(Clearwisdom.net)

These are the personal stories of torture and persecution experienced by several Dafa practitioners in both the Shijiazhuang and Baoding-Gaoyang Forced Labor Camps.

The Baoding-Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp was established in October 2000. During that time there was a large number of Dafa practitioners being illegally detained at forced labor camps in the cities of Tangshan, Shijiazhuang and Handan in Hebei Proince. As time passed, these practitioners were becoming more resolute in Dafa. Jiang's regime then built the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp facility, which absorbed more than one third of the jailed Dafa practitioners from Shijiazhuang Labor Camp.

Originally there were four brigades at Shijiazhuang Labor Camp. In order to further persecute Dafa practitioners, they established the 5^th Brigade in November 2000. Dafa practitioners rectified and safeguarded the Fa in unison and maintained a fairly good environment there. However, practitioners also paid a high price for upholding their belief. They were subjected to brutal tortures, such as being tied with ropes, confined in a solitary compartment, electrically shocked, lashed with a leather belt or shoe soles, force-fed, and hung up with hands cuffed. Usually the labor camp only used a "single rope" to tie inmates who had serious camp code violations, yet they would apply two or three ropes to Dafa practitioners. A solitary confinement cell is less than two square meters. There was no windows, no bed, with cold wind coming in from all four walls. Practitioners would be cuffed to the bars on the iron door. Only one washbasin was provided. It would be used for eating, urination, as well as body waste discharge. Because they demanded the right to practice and study the Fa, some practitioners were punished by standing against walls for up to 40 days. Everyday there were practitioners who were cuffed, beaten, and shocked. Brigade leader Yin of the 5^th Brigade even stuffed dirty rags into practitioner's mouth when they were being hung up with their hands cuffed. Numerous Dafa practitioners were forced to repeatedly go on hunger strike, some as long as 40 days. They must also endure physical torture such as beating, hanging up with hands cuffed and shocks.

From November 1999 to early 2001, practitioners openly studied the Fa and practiced exercises among all five brigades. Later, they practiced and studied everyday. They would call out in unison, "Falun Dafa is good! Eradicate the evil, suffocate the evil!" If the camp deputies beat anyone, the entire group would go on hunger strike to protest and lend support, until these hoodlums gave up and conceded. If they wanted to seek out individual practitioners, then the whole group would offer protection by surrounding the individuals. The guards could do nothing about the wide-open practice and Fa study. Some practitioners could go on hunger strike, some would reason with guards, and some would study and practice. Around December 2000, under significant pressure, the labor camp released some practitioners who had been tortured severely. Among them Liu Yanhong, Hu Shengman, Wei Tianshen, and Zheng Ping were all released to receive medical treatment due to their life threatening conditions. The following are several eyewitness accounts of Fa-rectification by Dafa practitioners.

1. Dafa practitioners blocked the door from the inside with a bed to prevent the evil camp guards from coming in. The practitioner yelled, "Falun Dafa is good!" into the monitoring microphone. One guard on the other side of the monitor also followed with "Falun Dafa is good!"
2. Practitioners did not treat themselves as inmates. They did not consider it a labor camp. They freely passed through the entrance into the courtyard and openly practiced in the courtyard. The brigade tried to negotiate with the practitioners, "Could you not practice when we are present, please?"
3. The evil camp guard secretly transferred ten practitioners to the 4^th brigade one night. The entire group of practitioners in the 5^th Brigade immediately started to practice openly and refused to observe the sleeping hours. They demanded to find out what happened to those who were transferred. The ruffians backed down, finally they asked one practitioner to come with them in the car to the 4^th Brigade. After he saw all the transferred practitioners were all there he returned with relief.
4. Once some practitioners were beaten. The whole group of Dafa practitioners yelled in unison in the hallway, "Eradicate the evil, suffocate the evil!" The 1^st Brigade Leader, trembling with fear, asked, "Who is 'the evil'?"
5. At midnight of the Chinese New Years Eve, the whole group sent their New Year greetings to Teacher and started doing the practice. The "monitoring" inmates actually stood guard for them. Suddenly the vicious Brigade Leader came charging in, "How long are you guys going to practice?" "One whole hour!" The leader went away and did not return again for a whole hour.
6. The handcuff on a female practitioner's hand suddenly popped open. She went straight to the guard lounge, locked herself in and opened the window. She sat on the desk and started to recite HongYin (a collection of Teacher's poems) facing the street. The passing pedestrians raised their hands showing their support for her.

In April 2001 the evil establishment forcefully separated Dafa practitioners into different groups. Some very determined Dafa practitioners were transferred to the Baoding-Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp.

Gaoyang Labor Camp was called the "Masanjia (a notorious labor camp in Liaoning Province that is known for its brutality in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners) in Hebei Province." There is a group of hooligans led by political instructor Hu (male, 50's), political commissar Song (from Shijiazhuang), division head Wang, station head Wang (male, 50's), brigade leader Yang Zemin (male), brigade leader Wang Yajie (female, 30's). They were backed by team leader Ma Li (female), Zhou Haiyan (female), brigade leader Wang (male)and brigade leaders Yin and Duan. They put their torturing of Dafa practitioners in motion.

At Gaoyang Labor Camp, Dafa practitioners were tortured to the point that dying seemed better than living. They tortured Dafa practitioners every half hour, day and night. When the newly transferred practitioners arrived here, they were all cuffed down to iron tie-down rings on the floor. They could neither stand up nor sit down. They could not move or go to the bathroom either. One practitioner had been on a hunger strike for many days and was extremely weak. He could not stand there. The ruffians pounced on him and started beating him ruthlessly. Whenever practitioners would recite the Fa, the evil guards would order other inmates to scream Dafa slandering slogans. They also interfered by broadcasting noise from morning to evening with very high volume. All twenty Dafa practitioners were beaten and shocked repeatedly, and each time they would demand, "Do you still want to practice? Are you going to write the repentant paper?" If a practitioner refused to cooperate, the vicious hooligans brigade leader Wang Yajie (female, 30's, around 1.62m in height, stretched face and glasses. She was one of the main thugs) would scream, "no more power, give me another fresh set of batteries so I can shock them every half hour!"

Force-feeding with urine and bowel waste: After practitioners started their hunger strike, the hoodlums resorted to force-feeding by dragging the practitioners to the county emergency center. They would force-feed them everyday. They inserted plastic tubes into the nose of practitioners. After they were done, the practitioner's nose and mouth were full of blood. Local people were curious and came to observe. Even under severe pain, practitioners would clarify the truth to people and won sympathy from many of them. The hoodlums got scared and instead carried out their force-feeding right at the labor camp. After 30 days of hunger strikes, they blatantly started force-feeding practitioners with urine and bowel waste. When practitioners struggled to refuse, they would use tools to pry open their mouths. Brigade leader Zhou Haiyan (female, 30's, short hair) was present during the force-feeding. Practitioners who were fed with urine and bowel waste would experience high fever and bad cases of diarrhea.

They would shock practitioners who refused to be brain washed. They would shock them for four to five hours. Some practitioners would be shocked into unconsciousness.

Later on Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp and Tangshan Forced Labor Camp all sent their deputies to Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp to study their "experience of torture and persecution." Upon returning with the experience gained, Shijiazhuang Labor Camp started another round of escalated persecutions. Practitioners were not allowed to sleep. They would beat practitioners to near death. They put nails into practitioner's fingers. They lashed practitioners with leather belts and police batons. Backed by secret orders from Jiang's regime, "No concerns over beating deaths, count death as suicide," "Must reach transformation quota, otherwise deputies will be fired from their jobs." The thugs would try to save their jobs by ruthlessly and relentlessly torturing Dafa practitioners. The thugs had totally lost their human decency.

The painful regret after cooperation: After a practitioner was forced to cooperate, she knew she did something terribly wrong and was extremely depressed. She resorted to singing and joking loudly, and conducted herself with extreme actions in order to alleviate her depression. She said, "If I had to stay there for one more day, I would become insane." She said that there were others who were forced to cooperate in the same way, but were still enduring the pains of extreme self-regret and depression.

Another practitioner was forced to write repentance papers daily even after she was forced to cooperate. She suffered obvious memory loss. She was forced to recite the so-called "camp rules," yet regardless how hard she tried she could not recite them. She was under severe sedation and depression. Her brain was forced to remember just one thing: "Obey centralized arrangement." She ended up being lethargic, crying and laughing at the same time. Even the labor camp thought she was sick and let her go. Upon returning home, her family was very worried about her condition and sent her to a mental hospital for treatment. Yet nothing changed over there and they had no choice but to let her go home again. Urged by fellow practitioners, she started to read Zhuan Falun again. She gradually regained her composure and eventually recovered completely. She has since rejoined the powerful current of Fa-rectification. This was no different from regaining life, and even her family was stunned by the divine power of Dafa.

March 31, 2002