So far there have been around 1000 Falun Gong practitioners detained at the Changchun Womens Re-Education Labor Camp. The government sentenced most of them, to a one-year term of forced labor. They were sentenced for so-called "disturbing social order", because since July 22, 1999, most of them went to Beijing to lodge peaceful appeals to Chinese government. The warden even said to the Falun Gong practitioners publicly, "It is hell in the human world here." Reading Falun Dafa books and doing the exercises are prohibited there. Placed under the constant surveillance everywhere in the ward, including the cells and the corridors, enforced by other inmates who do not practice Falun Gong, the Falun Gong practitioners totally lost their freedom. Whenever they were found studying the Fa (teachings of Falun Dafa) or practicing the exercises, they would be beaten and cursed at. Some practitioners were beaten so severely that bruises were all over their faces. Some other practitioners were not only beaten on their faces to the point of being swollen and lacerated, but also electrically shocked, which is harder to bear than other kinds of torture. Even under such harsh circumstances, Falun Gong practitioners have never ceased requesting a legal environment for doing their Fa study and practicing the exercises. Now let's take a look at what "hell in the human world" has done to Falun Dafa practitioners:
1. Beating
There is a criminal inmate who closely followed the wardens orders. As soon as she spotted a practitioner studying the Fa or doing the exercises, she would come up and beat the practitioner. She has become a hatchet man for the wardens. There have been many practitioners beaten by her. For example, the face and eyes of practitioner Wang Lihua, who is young and had a good-looking face before being tortured, were beaten until grayish and blackish bruises covered her face.
2. Forced confinement in a separate small cell
Practitioner Tian Xiuhua and some other practitioners were forcefully confined in a separate small cell as a punishment for doing the exercises in the camp. They were handcuffed, and not allowed to go to the dining room to eat. Instead, they could only rely on other inmates to deliver food to the cell for them. The wardens decide when a practitioner can be released from the special confinement. Some practitioners were put in the confinement for over a month. After being released from the confinement, some practitioners continued to practice the exercises. The inmates who served as the thugs of the wardens therefore tied up their hands prior to bedtime. Over a few months' time, these practitioners went to bed with their hands tied up almost everyday.
3. Strapping practitioners to iron beds
Practitioners Tian Xiuhua, Xu Gongchun, Fan Xiuyin, Wang Yan, Yang Nali, Huang Jingru and Wang Min were tied by Warden Liu to iron beds that had no bedding at all. Their heads were pushed against the bare wire nets of the iron beds. Their hands and feet were tied to the frame of the beds. No bed covering was provided for them to cover themselves with, no matter how cold the weather got. They not even allowed to be released for meals and to use the toilet. They were only allowed to be fed by fellow practitioners, while tied to the bed. They were not allowed to go to the toilet. Their urine and feces were disposed of in bed with the help of fellow practitioners. Among them, practitioners Tian Xiuhua, Fan Xiuyin and Xu Gongchun were once tied like that for over ten days before they were released from the iron beds. Practitioner Xu Gongchun had been punished by being tied to the iron bed, on three occasions, for over 10 days each time. The air in the cells is stale. The swearing and screaming at Falun Dafa practitioners by other inmates could often be heard . What was worse was that the inmates often beat the practitioners who had been strapped to the iron beds. The hands and feet of the poor practitioners were often strapped tighter and tighter by the inmates, and as a result, they were swollen with deep cuts on them. Since these practitioners were tied to the iron beds and could not turn their bodies, they were in such a pain that they could barely fall asleep throughout the whole night. After they were released from the iron beds, some experienced an unbearable pain in their arms and feet and some others could not even raise their arms in many days that followed.
4. Shocking practitioners with electric batons
The neck of practitioner Chen Ronghui was shocked by an electric baton until it started bleeding all over. When her younger brother came to visit her and asked her what happened to her neck. She said it was scratched when she was working in the prison for fear of hurting his feelings if he found out the truth. But after a closer look, her brother immediately understood what had happened to her, and he cried badly after he went home. Practitioner Liu Shumei was once shocked by two batons operated simultaneously by Warden Liu and Warden Ma. As the electric shocking went on, the wardens asked practitioner Liu to say that she would not practice Falun Gong anymore, but practitioner Liu refused. The two brutal wardens then inhumanely kept shocking her for as long as 40 minutes. She was shocked until she was bleeding all over her body. Her face was bruised and swollen. However, she silently forbore the immeasurable pain with her teeth clenched tightly and her determination for practicing Falun Dafa unchanged. What was more brutal was that one of the wardens even inserted a baton into her mouth to shock her. Her mouth was instantly severely swollen. The persecution against her has been too brutal to watch. Because of the brutality of the persecution, the jailed practitioners, trying to stop the inhumane torture to the practitioners by the wardens, launched a hunger strike. However, there was even no freedom for hunger strike in the prison. A warden said he would punish the practitioners on hunger strike by letting them experience "a hell of a life", and then carried out forced feeding on the practitioners by inserting tubes into the throats of the practitioners. Because of this, the throats of many practitioners were injured and became swollen. Some wardens even pumped the food into a practitioner, sucked it out, and then pumped it in again, just for fun. Practitioner Yang Nali used to be a policewoman (a senior-level police officer in rank) in the Weizigou Re-Education Labor Camp. She was dismissed from her job and punished by being sent to this labor camp for re-education, because she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She could not avoid being beaten and sworn at in the prison either. At one time, Warden Liu even shocked her with an electric baton for a long time, causing many places of her body to be lacerated or bruised. Practitioners Xu Gongchun, Tian Xiuhua, Huang Jingru, Han Chunyan, Chen Ronghui and Wang Min, as well as some other fellow practitioners, have been electrically shocked many times. Some practitioners skin was even shocked to the point of being burnt.
The story told here about the experiences of Falun Dafa practitioners in the labor camp is only a glance at their mistreatment. We sincerely hope that the kind-hearted people can go and read the book "Zhuan Falun" and get to know the truth of Falun Gong. By doing that, you will be able to understand why we can forbear such an inhumane torture without compromising our faith in cultivating Falun Dafa. In the meantime, we would like to tell those people who have been inhumanely torturing Falun Dafa practitioners "Please stop your vicious deeds for the sake of yourselves and your offspring. It is no joke that good will be rewarded with a good ending and that evil will be punished with a bad ending!"
Some Falun Dafa practitioners in Mainland China
Sept. 14, 2000
