(Minghui.org)
Shocked with Electric Batons
"The day after I arrived at the camp, the guards ordered us to wear detainee badges and do the morning exercises. More than 20 of us practitioners refused to comply. I said, “It's against the law to detain us--we are good people who follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. If we do any exercises, we will do the Falun Gong exercises.”
"Five or six male guards and four or five female guards showed up with electric batons and took us to the office. A male guard forced me to stand still, with my face to the wall, and started to shock my legs, feet, and buttocks repeatedly.
"I could see blue light flashing and hear sizzling sounds from the high-voltage electric baton. My feet bounced off the ground every time the baton touched me.
"I could hear screams of pain from next door where other practitioners were being tortured the same way.
"I kept telling the guards about Falun Gong and told them not to persecute innocent people. One guard seemed to understand and left, saying he was not feeling well. The other one continued to shock me until he was exhausted.
"I was shocked for about four hours. When I was taken back to my cell, I saw a retired teacher from Changsha. Her face was covered with blisters and her lips were badly swollen from being shocked. Her buttocks were covered with black and blue bruises."
Ms. Chen Liwen's Recollections
The above are personal recollections of Ms. Chen Liwen, 73, a retired official from the Bureau of Forestry of the Suxian District in Chenzhou, Hunan Province. She was illegally sentenced to a year and a half of forced labor by the local 610 Office and police in March 2001 for practicing Falun Gong and detained in the notorious Baimalong Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou.
Before the forced labor system was disbanded, Baimalong used to be the headquarters for persecuting female Falun Gong practitioners in Hunan Province and southern China. Beginning in 2000, many were tortured to death, disabled, injured, or suffered mental collapse in the facility.
The following are further details of what she recalls.
"In May of that year, I was transferred to Division 7 and shared a cell with more than 10 practitioners, mostly from Chenzhou.
"We were forced to sit still on small stools for long periods of time, which was very painful. When we recited the Dafa teachings, the guards rushed in and forced us to stand in a row. They shocked us with electric batons on the face, the lips, the neck, and the head one by one repeatedly. The cell was filled with flashes of blue light and the sizzle of the electric batons.
Inmates Instigated to Mistreat Falun Gong Practitioners
"It's common practice in China's forced labor camps for the guards to coerce the criminal inmates to monitor and mistreat Falun Gong practitioners.
"One such an inmate was He Chunyan, who was tall and strong. She dressed like a man and wore her hair short like a man, too.
"Once we talked to her about Falun Gong and told her not to aid and abet the evildoers anymore.
"She boasted, 'I'm the one who 'takes care' of all the Falun Gong practitioners sent here. I'm big and strong. I punch them, slap their faces, and hit them with my elbows. If there is a practitioner who refuses to 'transform,' I am called in. I cannot remember how many of them I have beaten. Most of them are young. The camp supports and rewards me for what I do. I get paid bonuses, my term is reduced and I'm exempted from forced labor. I can go anywhere in the camp and no one bothers me.'
"It's very sad that even though she learned the facts about Falun Gong and knew that practitioners are kind and said she would not hit us anymore, she continued to do so, the promise of personal gain too great for her to resist.
Force-feeding and Injections
"Force-feeding was used as a means of torture on Falun Gong practitioners, as well as the injection of nerve-damaging drugs.
"Ms. Chen Chujun, not yet 30, was detained next door to me in Division 7.
"She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and often shouted, 'Falun Dafa is good!'
"Once, the guards rushed into the cell and shocked her with electric batons and stuffed her mouth with dirty socks, and then hung her up for 24 hours.
"She was dragged or carried to the office for force-feeding every day by three or four inmates. She refused to cooperate and was covered with vomit and food.
"She was transferred to different divisions, tortured in each one, and became extremely emaciated and weak.
"One day I asked her a few simple questions, but she didn't say anything. She just stared at me with a blank expression."
Others Who Suffered in Baimalong Women's Forced Labor Camp
While Ms. Chen survived being tortured in the labor camp more than a decade ago, not everyone did.
Ms. Deng Yulian was another victim of Baimalong. In April 2006, 20 days before her term ended, she started coughing, lost feeling in her toes, had difficulty walking, her eyesight was blurry, and she lost her sense of taste. At home, the only thing she could eat was porridge. She became weaker by the day, her muscles atrophied, and she became as thin as a skeleton.
By February 2007, Ms. Deng was bedridden, could not eat, and was unrecognizable even by her family. She died on March 12, 2007, at the age of 42.
Ms. Li Huijuan is a Falun Gong practitioner from Leiyang, Hunan Province. She became mentally disordered while she was incarcerated in the labor camp between 2009 and 2010, and has not yet recovered.
