(Clearwisdom.net) More than 100 Dafa practitioners are presently detained at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province.
In September 2006, the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp "borrowed" a gang of guards from several other places. These guards colluded with the local Masanjia female guards to torture, using excruciating means, the Dafa practitioners who refused to be "reformed."
The guards handcuffed Dafa practitioners to two metal beds, stretching their hands as much as possible in the process. Some Dafa practitioners' hands were bound to their calves, forcing them to bend down without the ability to stand straight or sit down. Over time this is extremely painful, as all the body's weight is concentrated on the handcuffed positions. The guards threatened the practitioners, saying "No guarantee statement -- no eating or sleeping!" The guards would come in from time to time and demand, "Will you write the guarantee statement?" If the answer was still "no," the guards would extend the distance between the two metal beds, causing more severe pain. This would make the practitioners tremble uncontrollably and their bodies would become soaked with sweat. Some practitioners developed large blisters where they were handcuffed, which eventually broke and oozed fluid. Some practitioners were handcuffed for several days and nights; others for weeks. When practitioners began to lose consciousness from this torture, the guards would beat and curse them, or poke their armpit with their fingers. The abusers pried some practitioners' mouths open and force-fed them unknown drugs.
In those days painful screams as well as shouts of "Falun Dafa is good" and the sound of beating and guards' cursing could be heard from time to time in the corridor. Some Dafa practitioners continually clarified the truth to the guards.
In October, Masanjia's "First Camp" was disbanded. More than 700 common detainees were transited to the "Second Women's Camp," where the Dafa practitioners are illegally detained. Now Dafa practitioners are forced to get up at 4:30 a.m. and begin manual labor at 5:00 a.m. Sometimes they have to work until 10:00 p.m. or even later, for failing to finish the assigned quota on time. The work days are 14 to 15 hours long, not counting the time for meals and a brief noontime break. Some practitioners have to do heavy labor, such as unloading grain and hauling out garbage. Some are forced to make cotton clothes, peel garlic and do handwork alongside the criminal detainees in the workshop. Some are made to dig the ground in snowy weather. Their detention times are often extended if they disobey any orders.
Some Dafa practitioners experienced huge mental and physical stress after they gave in to forcible "reform."
One day in November 2006, Dafa practitioners shouted together, "Falun Dafa is good!" This shocked the persecutors and expressed the practitioners' determination to continue to practice and uphold Falun Dafa.
The persecution conditions in different divisions of Masanjia are as follows:
Workshops: Forced labor begins before 6:00 a.m. and lasts until after 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. However, after Dafa practitioners' continuous anti-persecution and non-cooperation activities, some divisions have stopped this kind of persecution and some divisions have alleviated this persecution. Some divisions decide whether practitioners work or not. When practitioners are forced to work, they have to be in the workshop, can't move around, and are monitored there by the common detainees.
The cells: Those Dafa practitioners who are incarcerated in the cells are forbidden to go out or visit other cells. The door has to be locked. Except for family visits and going to the camp convenience store, practitioners cannot leave the building for months. Whether it is in workshops or cells, they are monitored -- sometimes secretly -- by common detainees whom the guards have designated. These detainees report everything they see, even trifles, to the guards.
Visitation Office: For monthly visits, it takes the family members of Dafa practitioners at least one hour, sometimes up to three or four hours, to fulfill the difficult and time-consuming procedures at the visitation office, camp wards, and camp administration section; however, it only takes half an hour for common detainees' families. Furthermore, Dafa practitioners can only visit family through the telephone, the excuse being that regulations from the provincial bureau only permit telephone visits for Falun Gong practitioners. The monitoring guards listen in during the conversations. Whenever they hear topics about Falun Gong or other content they deem "sensitive" they immediately give a warning or cut the visiting time short. Dafa practitioners are forbidden to accept anything their visitors bring for them, including fruit.
The Strictly Controlled Team: There are ten small confinement cells and two big Strictly Controlled rooms in this area, with a monitor in each room. Between the end of 2003 and the end of 2004, during the most savage persecution period, Dafa practitioners refused to do forced labor and continued practicing and studying the Fa. Twenty practitioners were locked up in the Strictly Controlled cells or Strictly Controlled rooms numerous times; the longest time lasted nearly three months. Only two daily meals were provided: corn porridge and pickles for breakfast, and corn porridge and wotou (a kind of Chinese steamed bread made of corn or sorghum) for dinner. Strictly controlled persons cannot move about, except for going to the toilet. The persecution tactics include beating, cursing, other corporal punishment (forcible sitting for over 10 hours every day, with one leg bent and one leg stretched, for fear of Dafa practitioners' practicing meditation); "stick crossing" (to position a stick from one sleeve to another to make the Dafa practitioners unable to practice the exercises); forcing practitioners to wear handcuffs, shackles, and other torture devices; and electric shocks from electric batons.
The Prison Hospital: Dafa practitioners who are on a hunger strike to protest the persecution would be force-fed at this hospital every day starting on the fourth day of their hunger strike. They are initially force-fed twice daily and sent then back to the labor camp. Practitioners are hospitalized if their hunger strike lasts longer than seven days. The persecutors fasten practitioners' four limbs to a bed. The nasal feeding tube is kept inserted 24 hours a day. The labor camp personnel then force-feed the practitioners with milk powder and salt three to four times daily. Some prisoners working in the hospital, urged by the guards or by head prisoners, or of their own choosing, would put in too much salt and roughly push the tube in and out of the nasal cavities of the practitioners so as to torture them. Some prisoners will tightly clutch the hands, feet and head of the practitioners who refuse to cooperate with the brutal force-feeding and wildly beat them.
From the end of 2003 to August 2006, nearly 20 practitioners were persecuted by force-feeding dozens of times. Several practitioners died as a result of abuse at Masanjia. Practitioner Zhou Zhi died as a result of persecution in August 2004, Sun Qian in March 2005, Wu Yuan in December 2003, and Guan Wenjiang in August 2004.
The Camp Convenience Store: Shopping at the convenience store is under the team leaders' regulations. Usually the practitioners locked in cells have to ask the team leaders' permission to go buy necessities, or they have to follow other detainees to the workshop and then follow those who go to the store to buy things. Sometimes the team leaders refuse to take practitioners to the store, which would cause some practitioners to have no access to the shop for months, creating much difficulty in their daily life.
Telephone calls: According to nationwide labor camp regulations, each detainee is permitted a monthly phone call home. Some Dafa practitioners, however, haven't been permitted to make a phone call for over six months. For others, even though they made the formal request to call home, the guards required an "application" and thus delayed the time. Some were given a short time-limit when calling home, and the guards monitored their conversations.
Searching the cells: Dafa practitioners often face cell searches by division guards, special guards (prison administrators) and armed policemen. The divisions conduct searches in the cells periodically or randomly, but particularly before holidays. As has been reported, most of Master Li's articles were confiscated by these targeted searches. The guards would stand by and make the common prisoners search the cells, or sometimes the guards would search in person. The special guards, however, patrol the cells every day and do instant searches upon finding any new signs. The armed policemen search before holidays and in specific cases. To negate this form of persecution, some Dafa practitioners went to the guards to ask for Master Li's articles back and clarified the truth to the guards; others went on a hunger strike and some tried to take the confiscated articles from the hands of the guards directly, but the result was a savage beating or strict constraints.
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