(Clearwisdom.net) I am astonished by the number of pieces of news about the persecution that happened at the Baoding Forced Labor Camp. Since the authorities arrested practitioner Zhuo Guibin on June 18, 2004, he has been detained at Baoding Labor Camp and is undergoing a hunger strike to protest his illegal arrest. Another report calls for the urgent rescue of two dozen practitioners who have been illegally imprisoned there, and a quick search on Clearwisdom shows that dozens of persecution cases are related to Baoding Forced Labor Camp.
It is difficult to know exactly how many practitioners are imprisoned there. Nevertheless the information available shows that up until February this year, the authorities have imprisoned over one hundred practitioners in that labor camp, including farmers, professors, private business owners, and government officials.
Among the practitioners imprisoned there, no one can escape the fate of being persecuted by the authorities who use various means of brutal torture, including brutal beatings, electric shocks, violent forced feeding, etc. For instance, they hung elderly practitioner Li Jianguo on an iron fence and beat him for ten days and nights. They did the same to practitioner Dong Hanjie for an entire month, who is a senior engineer and 51 years old. They tortured some practitioners with a few electric batons at the same time -- with as high as 200,000 volts of electricity (some practitioners lost consciousness as a result). Practitioner Feng Guoguang (the head of Xiling Town in Yi County, Hebei Province), Doctor Ma Zhanmei, and four other practitioners died of the torture of forced feeding as their lungs were damaged and bleeding.
According to an annual human rights report from the United Nations, force-feeding is a common means of torture that the Chinese labor camps use to persecute the illegally imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners who hold hunger strikes to protest. During the force-feeding, a few people hold down the victim and force a thick and dirty tube into the esophagus. They even use concentrated salt water, alcohol, or hot pepper laced liquids to purposely cause pain and damage. The process of force-feeding is very painful and it often causes suffocation and even death as a result of the stuffing of the tube into the respiratory tract and the lung. It has been confirmed that among the practitioners who died of persecution, force-feeding has caused 10% of the known deaths.
Under the extremely strict censorship by Jiang's regime of the information about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, the known cases are only a small portion of what really happened to Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Ironically, it is this "hell on earth" that was officially awarded "National First-Class Civilized" labor camp in China! While numerous Falun Gong practitioners who hold onto their belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" have been brutally persecuted, and one after another, healthy people have been tortured to death, the labor camp still displays on the top of their buildings the sign "Rigorously Follow the Law. Administer in a Civilized Manner." Is there anything else on the earth that is more absurd than this?
From what happened at the Baoding Forced Labor Camp, we can see that there is much more brutal persecution behind the scenes.
During the persecution that Jiang personally launched for his selfish consideration, maliciousness and brutality become "civilized" while compassionate and innocent people are labeled as "criminals." The traditional values, virtues, justice, kind hearts, and the best parts of the human nature are all trampled upon.
Every day the persecution cases of Falun Gong practitioners are uncovered and confirmed. Recently in June, Jiang's regime postponed, once again, the planned visit by the UN Torture Investigators to Chinese prisons and forced labor camps. This is simply confirmation and a manifestation of Jiang's fear of exposing the crimes they have been committing towards Falun Gong practitioners.
Last month, the Chinese prosecuratorial organ issued a notice to seriously investigate and prosecute five kinds of human rights violations committed by officials who exploit their powers. With numerous examples and evidence being collected and confirmed, the crimes committed by police officers and other staff members at China's numerous forced labor camps are irrefutable. Now more and more Falun Gong practitioners and their family members in China are seeking justice in various ways via legal channels -- for themselves and for their family members. They have been trying to hold accountable and punish those who have committed the crimes. Meanwhile, their anti-persecution efforts are winning more and more sympathetic hearts and support in the circles of lawyers and prosecutors. Although the criminals try to supersede the laws using their powers and using the very weapon of law, eventually they will not be able to escape punishment for their crimes, so long as more and more people uphold justice and protect the dignity of the law and innocent people.
Wang Xudong, former Secretary of the Communist Party of Hebei Province, received a court summons a week ago for his role in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. He was sued for torture and serious violations of human rights. Among nearly one thousand known cases of practitioners who died of persecution, over one hundred of them happened in Hebei Province and a dozen of them happened in Baoding City, Hebei Province. As the Secretary of the Communist Party of the province, Wang Xudong, he is certainly accountable for what he did. In addition, Jiang Zemin has been sued in six countries and regions for his major role in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, including the US, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Korea, and Taiwan.
As the persecution is still going on in China and the practitioners at the Baoding Labor Camp are holding hunger strikes to protest, we sincerely call for help from all good-hearted people. Together, let's help stop more serious tragedies.
June 27, 2004
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Category: Perspectives
