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The Violence in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp Could not Change My Righteous Faith

February 13, 2003 |  

January 22, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net) I am a Dafa practitioner who was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor in 1999, for going to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. I hereby disclose to the public the persecution my fellow practitioners and I have suffered.

In the local forced labor camp we were forced to do heavy labor during the daytime, and handcraft work in the evenings, until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. We were only allowed 3-4 hours sleep every day, sometimes no sleep at all. Due to the long-term abuse we suffered, sometimes my brain felt numb and I would nearly pass out while sitting there. I almost collapsed several times in the restrooms. My ankles and feet were swollen. Some elderly practitioners' legs were swollen all the way up to their thighs. They could not wear any shoes except for slippers. The guards said, "This is exactly the effect we want. If you cannot bear it, you have to write the "three statements." (Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write statements as proof that they have given up their belief. The "three statements" consist of a letter of repentance for having practiced Falun Gong, a guarantee to never again practice Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.)

Dafa practitioner Ms. Wang Dong who is currently illegally imprisoned in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp was confined in a solitary compartment for reciting Teacher's articles. She was provided only two meals a day with very little food each time, not allowed to use the restroom, and not even permitted to have a blanket for sleeping. Her hands were separately cuffed on iron bars while she was forced to squat on the floor. In the evenings, both hands were cuffed behind her on the iron bars while sleeping on the freezing floor. Though she was very weak, the police still shocked her with electric batons until she collapsed on the floor.

Practitioner Lu Yanying, currently illegally imprisoned in Dabei Prison in Shenyang City with a 9-year term wrote a letter signed by all Dafa practitioners, requesting the release of Wang Dong. As a result, Ms. Lu Yanying suffered cruel persecution. She was first cuffed with hands behind her back and then locked in an upstairs freezing cold storage room. Her hands were cuffed onto the heating pipe. Division Chief Sun Aiqin and a male guard, Bian, beat and kicked her, then they pinched her face very hard. They also used a freshly recharged, high voltage electric baton to shock her genital area, nose and mouth. Her head was slammed onto the heating pipe and bled heavily. The thugs did not stop torturing her until they saw that she was losing too much blood. They sent her to the medical center where she was casually bandaged. Then the guards locked her up in a cold empty room. When we saw her early the next morning, we could barely recognize her. Her slim face was swollen and covered with bruises. In addition, her face was full of huge blisters from the electric shocks.

Dafa practitioner Kou Xiaokun, currently illegally imprisoned in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, was reported when reading Teacher's lectures. The division chief tried to force her to eat the paper. Two officers pressed her onto a table and shocked her face with an electric baton. In the meantime they tore the papers from Teacher's lectures into pieces and shoved them into her mouth.

Practitioner Hu Ying, currently illegal imprisoned in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp expecting a long sentence term, was confined in a solitary compartment during the steaming hot days of summer. There were no windows in that room, but only several slits in the wall for ventilation. The police also intentionally shut the only door tightly. She was provided only two meals a day with less than enough food. She had to use the toilet inside that room for a limited number of times each day and was also not allowed to brush her teeth, take a bath, or change clothes. As a result, she suffered heat rash all over her body, and the area of her body where she had been severely beaten began to fester due to the unsanitary and humid climate.

In order to force us to give up our belief, the guards exhausted all kinds of brutal tortures when abusing us. But we Dafa practitioners have our Teacher and the Fa in our hearts all the time. We all remembered sincerely that Teacher told us to never retaliate in kind when facing conflict.

In 2000, because I was firm in my belief in Dafa, the police sent me to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp for further persecution. At that time, Masanjia illegally imprisoned several hundred Dafa practitioners. On my first day there, the police said, "This is the 'transformation' base [brainwashing center], an enforcement organization. Once you are here, whether or not you want to, you have to be transformed [brainwashed]; it is not up to you any more."

Ever since I went there, two inmates were assigned to watch me 24 hours a day. I even had to sleep in between the two of them. I was not allowed to talk to anyone, even if I saw anyone I knew. I could not even look around freely. If I didn't follow the rules I would be beaten mercilessly. Every night I had to stay up until after midnight to listen to the brainwashing. One day, when I refused to read the materials slandering Dafa, Dai, the team leader of the 2nd Team in 4th Division of Female 2nd Section, dragged me to the bathroom and beat me brutally. She yanked my hair so hard that my hair was pulled out in clumps. I collapsed on the ground and my head knocked on the wall. At another time, she dragged me into the bathroom to brutally beat me. While beating, she said, "I will beat you to death, and count it as one more case on your Teacher's death list. At that time, the Jiang's regime had fabricated some propaganda regarding 1400 deaths from practicing Falun Dafa. Not long after I got there, my originally thick hair became sparse, and some spots were completely bald.

In addition to the brutal beating, they also forced us to keep squatting for a long time, everyday, until after midnight. Sometimes we were locked in the restroom, forced to squat with our heads facing the toilets. One day, team leader Dai was on duty. She led more than a dozen people to drag me to the dinning hall and said viciously, "Listen: things are different now. We received orders from above that we are not responsible if you are beaten to death. Today you have to write the statement to give up Dafa, no matter whether you want to or not." They then surrounded me and violently beat me. One of them suggested not to beat my face, because others would easily see my bruises. A few days ago, another team was criticized for beatings since people saw bruises on the face. They beat me on my chest, so that all it caused were internal injuries that other people couldn't see. After they beat me for a while, they slammed me down on the ground. One person sat on my neck and three or four persons held my left hand, while three or four people pulled my right hand forcing me to write words slandering Master and Dafa. They exhausted all means and tortured me until 2 o'clock in the morning, but I never gave in. After this beating I could not eat for several days. I didn't dare to breath deeply. I could not lie down flat. I could only carefully lie down, little by little. When I slept at night, bitter-tasting fluid frequently came out from my mouth. I became skinnier; sometimes I fainted suddenly when I sat down.

We were also mentally abused in Masanjia. They could abuse us at will, any time, and often threatened us: "You will never be released unless you give up your belief. You will be imprisoned for life and die here. The central government is spending money to build a larger transformation center for you practitioners." They also threatened to send us to Dabei Prison or a psychiatric hospital if we could not be "transformed."

Ms. Yang Sumei, a practitioner from Dalian City, was brutally beaten continuously for two days and two nights because she refused to give up Dafa. Two persons carried her back afterwards. She could not sit up by herself and often vomited. We all saw the bruises on her face, but could not check for injuries on her body because everyone of us was monitored and talking to each other was strictly forbidden. Under these dire circumstances, they still made her squat from nine o'clock at night until 2:00 a.m. Jinzhou City Dafa practitioner Ms. Jing Cuizhen's eyes were swollen so badly from the beating that she couldn't see other people. Practitioner Ms. Gai Yuehong, from Dandong City, in her twenties, suffered a mental collapse due to the abuse she received for refusing to give up her belief.

The evil is really afraid of being exposed for what they have done to Dafa practitioners. Once we heard that the higher authorities had requested to inspect Masanjia. The camp authorities made thorough preparations a few days in advance. They chose a few people who had been brainwashed and transformed who were easy to handle. They taught them Chinese folk dancing, other dances and playing ball. On the day of the inspection, they only kept about 50 of the more than 100 prisoners in our team, and sent the rest of us in big buses to a youth detention center, saying it was to let us watch a movie. They also made arrangements in our cells early that morning, removed all names on the walls, left only 50 sets of bedding and took the rest of the bedding outside. We stayed at the youth center for one whole day, watched two movies and returned late in the evening. Later, we learned that human rights organizations came for investigation. The camp enforcers drove us away in order to stop us from revealing the true situation in Masanjia to the public.

What I have written here was only a very small portion of what I experienced and witnessed. I was illegally detained in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp for two years and two months and was released unconditionally in the end.

Fellow practitioners, let's diligently advance together, cherish this precious opportunity, and fulfill the grand vows we made before history with our righteous thoughts and righteous actions.