An eyewitness account on the persecution at Handan Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province.
Torture and Hard Labor in Handan Forced Labor Camp
On January 1, 2009, over 70 Falun Gong practitioners were imprisoned at Handan Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province.
Beatings and Use of Electric Batons
From October 2007 through January 2008, guards Ge Qingxi and Wang Zhiming tortured practitioners Li Qiusheng and Xu Kai. They were beaten, hit with electric batons, forced to stand for long hours and not allowed to rest for over 40 days. Starting on June 1, 2008, they were tortured again for more than a month. Their injuries were severe. They could not move and were bedridden.
Use of Criminals to Persecute Practitioners
Officials in the Handan Forced Labor Camp encouraged criminal inmates to harm practitioners. Practitioner Zhang Xiwang was beaten by Li Mingchao, one of the criminals, and became partially deaf.
Elderly practitioners and practitioners with illnesses that were known to the guards, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and stomach disorders, were forced by guard Ge Qingxi to do push ups and to each hold a leaf between the knees while doing so. If a practitioner dropped the leaf, punishment followed.
Long Hours of Labor
In November 2008, 34 practitioners were required to work over 10 hours per day, seven days per week, regardless of their age or physical condition.
Limits on Family Visits and Other Abuses
Visits by family members were limited to a maximum of 20 minutes. A practitioner could call home only once a month. However, for four months around the time of the Olympics, these privileges were suspended.
Practitioners were required to request permission to go to a restroom. Many times the practitioners had to wait very long times for permission, and some became ill as a result. One practitioner with a weak bladder wet his pants regularly.
Four Individual Cases
Jin Longzhou, a practitioner in Xingtailinxi, Hebei Province, is now handicapped after having been in the camp. He lost part of his kidney and lung. After two months in Handan, he lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds). On May 3, 2007, he was beaten by a brutal guard, Zeng Yiwei, for two hours. Zeng hit Jin Longzhouan on the head with a hard-soled shoe, knocking him unconscious. When he woke up, Zeng ordered a criminal inmate, Zhang Xing, to beat Jin Longzhouan for another two hours.
Shi Xianguo, a practitioner from Xingtaishahe, Hebei Province, became handicapped due to the torture he received at the the camp. On January 18, 2007, he was beaten all over his body with an electric baton by a guard named Zuo Tao.
Li Jingjun, a practitioner who had recovered from a major illness by practicing Falun Gong, was also beaten by Zuo Tao with an electric baton, in this case on September 16, 2007. This guard again tortured Li Jingjun a month later and perversely said that Li needed to call him "father" in order to stop the beating.
Geng Sanhuan, a person living in Shenzhou, Hebei Province, was disabled by the abuse he received in the camp. He was kept in Handan for 18 months because the authorities assumed he was a practitioner. He was forced to labor for long hours without having enough to eat, and he was beaten by criminals.