(Minghui.org) On April 7, 2013 the China-based Lens Magazine published an exclusive article that documented the methods of torture used at Masanjia Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province, China. Its readers were appalled to see that Masanjia detainees were subjected to slave labor, solitary confinement, being shocked with electric batons, the big “hang-up,” sitting on the tiger bench, the death bed, etc. This Lens article “Out of Masanjia” has been reprinted numerous times since its publication, and it is still getting widespread attention.
In response to public outrage about these atrocities, Liaoning Province authorities have assembled a group of officials from Liaoning Province Judicial Bureau, Liaoning Province Forced Labor Bureau, and Liaoning Province Procuratorate to carry out an “investigation.” This investigation team announced its findings on April 19, claiming that there was no truth to the Lens article and that the tortures mentioned were fabricated by Falun Gong practitioners.
As a matter of fact, nowhere in the Lens article did it even mention Falun Gong. The investigative team’s false accusation of Falun Gong only highlights the profound fear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has over its persecution of Falun Gong.
In fact, a deputy head of the investigative team was Zhang Chaoying; this is the person who directed the gang rape of 18 female Falun Gong practitioners in 2000, when he was head of the Masanjia camp.
The head of the investigative team was Zhang Fan, who is also head of Liaoning Province Judicial Bureau. He has been leading the persecution of Falun Gong there for over the past 10 years.
What kind of results can we expect to see when the perpetrators are sent to investigate their own crimes?
We urge all those who have been misled by the CCP to abandon their illusions of the communist regime and see through its evil nature. Only when more and more people step forward to expose the CCP's crimes can we expect to see the disintegration of the Party and remain free of its torture.
How Did the Investigation Work?
According to some overseas media, Ms. Li Wenjuan, one of the victims mentioned in the Lens article and a former employee of Anshan National Tax Bureau, was at first encouraged by the news of the investigation. She gathered a few other Masanjia victims, and together they went to Liaoning Province Judicial Bureau to report more Masanjia atrocities. However, she was sorely disappointed by what she experienced. She said, “There was no appeals office in the judicial bureau. They only asked for our IDs and cell phone numbers, but refused to accept the materials we brought in or to listen to our appeals. Before we left, they videotaped us.”
On the night of April 13, some police came banging on Ms. Li’s door and demanded that she go with them for an “investigation.” She firmly refused.
It turned out that the “investigation” was not of Masanjia but, instead, of how facts about the torture were leaked to and publicized by various media outlets. All the victims in the Lens article were visited by Liaoning police and were pressured to write pledges to never again expose what goes on in Masanjia.
Attempts to Conceal Its Crimes Become Evidence of Its Atrocities
The Lens article didn’t mention Falun Gong at all. Only in two places did it point out that “solitary confinement” and the “tiger bench” were initially used on “special people” and “detainees of certain characteristics,” but later was expanded to be used on detainees in general.
The “investigation” report, however, admitted to the whole world that Masanjia is a labor camp that mainly incarcerates Falun Gong practitioners. The report alleged that all the hair-raising torture terms were coined by and had long been widely reported by overseas Falun Gong media. It also claimed that the Lens article was simply copying terms used by Falun Gong media.
To the investigative team’s dismay, its report only serves to corroborate what Falun Gong practitioners have been telling the world during the past over 10 years regarding Masanjia atrocities.
After publication of the Lens article, the Associated Press reported that the torture methods exposed in the article are consistent with the complaints filed by the Falun Gong spiritual practice ten years ago. Voice of America also pointed out that Masanjia Labor Camp is not new to overseas media, since it has detained many Falun Gong practitioners and that Falun Gong has long been working to expose what’s taken place there.
Torture at Masanjia Far Exceeds What Was Revealed in the Lens Article and Anyone’s Imagination
What was actually reported on in the Lens article doesn't begin to reveal the evil that has occurred in Masanjia, which is beyond anyone's wildest imagination.
According to overseas human rights organizations, in October 2000 Masanjia guards stripped naked 18 female practitioners and threw them into the men’s cells to be raped. As a result, five women died, seven went insane, and the rest suffered varying degrees of disability. This incident caused shockwaves throughout the world.
Torture was a daily drill at Masanjia. Ms. Wang Yunjie, a practitioner from Dalian City in Liaoning Province, was shocked on one of her breasts, which ruptured and festered. Ms. Zhang Xiujie from Chaoying City passed out after the guards inserted an electric baton into her vagina to shock her. Ms. Li Xiaoyan suffered severe burns after the guards shocked her head and the bottoms of her feet with four electric batons simultaneously. Ms. Xin Suhua from Benxi City in Liaoning Province once wrote, “The guards raped female practitioners. They stomped on our genital areas. They tied three toothbrushes together and inserted the whole thing to the vagina and stirred them around. They also thrust their electric baton inside the vagina to shock the victim.”
Since 2000, the Minghui website has published 8,109 reports documenting and discussing the persecution experiences of Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally detained in Masanjia Labor Camp alone. Nearly 100 methods of torture have been used on practitioners at Masanjia. At least three died of torture, many became mentally disordered, and more were physically disabled. Two women were left in a vegetative state.
The torture methods developed at Masanjia have been widely adopted by other labor camps around the country. Countless practitioners have been raped or killed as a result.
Those Heading the Investigation Are the Very Criminals to Be Investigated
One of the deputy heads of the Liaoning investigation team, head Zhang Chaoying of Liaoning Province Labor Camp Bureau, was the head of Masanjia Labor Camp when the above-mentioned rape of the 18 female practitioners occurred in 2000. A year later seven different central agencies awarded him for his torture of Falun Gong, and his labor camp was recognized a model unit for its "transformation" of Falun Gong practitioners.
The head of the investigation team is the head of the Liaoning Province Judicial Bureau, Zhang Fan. He has been the backbone and right hand of Jiang’s persecution in Liaoning. He ascended to his current post at the beginning of 2012; before that he served as deputy head of Liaoning Province Judicial Bureau and head of Liaoning Province Prison Bureau. This man has been the chief culprit in the persecution of Falun Gong through the manipulation of the province's judicial and prison systems.
A well-known Beijing lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, said, “Those heading the investigation team are actually the people responsible for harming the victims. Regarding practitioner Sun Yi, we once submitted numerous complaints to Liaoning Province Forced Labor Bureau, Liaoning Province Discipline Bureau, and Liaoning Province Judicial Bureau. We also visited them in person to file our appeal. I must stress that these heads are insiders and know all too well what is going on in the labor camp.”
Mr. Jiang continued, “It is laughable and ridiculous that they were sent to investigate the crime. There’s no credibility whatsoever. They are indeed the responsible parties, yet they come to investigate their own crimes. The whole thing is just a show and a farce. To be more clear, they are criminals themselves.”
See Through the CCP's Evil Nature and Abandon All Illusions
The Liaoning investigation team didn’t seem to attempt to lessen the severity of the crime or scapegoat others. Instead, they went to the extreme of completely denying the Masanjia atrocities ever occurred and shirking their responsibilities.
Why? Because the Lens article really hit home with the CCP, which is constantly worrying about being exposed for its brutal persecution of Falun Gong.
This Lens article listed only a few female non-practitioners who appealed for various causes, yet their plight and suffering at the hands of the CCP have aroused the greatest anger within the general public.
Think about what has happened since 1999, when the communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong. Under Jiang’s policy to “count beating deaths as suicide” and to “cremate deceased (sometimes live) practitioners without verifying their identity,” so many regime officials and guards have gone against their conscience and committed unspeakable crimes in their pursuit for fame and money. Once these crimes are revealed to the world, people will completely see through the communist regime's rogue nature and will abandon the last bit of their illusions. By then, it will also be time for the CCP to disintegrate.
