(Minghui.org) Chinese Communist Party officials are working closely with the Shanghai Municipal Committee and the 610 Office to arrest Falun Gong practitioners from different districts and counties in Shanghai, and then taking them to the Shanghai Third Forced Labor Camp in the Qingpu District. Practitioners are put in the strict control team, where guards brutally beat and torture them in an attempt to get them to renounce their belief.

This labor camp has been used to torture practitioners for thirteen years, and the crimes committed there have been exposed many times on the Minghui website.

Brutal treatment

When a practitioner is first detained in the strict control team, three inmates and one guard inform the practitioner of the rules and regulations. They do not allow or limit the time for washing, use of the toilet, and drinking water. Practitioners are sometimes only allowed one small cup of drinking water a day during the hot summer, and those who do not cooperate with the guards are not allowed to drink any water. A person's basic needs are used as ways to persecute them.

Sometimes, practitioners are forced to sit or stand in unnatural positions near the toilet for over 17 hours a day, and are beaten while holding that position. For those who resist, their heads are pushed in the toilet and sometimes chamberpots are hung around their necks. Practitioners' meal portions are often very small as well. Under these grueling conditions, with the threat of starvation, beatings and torture, guards try to force practitioners to renounce their belief.

Mentally abused

Practitioners are forced to spend long periods of time reading, watching and listening to slanderous propaganda about Falun Gong. If someone refuses to comply, they are dragged in front of the TV, beaten and their heads are pulled back to face the TV. For those who close their eyes, needles or bamboo sticks are used to hold their eyes open. The volume is also turned to the maximum, and practitioners who try not to listen have their ears pulled and hit. Some practitioners have lost their hearing as a result of the beatings. After the brainwashing sessions, practitioners are forced to write reports about their thoughts on Falun Gong.

Guards and inmates verbally abuse practitioners and deprive them of sleep, leaving them feeling dizzy and nauseous. When practitioners are physically and mentally exhausted and unable to get up, they are dragged to the brainwashing sessions. Oftentimes practitioners are on the verge of mental collapse. Inmates who cooperate with the guards and actively assist in the persecution can receive reductions to their prison terms.

Physically tortured

Practitioners who remain firm in their belief are severely beaten. If they try to yell out, socks, rags or dirty towels would be stuffed into their mouths and sealed with tape. Guards and inmates use cigarette lighters to burn a practitioner's chin, hair and soles of their feet, and cigarettes butts are stubbed out on the body to burn their skin, and bamboo sticks are used to stab and pierce their fingers and palms.

Guards are given quotas and targets of how many practitioners they must get to renounce their belief, and they receive bonuses if their targets are met.

When a practitioner goes on hunger strike to protest their persecution, they are tied down with their arms and legs spread out, so that they cannot move. A thick rubber tube is then inserted up their nose or down their throat and into the stomach. They are then force-fed through the tube while being beaten about the body. Some practitioners who refuse to renounce their belief have died as a result of torture.

The authorities constantly harass practitioners' families, frightening and intimidating them. Some couples have gotten divorced because of this, and families have been torn apart.

Even in this vicious environment, practitioners still try to explain the facts about Falun Gong to those who are harming them, and try to awaken their conscience.