shocking practitioners' genital areas. (Note: Wang Dan has already received retribution; she contracted uterine cancer in 2003.)
A basin was placed on the heads of practitioners and jailed convicted felons were ordered to strike it.
Practitioners were denied any drinking water for three days. When water was given, it would be in the form of concentrated brine and forcibly poured into their mouths. Many practitioners threw up after ingesting the salt water.
Practitioners were only allowed one meal a day and not enough to eat. Later on, any practitioner who refused to comply would be shackled to a metal bed and tortured by the jailed felons. They put rags soaked with urine into the practitioners' mouths, beat them with brooms, and kicked and stamped on them.
Covering up the truth after persecuting practitioners to death: Practitioner Jiang Rongzhen, 43, from Jixi, was tortured to death in November 2002. In the basement, she endured all kinds of cruel tortures. Those who participated in the torture include the head of the labor camp Chen Guiqing, police officers Zhao Wei, Li Quanming, Ning Lixin, Sun Baolian, Niu Xiaoyun, Zhang Yushu, Liu Wei, Wang Dan and Zhang Xu. They then lied to the outside world that Jiang Rongzhen had died of heart disease.
In November 2003, practitioner Ms. Tong called out "Falun Dafa is good" on the drill ground, and was mercilessly tortured to death by police officers Liu Zhujie and Li Quanming. Practitioner Sun Xuelian from Ningan was forced to squat for seven months. Every day she was tortured from 5 a.m. to midnight and given only two meals a day. Later she went on hunger strike for two months and was subjected to the "iron chair torture," causing her serious injuries. She died in 2004 shortly after being released.
These brutal tortures filled the basement with the constant sounds of beatings, weeping and cries of misery. Some practitioners sustained paralysis of the lower limbs, while others developed numbness of their limbs and face, deterioration of their vision, and loss of teeth. Some had boils and ulcerations on their legs, resulting in the loss of tissue and deep scarring.