(Clearwisdom.net) Over the last few years, the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in Hebei province has been trying to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief by subjecting them to horrifying torture. The torture inflicted includes: sleep deprivation for days, shocking with 2-6 electric batons simultaneously, shocking while pouring water onto the victim, "Tying the Ropes*" [This torture can disable victims' arms in 15 minutes, so the police usually have to release the ropes within that time]; force-feeding human excrement, putting snakes inside practitioners' clothes, stabbing needles into practitioners fingertips, burying alive [victims are released when they are on the verge of dying from suffocation], stuffing used sanitary napkins into practitioners' mouths, and even hammering nails into practitioners' toes.

The Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp founded the Women's Brigade in November 2000. Although it hasn't been in existence very long, its high rate of forcing practitioners to give up their practice of Falun Dafa is well known throughout the country. Frequently, there were authorities from labor camps in surrounding areas that came to learn their techniques for breaking down Falun Gong practitioners and forcing them to renounce their belief. Many steadfast practitioners were transferred here from other forced labor camps in Shijiazhuang City, Tangshan City, and Baoding City in order to intensify the persecution against them.

About twenty Falun Gong practitioners were transferred in from Shijiazhuang City on April 8, 2001. Six of them refused to compromise with the authorities. Ms. Suzhen Cui, 61, lived in Shenze county of Shijiazhuang city. Because she went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, she was force-fed with human excrement on three separate occasions and afterwards suffered from serious diarrhea. The policemen had to send her to the Gaoyang County Hospital. The attending doctor was shocked when he found out what had happened. He pointed out that feeding a person with human excrement in that quantity can cause death in as high as 50 percent of the cases. Afterwards the policemen continued their efforts and intensified the torture against her. They continuously beat her, electrically shocked her, crushed her nipples, used pliers to pinch her flesh, and buried her in snow. In spite of the police' brutality she remained firm in her belief in Falun Dafa and never yielded to the perpetrators. Another practitioner, Ms Haiqin Liu, was an employee of the Bureau of Finance of Handan city. The policemen handcuffed her and forced her to squat for sixty hours. Meanwhile, the policemen shocked her with electric batons very frequently.

Ms. Jiaxian Song, a 39-year-old, was a practitioner from Qinglong county in Chengde city. The policemen tortured her with "Tying the Ropes" on 14 separate occasions. Being tortured with this method caused both of her shoulders to become dislocated. The policemen beat her and shocked her with electric batons repeatedly. Ms. Song went on a hunger strike for over one and half years. She never compromised with the policemen. Finally, in early September of this year, she was released.

Two practitioners, Ms. Yanxiang Xu and Ms. Longjuan Jia, were transferred here from the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labor Camp. Ms. Xu was from Shen county and Ms. Jia was from Shenze county. They were both so seriously injured by being struck with electric batons that cuts and bruises covered their bodies. Ms. Xu was even tortured with the "Tying the Ropes" three times in a single night.

*Tying the Ropes: The police tie up the practitioner with a thin rope, circle the rope around his neck, and tie his hands behind his back. Then the police would use all the force they could muster to tighten the rope. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around the body of the practitioner, and makes it more and more difficult for him to breathe. The pain is so intense that the practitioner sometimes loses control of his bladder. There are instances when the rope was tightened enough to break a practitioner's arm.

2003-11-21