(Clearwisdom.net) For the last few years, innumerable crimes have been committed behind the doors of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. A large number of Falun Dafa practitioners have been illegally confined, humiliated, ill-treated, tortured and even murdered for refusing to renounce their belief in Falun Gong, a peaceful cultivation practice that the Chinese government illegally banned in 1999.
A. The following are some of the methods and abuse used by the camp officers on the practitioners:1. Lies and enticement
Normally the officers employ a "sympathetic" approach towards a newcomer to the camp. First, they display their concern and interest in the practitioner's everyday life in order to gain their trust. Then, they start to exploit the practitioner's weaknesses, telling them lies and fabricating stories about their belief, and finally they entice them with the promise of immediate release if they cooperate and give up their practice.
2. Intimidation and VictimizationIf the above technique does not work, then the officers start to intimidate the practitioner with threats, direct or veiled. First, they tell him that many people who refused to give up their belief were jailed or exiled, and that they will never see their families again. Then they also tell him that if the practitioner does not cooperate, he will be punished, and his family will also suffer as a consequence of his foolishness. To put more pressure on the practitioner, the officers start to threaten his family members, who normally beg the practitioner to give up their practice. If the practitioner still does not give in, then they will subject him to corporal punishment, confined isolation, or prolong his sentence in the labor camp.
3. Mental and Physical TortureNormally, Falun Dafa practitioners who refuse to submit are confined to long-term isolation. They will be humiliated, abused and attacked, verbally and physically, by one or more people. Physical torture is more commonly applied - the practitioners could be hung from the ceiling by their arms, forced to squat, stand or sit with legs bound, for hours at a time, during which time other inmates kick or punch them, or officers use electric batons on them. Such an ordeal could last for an entire night. Some of the practitioners went through such torture for as long as twelve days.
Every year the camp launches a campaign called "Fighting the Adamant." This year, the campaign was introduced during the three months just before the 2004 Chinese New Year, when the camp stepped up the severity of its "disciplinary action" on all of the Falun Dafa practitioners who had refused to follow commands and give up their belief. One method employed in this campaign was to force practitioners every day, from 4:50 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., to sit still on tiny stools and not allow them to move outside the half a meter square of floor space on which the stools were placed. Some were made to stay even longer. Furthermore, practitioners were made to do exercises afterwards. Failure to comply again led to harsh punishment, or their terms of sentence were extended.
Later, Masanjia Forced Labor Camp established a set of regulations to punish all Falun Dafa practitioners who failed to comply with their unreasonable orders. For practitioners who were considered to have committed a Level One order of severity, their sentence was extended by one month for every three months of their original sentence. For a Level Two order of severity, for every six months of their original sentence, their stay was extended by a month. As for the meals, practitioners were given salted vegetables and half-cooked corn flour dumplings. Drinking water was restricted, and toilet visits were allowed only twice per day.
4. Slave LaborPrior to 2005, the camp assigned Falun Dafa practitioners to handle poisonous materials without protective gloves. After a period of time, their hands were deformed from the chemicals. Every day, the camp supervisors exerted pressure on them by hurrying them to get the work done. Very often practitioners were compelled to work overtime until 9:00 p.m., even when they were ill.
Digging trenches for trees in the spring, and harvesting corn in the field in the autumn was part of the heavy manual labor. Apart from the short breaks over lunch, the supervisors constantly pressured the Dafa practitioners. By the end of the day, everyone was completely exhausted from the intense labor. Some of them were unable to eat or sleep afterwards and fell ill. One person collapsed in the field one day in 2003. During August 2004, the practitioners were bagging onions under the blazing sun. Many of them suffered heat stroke afterwards from the intense heat.
Masanjia Forced Labor Camp does not let the Dafa practitioners off lightly. Many of them had their terms extended. When it was pointed out to the officers that extension of a term was illegal according to the law, they simply replied, "I have the authority to extend your terms. You can report me if you like. Falun Dafa practitioners are under prosecution at present. No one will take notice of you. Don't waste your time."
As more and more practitioners who previously submitted under pressure have now come forward to bear witness to the crimes committed by officers at the Masanjia camp, the camp management is now beginning to worry about its hidden activities. In April 2005, to prevent the public from knowing what goes on in the camp, activities were restructured. Dafa practitioners who refused to obey orders were categorized according to the severity of the "offence." Practitioners considered Level One "offenders" were not allowed to leave their rooms. They were given low-grade meals, not allowed to hang their clothes to dry in the courtyard, and were not allowed to have visitors. All their room windows were sealed to isolate them completely from the outside. Practitioners who went on hunger strikes to protest were force-fed and injected with unknown drugs to keep them silent, or were locked up in "small-cells" if they call out, "Falun Dafa is good."
B. Cases of Persecution of Falun Dafa PractitionersFor the last several years, the cruelty of Masanjia officers towards Dafa practitioners is beyond description. The crimes committed by the officers have piled up like a mountain. The following are just a few cases of their atrocities.
1. The Persecution of Ms. Zhong Shujuan
Ms. Zhong Shujuan from Dalian was a very determined practitioner. Because of her strong faith, she was put through all sorts of suffering. During the time she was undergoing brainwashing, she was physically abused. She was humiliated, brutally beaten, and forced to listen to lies and propaganda written to slander Falun Dafa. Very often, she was deprived of sleep from four to seven days at a time. One time Ms. Zhong was locked up in a room where several people attacked her. After that, she was tied up on a long bench, and humiliated in front of the other inmates with strips of paper with negative slogans stuck all over her body.
During the 2003 autumn harvest season, Ms. Zhong was assigned to work in the cornfield. By the end of the day, she was so exhausted that she could not sleep. To revive her energy, she decided to do some meditation. However, duty officer Yang Xiaofeng saw her and locked her up in a dark and cold storeroom, with both of her arms tied up outstretched. They freed only one of her hands to let her eat during meal time. She was then deprived of sleep for seven days. When the medical examination had revealed that she was suffering from an irregular heartbeat, abnormal blood pressure and urine abnormalities, Zhong Shujuan was sent to the hospital for treatment. Seizing the opportunity to make some money, Officer Yang Xiaofeng lied to the other practitioners saying that Ms. Zhong needed money for treatment and collected money from them. The money was never returned.
On New Year's day of 2005, Falun Dafa practitioners went on a mass hunger strike, demanding to see the head officer for an unconditional release. Ms. Zhong was singled out and held down on the ground while being force-fed. She was locked up for seven days in a small cell afterwards. Despite protests from others, one male officer said, "If we don't do that, we will lose our jobs."
During the spring festival, Zhong Shujuan went on a hunger strike to protest for the second time. Again she was locked up in a small cell. When she was due to be released in April, her sentence was extended as punishment.
2. Exposure to Cold for Seven Days
During the winter of 2002, Falun Dafa practitioner Cui Yaning of Jinzhou was locked up in a small cell. The window and door of the cell were purposely kept open to catch the chilling winter wind and snow. Seven days afterwards, Mr. Cui's feet were frozen and she suffered from severe frostbite. When she was due to be released in March 2005, her sentence was extended. Previously, Cui Yaning had sent out many letters of appeal for the injustice done to Falun Dafa practitioners, and these letters were kept by the authorities as reasons for extending the term of her prison sentence.
3. Forced Feeding
Unlike the proper practice in a hospital, forced feeding in the labor camp is used more as a punishment than treatment to the victim, and is one of the most unbearable forms of torture ever applied. A tube is inserted through the practitioner's nose and liquid food is forced through the tube until it overflows from the mouth. Zhou Yuzhi, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Fushun was sent to Masanjia, where camp medical officer Chen Bing and Li Shujuan put her through four days of forced-feeding just for staging a hunger strike protest in December 2002.
Some time in June 2003, because Ms. Zhou had refused to sing songs glorifying the communist party, she was locked up in isolation, and tortured with electric needles on the face. She was beaten while suspended head down. It was under these circumstances that she was driven to a state of mental trauma.
4. Sleep Deprivation
During her stay in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, Dafa practitioner Ms. Xin Suhua was brutally attacked by the two team leaders, Zhang Xiurong and Tong Yan. Together with several other officers, they surrounded her and punched and kicked her. When they finally stopped, officer Wang Zhengli continued kicking her until Ms. Xin went completely quiet. She was locked up several times in the small cell, the longest time being for twenty days, during which she was handcuffed to a chair, and blasted with a trumpet to stop her from sleeping. As she was not allowed to use the bathroom and given only limited time to use the toilet, she had to limit her food intake. If she refused to eat, they would force-feed her. So symbolically, she took a couple of spoonfuls of food and very little water to avoid having to soil her pants. After her release from the small cell confinement, Ms. Xin's central nervous system was badly damaged - her limbs went numb and she had lost the sense of touch. She has still not recovered fully.
The above cases are but a small number of the persecution cases of Dafa practitioners at Masanjia. This camp is sinister, stained with blood and permeated with evil.
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