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A Practitioner Recounts Brainwashing, Torture and Slave Labor at Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City, Hebei Province

Aug. 28, 2008

(Clearwisdom.net) When I was being held in Kaiping Forced Labor Camp, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, there were many other detainees. On the ground floor were common criminals who were there for so-called "re-education through forced labor." On the second floor were Falun Gong practitioners divided into ten groups. On the third floor were steadfast practitioners who were held separately. In each room, one practitioner was watched by two common criminals. The labor camp designated special personnel to deliver food and water to them because these practitioners were isolated from the outside world. I often saw common criminals holding basins of darkish fluid and prison doctors carrying lots of tubes. The doctors and criminals took these items to the third floor to force feed these practitioners.

Brainwashing with Lies

When practitioners first arrived at the forced labor camp they were all held in a very small, dark room. There was one such room on each side of the passageway that a team leader on each floor would pass. The one on the west side was a monitoring room where a row of monitoring facilities was located. There was a temporary bed board on the floor and not much room left. Guards would attempt to force a practitioner that was held in this room to denounce Falun Gong. Practitioners suffered from brainwashing during the day and were deprived of sleep at night. Worse still, they were not allowed to go to the bathroom. It is said that this method of torture was introduced by Division Leader Wang Yan and a group of collaborators and learned the torture method from Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp.

The room on the east side was barely big enough for four single beds. It was very dark inside so the light was always on. Two detainees were assigned to watch the practitioners 24 hours a day. This room did not share the same corridor entrance and the practitioners inside could rarely talk to anyone. The only people who went in there were collaborators that attempted to brainwash practitioners and force them to renounce their beliefs. This was arranged by the division leader. Normally, the first one chosen to try to brainwash a practitioner lived in the same province as the practitioner. This was done to give the practitioners the impression that their monitors were "close" to them so as to make the practitioners less vigilant. The authorities then figured out which of their pawns the practitioner liked or disliked. Gradually they paired the two together to attempt to brainwash the practitioner more and more.

Since I did not study the Fa well, I failed to notice that what these collaborators said was out of context, and I believed it as the truth. They lied and said that if we renounced our belief in Falun Dafa, we would be admitted to a session. They went on to describe how good the class was and how good it would be for us to share with each other and upgrade ourselves together in the class. I thought about it recently and it sounds very absurd. Many of the newly arrived practitioners were tricked by these lies and began to renounce Falun Dafa three to five days after their arrival. After this happened, they would be brainwashed bit by bit.

Actually entering the brainwashing session, however, the situation was totally different from what they told us. We were told that we must not mention anything related to Falun Dafa, saying that we needed to cultivate it in our hearts instead of openly talking about it. Nor could we study the Fa, share, or practice the exercises together. The division leader arranged which people could eat, sleep, and the share the same room with you. There were two common criminals on duty in the corridor 24 hours a day. Also, the division leader, Qin Xiaoyan, often monitored practitioners through the windows. She walked very quietly and sometimes she would stand there for a long time without being noticed. She wore no expression on her face, her hair was in disarray, and she looked like a ghost. I learned from other practitioners that she was very cruel to practitioners and often slapped practitioners' faces or locked them in a dark room to make them suffer in the cold. Even elderly practitioners were not exempt from such things. She lived in the city and had heating at home and at work. However, her hands were still frostbitten and she wore cotton-padded gloves all the time. We all knew that this was karmic retribution.

More Practitioners Tortured Both Physically and Mentally

The team leader in charge of each session would often question us one by one, asking whom we had spoken to and what we had talked about. We were also ordered not to to speak to certain people and that we should keep our distance from them. Many people who wanted to protect themselves seldom talked because they were afraid that they might be reported. As a result, the situation was very tense and we were all very depressed. After I was tricked in renouncing Falun Dafa, I often had dreams that I lived underneath a tomb and walked barefoot on a muddy path with maggots or disgusting monsters. One day, a practitioner quietly wrote the word "collaborators" and pointed at the people who kept an eye on me. I was really shocked. I had become more muddleheaded as the evildoers became more hypocritical, and I regretted very much what I had done. I failed to do well and let Teacher down. No words could express the pain in my heart and I often was in tears. The division leader instantly increased the supervision of practitioners in my class.

One day after lunch when I was walking out of the canteen, I saw a practitioner on the third floor shouting at the top of her lungs, "Fa-rectification period Dafa Disciples, what do you fear?" Instantly, the criminal inmates pulled her hair and dragged her backwards. They attempted to cover her mouth and crushed her hands that gripped the iron railing. The practitioner continued to shout, "Fa-rectification period Dafa Disciples, what do you fear?" Hearing this, other criminal inmates and the division leader all rushed to the third floor. She was finally dragged away and we went back silently. Many of us shed tears. I pinched my hand to try to control my emotions and not cry. After returning to my room, I covered myself with a quilt and cried.

I admired this practitioner's courage but feared for her safety. I also hated myself bitterly for taking a wrong path and for failing to rectify the Fa nobly and uprightly. At the same time, I was determined to walk the remaining path well and to not make any wrong moves. I said to myself that I must get up after the fall. I could hear the sound of torture from the third floor until after the evening news started. The following day, the criminal inmates said that the practitioner foamed at the mouth and lost consciousness several times. Division Leaders Wang Yanhua and Run Hongli, along with many common criminals, were all involved in torturing the practitioner.

Another practitioner from Langfang City, Hebei Province, was only 40 years old but due to torture, her hair turned completely white. As a result of being held in solitary confinement, she suffered from muscular atrophy and would unconsciously trip as she walked. The division leader said she pretended to do this. The practitioner was stripped of all her clothes, was tied to a bed, and was also locked up in a dark room in the male section of the forced labor camp. The windows of the room were covered with two layers of blankets so no one could see inside and she was tortured both physically and mentally. The head of the forced labor camp personally took part in torturing her. They tried to force her to give up her belief in Falun Dafa and write the Three Statements. She was on the verge of death and carried with her a will that she secretly wrote. Those involved in persecuting and torturing her included Xu Deshan (male), Ruan Daguo (male), Run Hongli, and Wang Yanhua.

One practitioner went to Tiananmen Square to unfold a banner. It was said that she was from Fengrun City, Hebei Province. When she was sent to the forced labor camp, she was in a state of shock because she had been severely beaten. She had an extremely hard time falling asleep and would talk to anyone saying, "My primordial spirit disappeared. Please help me to find my primordial spirit." The division leader said she was putting on an act. The evildoers took advantage of her condition and tricked her into writing the "Three Statements," saying that when she finished writing them they would help her find her primordial spirit. Thereafter, the practitioner suddenly disappeared. Someone said she was taken away by Run Hongli, who said that she would take her to a better place. From what Run said, it didn't sound like she would send the practitioner home. It was common practice that when someone from above came to inspect the forced labor camp, the authorities at the camp would hide those who still refused to renounce Falun Dafa and would send them back only after the inspection was over.

Suspicious Physical Examinations

One day several doctors came to the forced labor camp, saying they were going to conduct health exams. They drew a big vial of blood from each practitioner, including those who were not in good health and those who were held in small cells. There was no news after that and the results of the exams were not made public. After returning home, I heard about about the organ harvesting from living practitioners. I deduced that in the labor camp they drew our blood to match blood types. When I heard this, I became worried for other practitioners' safety.

Human Trafficking and Slave Labor

Common criminals from Beijing's Dispatch Department heard from the division leader that they were bought by the Kaiping Forced Labor Camp for 800 yuan each. The forced labor camp did not have work for the prisoners and the authorities secretly sold the prisoners to Qinghuangdao to do forced manual labor. Some of the prisoners bought themselves because they had connections. It amounted to about 1,000 yuan a month. Furthermore, they would have to pay at least 10,000 yuan a year. These government departments openly used their power to traffic in human beings for their personal profit and force them to do slave labor. They called it "reform through labor."

Our job was packing cotton swabs and manufacturing disposable chopsticks. Boxes of cotton swabs were poured onto the table to be packed into beautiful boxes with foreign languages printed on them. This was to give Chinese consumers the impression that the swabs were imported. It was printed on the box that the quantity was "100 count," but we were not allowed to put that many in the box. Even the cotton swabs that fell on the floor were picked up and packed into the boxes. The division leader even said that she would never buy these cotton swabs.

Common criminals produced the disposable chopsticks that were piled up on the floor. They had to start working before breakfast and work until late at night. The evildoers covered the canteen windows with heavy curtains but the sound of machinery could still be heard at night. When the criminals could not finish their quotas, they were not allowed to sleep nor were their terms of forced labor reduced. Some of the division leaders were extremely cruel and vicious. Among them was Xie Airu and it was said that the common criminals were all afraid of her. As a matter of fact, they were more afraid of having their terms of forced labor being extended, as no one wanted to stay in this human hell for one more day.