Kaiping Labor Camp in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, is detaining approximately 300 female Falun Dafa practitioners. All male practitioners were transferred to the Gaoyang Labor Camp in Baoding City. The guards used a "sealed management" philosophy with regard to Dafa practitioners. Practitioners are only allowed to see others incarcerated practitioners from the same region . Those who do exercises, study the Fa and go on hunger strikes are not allowed any visitors. Many of their family members came to visit several times, but could only leave the things they brought for the practitioners without seeing the practitioners themselves.
In the dark of October, if practitioners did the exercises or recited the Fa, they would be hung from a tree by their handcuffs, with feet dangling in the air, until one o'clock in the morning. Practitioners who were on hunger strikes had less strength to endure this vile abuse and fainted. Some involuntarily urinated in their pants without realizing it. Everyday, practitioners were beaten by the guards with stun batons and rubber sticks. The head guard led a group of common criminal prisoners in fiercely beating practitioners. Gong Yuzhi, a practitioner from Zhang Jiako City, was beaten badly. Even one month later the bruises on her buttocks were still visible. Another practitioner, Zhang Zhibin, was beaten severely. Her face was so swollen and distorted that it was hard to recognize her features. Almost everyday, practitioners were hung up all over from the persimmon and pear trees in the labor camp.
Because more and more practitioners went on hunger strikes, doctors were too busy to force-feed them. Criminal prisoners were ordered to help with the feeding process, using unimaginably cruel, demon-like behavior. Here is what they would do:
They tied practitioners' hands and legs. One common prisoner would stand on practitioner's tied hands and stomach and squeeze practitioner's nose to force the mouth open. The other prisoner would use a metal spoon to press the practitioner's tongue down and pry the teeth apart and pour food into the mouth without letting practitioner breathe. Practitioner He Jing from Tangshan City, was detained for 13 months. For 10 of those months in unlawful detention she was on her hunger strike. The latest one was from July 15 to December 21, 2000. She was very weak. The first time she was force-fed, these animals took half an hour for the procedure. However, they didn't care that she could not breathe. It took another half hour for other practitioners and the prisoners to revive her. Everyone was in tears, except for those "feeders" who were laughing and left.
A 55-year-old practitioner, Song Xihuang, from Qinhuangdao City, started her hunger strike on August 18, 2000. She was not very strong physically. After the forced feeding, she got severe cramps and, before long, she lost consciousness. They beat another 58 year-old practitioner, Zhou, because she refused to be force-fed. After being beaten, she lost bowel and bladder control for a long time. The only way she managed to walk was to bending at the waist. We reported her situation to the director Li Qiang, but he retaliated by saying that she should be force-fed three times a day. Later, she was really force-fed three times a day.
The worst was that practitioners were fed with 2 big bowls of food, holding about 10 pounds, every time. When the poor practitioners were suffering and moaning, the feeders, Li Junqing and Sun Xiuyuan, would verbally abuse them and smash the spoon to their throats. Practitioner He Jing said that her stomach had blown up like a balloon. Guards also put a lot of large granule of salt in the porridge meal. We felt acid in the stomach, and were lethargic and dehydrated everyday because we ingested too much salt.
On December 6, 2000, some practitioners were moved to men's confinement rooms. Nine practitioners who were on hunger strike for a long time were locked up in the confinement room. To take advantage of this adverse environment, the Falun Dafa practitioners took the opportunity of standing lines outdoors to do the standing exercises. They were quickly put back in the confinement chamber. However, this raised the spirits of all practitioners in the labor camp who had been holding steadfast to their hunger strike. This action provoked the directors and head guards in charge of the labor camp. They no longer allowed the 9 practitioners to leave their cell. They would not allow the 9 practitioners to do the exercises and Zhang Wenjun, the head guard responsible for the 9 practitioners, made their treatment even more harsh.
Among the 9 practitioners are the following:
He Jing is in her 10th month of hunger strike.
Zhu Yourong [she died in custody, see the report,http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/Jan/17/PAC011701_2.html]
Wang Yuhua, Shi Yuru, and Song Xihuang have been on hunger strike for four months. They were all very weak physically.
The rest have been on hunger strike for 2 or 3 months. The head guard, Zhang Wenjun, would force them to sit on the floor at 7 o'clock in the morning. Each time it lasted for half of the day. After the noon break, we were made to sit on the floor again until the guard got off from work. Once, a male head guard came in and said: "Why sit on the floor? Let them sit on the beds." Zhang Wenjun said: "The beds can not take their weight." We were treated badly this for 3 days consecutively.
We just want to ask: "We did not commit any crime. We did nothing wrong. Why did they treat us with such inhumanity?" We appeal to all the kind people in the world to bring an end to and stop these evil actions of Jiang Zemin's thugs.
Dafa Practitioners in China