Another practitioner is refused access to due process of law.

The story of  Ms. Wang Weiyue illustrates how the brutal persecution of practitioners continues.

Being Forced to Toil in Unsafe Conditions at Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp in Harbin City

Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, is the cause of a serious pollution problem in Harbin City. The camp director Shi Yingbai is cooperating with bureaucratic business leaders. Inside Changlinzi Camp is a sock factory that, for the past seven to eight years, has dumped the raw chemical materials for dying the socks and toxic waste into the Songhua River through the sewage system, causing a serious health threat to the several million people in the entire Harbin City area.

Changlinzi Labor Camp also has a factory that produces basketballs and shoes. The glue used is primarily benzene and xylene, both poisonous. Benzene and xylene can cause numerous diseases, including cancer and leukemia. These poisonous substances flow into the Songhua River through the sewage system. With the cooperation of the local bureaucracy and its protective umbrella, this poisonous factory is able to exist, causing the Songhua River to be seriously polluted. Many prisoners are forced to work in this poisonous environment seven days a week, which seriously violates labor laws.

Two years after the factory had been in production, Changlinzi Labor Camp invited the environmental protection agency to conduct an environmental appraisal. This appraisal revealed that the level of poisonous substances such as benzene and and xylene inside the factory exceeded the amount allowed. The labor camp then moved the guards out of the workshop, but had no regard for the lives of the factory workers.

Since July 1999, nearly all labor camps have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They not only beat the practitioners mercilessly, but also forced them to work in poisonous, harmful environments. Practitioners in Changlinzi Labor Camp work 16 ½ hours daily, from 6: 30 a.m. until 11 p.m. The work hours for the first and fourth ward also exceed 12 hours, seven days a week. The cafeteria meals served to the prisoners are substandard; the good food is eaten by the guards and chiefs. Ten yuan monthly is designated for the "illegally imprisoned" Falun Gong practitioners for their expenses.. Although they never receive the money, they are forced to sign a statement claiming that it was given to them.

The chief of the fifth ward of Changlinzi Labor Camp, Wang Kai, ordered prisoner Ma Taiping to beat 14 practitioners. He hit Mr. Liu Jingzhou with such force that he broke the bed board. Mr. Liu's nose and mouth bled and his face swelled. All the 14 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to varying degrees. One person's pelvis was broken and the person was hospitalized. Practitioner Mr. Yu Huaicai went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Wang Kai frequently ordered several prisoners to hold Mr. Yu down and force-feed him, making his nose and mouth bleed and leaving him unable to speak. Wang Kai slapped Mr. Yu for not cooperating with the force-feeding. Mr. Yu was extremely weak and was diagnosed as critically ill in the hospital, but the labor camp administration refused to release him and continued the torture, causing his death in April 2007.

Changlinzi Labor Camp also has a toothpick factory, where practitioners are forced to package toothpicks. Some practitioners are tortured to the point that their whole bodies are covered with scars. Practitioners contracted various infectious diseases from the torture, but the labor camp still makes them handle toothpicks.

Men and women practitioners are forced to carry shoulder bags that weigh about 44 pounds, load and unload trucks, and do excessive labor, regardless of age. In June and July the practitioners have to work in the sun, laying down the road boards. The road boards are all extremely heavy. Some have had heart attacks but Chief of the seventh ward Zhang Bo forced them to continue the intensive labor. Some older practitioners were unable to complete the work assigned by warden Zhang Bo and had to take their work to their bedroom to finish, depriving them of sleep. Some practitioners have serious illnesses and cannot do the heavy labor. Practitioners who aren't able do the work are subjected to painful and sometimes crippling tortures such as the "Big Hang up (1)."

Note:

(1) Big Hand up - There are two forms in this torture: 1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to a metal window frame; 2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. This is extremely painful as the body is pulled. See illustration on /emh/articles/2004/11/17/54624.html

Forced Labor Camp Authorities Refuse Family and Attorney the Right to Visit Ms. Qiu Liying

On the afternoon of September 27, 2007, when Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Qiu on her way to work, the policemen from Sifang Police Station pulled her off the bus. On October 10, she was sentenced to forced labor and detained in the Women's Forced Labor Camp of Hebei Province. She filed an appeal to Shijiazhuang City Forced Labor Committee seeking administrative reconsideration of her sentence. However, camp authorities refused to deliver her appeal, leading her to miss the two-month deadline to file appeals.

To safeguard her legal rights, Ms. Qiu started a hunger strike to protest and demand for the right to hire a lawyer in her defense. By around January 10, 2008, she had been on the hunger strike for over 20 days. She had become extremely frail and thin; emaciated. Her blood pressure was abnormally low.

Since January 1, 2008, the labor camp authorities have deprived her of any form of contact with the outside world, not allowing her family and relatives to visit, and not allowing her to call back home. Therefore, her current situation is unknown.

It has been over three months since Ms. Qui's lawyer accepted her case. Her lawyer's and her family's multiple requests for visitation have been denied by the camp authorities using various excuses. When Ms. Qiu's family asked the camp authorities why they would not allow them to visit her, the authorities shirked responsibility by saying they were following orders from higher level authorities. Afterwards, her family tried to contact the 610 Office, the Forced Labor Administration Bureau and the Judicial Bureau, but these agencies avoided her family's inquires.

The Police Tortures Ms. Wang Weiyue in Qian'an City, Hebei Province

On October 19, 2007, policemen broke into Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Weiyue's house, forced her into a car, detained her in Caiyuan Police Station in Qian'an City, and then sent her to Qian'an City Police Department. Since Ms. Wang Weiyue refused to cooperate with their attempts to interrogate her, Qian'an City policeman Pu Yonglai and four or five others handcuffed her to a chair and shocked her with three electronic batons.

The police shocked her lips, mouth, back, legs and the soles of her feet for over three hours. The shocking badly burned her and left many scars. Her mouth became scabbed and cankered so that she couldn't eat anything thereafter.

Due to the nature of handcuffs, Ms. Wang Weiyue's wrists had two deep cuts that bled profusely. Her wrists became swollen and they could not even fit in her sleeves. Later on, she was dragged outside from upstairs, and was pushed into a car and taken to the Qian'an City Detention Center.

On Feburary 22, 2008, in the Qian'an City Detention Center, a female guard forced Ms. Wang to learn the prison regulation by heart. Ms. Wang Weiyue said, "I'm not against any law. By following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I can do better than if I were to learn the prison regulations."

Guard Li Zhiwen (female) forced Ms. Wang to kneel down in her office and kicked her on the floor. She trampled on Ms. Wang's right hand with her leather shoes, she also slapped her, and made two other prisoners beat Ms. Wang with a belt which such violence that the prisoner said, "The belt is broken. I can't use it any more."

After Li Zhiwen stopped, she took Ms. Wang back to the prison and forced her to kneel down again. Ms. Wang refused to do so, so Li Zhiwen then kicked Ms. Wang to the floor and slapped her again, and after that, Li Zhiwen assaulted Ms. Wang by kicking her. Over twenty prisoners watched Li Zhiwen beat Ms. Wang, eventually they could not bear it any more and persuaded Li Zhiwen to stop.

Li stopped and shouted angrily, "Take off your slacks. You are only allowed to kneel down with sweatpants."

Ms. Wang Weiyue refused to take off her slacks so she was forced to kneel down the whole morning. Ms. Wang's face was beaten until it was black and blue, and her neck was in extreme pain as well. At noon, she was allowed to stand up but she could not do it by herself. Two other prisoners lifted her up and helped move her to her bed.

During the month of February 2008, Ms. Wang Weiyue was sentenced to two years in a labor camp and she was transferred from the Qian'an City Detention Center to Kaiping Forced Labor Camp. The police are trying to "transform" her. Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to go to the restroom or take a shower. They have to eat, sleep and relieve themselves in the same room and it smells terrible, and is an unfit environment.