(Clearwisdom.net) People commonly use the term "hell on earth" when referring to detention centers, labor camps, prisons and the other kind of facilities that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses to violently "reform" Falun Gong practitioners. However, there's no earthly word to describe how vicious the Gaoyang Labor Camp is. The following is an account of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Xia's horrifying experience and other atrocities at the Gaoyang Labor Camp.
Ms. Li started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. On July 29, 2003, some policemen from Wuyi County suddenly surrounded her house. They entered her yard by climbing over the wall. After that, they forcibly dragged Li Xia into a police vehicle. She was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt, shorts and slippers then. She was directly taken to the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp.
She was body-searched and right after that people attempted to force her to write a guarantee statement. She refused. The police then shocked her for half an hour with electric batons. The prison guards then drafted a guarantee statement for her and physically forced her hand to sign the paper. At 7:00 p.m. when the prison guards changed shift, they ordered the inmates to report to roll call. Li Xia refused to do so. Hence, she was dragged into a small room on the second floor where evildoers again shocked her with electric batons. Soon after that she was further tortured. The prison guards used the so-called, "Tying the ropes" torture twice. This all happened on her first day in the labor camp.
The next day the police sent Zhang Yuzhen to "reform" her, but after five or six days, Li Xia still refused to give in. The police then used three or four electric batons at once to shock her for so long that it felt like a lifetime to Li Xia. Her whole body turned blue and purple, her arms were swollen, and a layer of skin peeled off. Three years have passed since then, but the scars on her arms as a result of "tying the ropes" (1) remain clear. The police then forced her to watch a video called, "Mom, Love Me Again," intending to break her emotionally, but to no avail. The day after that, police officers Zhao Yuan and Niu Lijun hit her face with books and stabbed her body with pens, all the while verbally abusing her saying, "We will torture you till you die." Besides verbally abusing her they also slandered Falun Gong. Under such brutal persecution, Li Xia lost her righteous thoughts and wrote the four statements (similar to the three statements). Later, she wrote a solemn statement to declare them invalid.
In November, 2003, the head police officer of a regiment, Wei Hongling, and Fan Yaju, as well as the head police officials from all classes ordered the willingly "reformed" and unwillingly "reformed" practitioners to fill out certain forms. Except the few who actually gave up their belief, all the others wrote something positive about Falun Gong. The evildoers were enraged. They dragged three practitioners out for torture. Those who could not endure the torture were forced to write a "guarantee statement" again. The evildoers then gathered all Falun Gong practitioners into a big classroom and ordered the practitioners who wrote the statements to read them out loud in front of the group.
On November 5, 2003, Li Xia was led to the second floor where someone attempted to force her to write a guarantee statement again. She refused. The prison guards verbally abused her and took off her shoes to shock her feet with eight electric batons at the same time. One of the guards, Zhao Yanping was six months pregnant, but she still grabbed two electric batons to shock Li Xia. Ms. Li endured the electric shock torture from seven or eight guards at the same time for over two hours.
The evening of November 7, Li Xia was led to the room the guards used to beat people. Guard Wei Hongling's husband brought a bed board wrapped with iron rings. The prison doctor Wang Guoyou told the prison guards to shock practitioners on their acupuncture points and grabbed Li Xia by the hair and hit her face several times. Li Xia started to see stars and felt very dizzy. They shocked her back, feet, legs and arms. Furthermore, they used two batons and shocked both sides of her neck at the same time. The severe pain was extremely hard for Li Xia to endure. She gritted her teeth to keep from crying out in pain. At that moment Wei Hongling demanded to know if Li Xia would write the statement. She replied, "Anything coerced will not work." Wei told Li Xia that she would have to write one, even if it was done against her will. Li Xia said, "Even if I have to die, I will not write it." They still would not give up, but shocked her for three more hours. Guard You Yanxiao said to Li Xia mockingly, "It's not that we want to shock you. You have too much karma."
After returning to the class, her classmates saw that her body was covered with red spots; her face was blue and purple, her hands were covered with blisters, her wrists were swollen and bleeding after being handcuffed, and a layer of skin had peeled off from her arms and feet. Nevertheless, they still forced her to work in the field.
Not only Li Xia suffered from such brutal abuse and persecution. Many other Falun Gong practitioners were also tortured so severely that some were carried back afterwards. Some were sent to the emergency room. It was all because they refused to give up their belief and would not write the four statements or the guarantee statement. Such physical torture and mental suffering were overwhelming. Non-practitioner inmates said, "One would be lucky to leave this place alive." Living in such a hell on earth is inconceivable if not seen with one's own eyes. It is hard to imagine. Zhang Xiuying, Meng Junluo, Liu Shuqin, and Li Cuiping and others were forced to bite their tongues to protest the cruel and forcible "reform."
One day in October 2005, the guards started a cell search. Li Cuiping had not eaten anything for a few days. When she refused to be body searched, Li Xuejun, Wei Hongling and some other prison guards shocked her with electric batons for a long time. Not until Li could no longer bear it and bit her tongue to the point of bleeding, did the guards cease.
Zhao Shuying was tortured for months. She was in poor physical condition and unable to take care of herself. The guards still attacked her and tried to search her body, which made her pass out and lose control of her bowels. The prison guards and Gaoyang Hospital personnel colluded and claimed that Ms. Zhao was not sick but was just pretending. They carried her to the first floor and shocked her. Currently, Ms. Zhao is nauseous, dizzy, and whenever she eats she vomits. She is very weak and emotionally devastated. She cannot take care of herself at all.
Chengde Falun Gong practitioner Xie Ping's parents are members of the CCP. Their minds have been deeply poisoned. In order to "reform" their daughter they even collaborated with the police. They invited a "reformed" former practitioner named Zhang Xiuqin to come for several days and attempt to "reform" Xie Ping. During this time the police would not let Xie Ping go back to her cell, but locked her in a big classroom. Police separated her three times a day from others for abuse and torment. Xie Ping's mental health was severely devastated. The former practitioner Zhang Xiuqing also volunteered to help "reform" the other practitioners. Xie Ping warned Zhang that good and bad all receive their due. Zhang said she was not afraid of bad consequences. Although Xie Ping's parents and the police tried all kinds of tactics, they were unable to shake Xie Ping's belief in Falun Dafa.
The Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp sets up its own court and randomly reduces or increases jail terms at will.
The Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp store sells items for prices much higher than those on the open market. They extorted money from criminal inmates and practitioners for personal gain.
Most of the detainees at the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp are 50 or 60-year-old women. Some of them are Falun Gong practitioners, among which are those who were wrongfully treated but were detained in the labor camp after appealing. Some of the detainees are handicapped, and many are sick. They suffer from different kinds of illnesses such as heart problems, venereal diseases, hepatitis, bronchitis and others. Almost no one was physically healthy. By law, labor camps should not accept such physically ill people. The Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp officials intentionally break the law. They treat Falun Gong practitioners particularly cruelly. They do not regard practitioners. Practitioners are made to live in such a dreadful place.
The Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp guards who have participated in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners include the following: Li Xuejun, Wei Hongling, Fan Yaju, Niu Lijun, You Yanxiao, Lu Yaqin, Shi Jiangxia, Liu Huili, Li Jixing, Wang Guoyou, Wang Zhitai, Zhao Yuan, Zhao Yaping, Fang Bao and others.
Note:
(1) "Tying the rope," a type of brutal torture, refers to putting a thin nylon rope around the back of a person's neck, and then wrapping it around both shoulders down to each arm loop by loop, and then over each hand. The rope is tightened to its limit and it cuts into the flesh. Both arms are forced behind the back and raised to the extreme, and then both thumbs are tied with a rope and locked to the rope that it goes around the back of the neck. The person tortured in this way is then forced to kneel down on the floor. The rope is released about one hour later, and then the person is tied up like this again a second time, then a third time...See photo illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/18/52553.html
See pencil illustration http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/5/53164.html