(Clearwisdom.net)
As soon as Dafa practitioners are dispatched to the labor camp in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, they are taken to Squadron 3. There they are savagely beaten, forced to do strenuous physical labor, and treated with other harsh corporal punishment.
Squadron 3 is especially designed for either newcomers or steadfast practitioners. There they are forced to wake up at 4am and work until 10pm, working 15 hours a day. The workload in two months is equivalent to that of an average worker in two years. One example is the laying of foundation posts. Each team consists of two people. They have to dig a hole 2.1 meters deep each day. There is little drinking water at the job site. They have to lift the dirt up with their bare hands. After a short while, their hands develop blisters. Their knuckles become stiff and unable to hold things. Some people developed over twenty blisters in one day. The police determine whether the practitioners are working hard enough by the number of blisters on their hands. The meals are comprised of dry bread and a bowl of soup with a little vegetable. Everybody looks like a skeleton after a while from malnutrition.
It is common to receive a beating in Squadron 3. Once a guard named Dong was savagely beating a young practitioner with a cane in front of over a hundred people on the street. The passersby could not stomach the cruelty; they sternly admonished and stopped his atrocity. What is even more appalling, frequently many guards will coerce prisoners to beat up the practitioners. The prisoners have no regard as to what they use, or what parts of the practitioners' bodies they hit. Some practitioners had swollen ears as a result. One of their bragged about sadistic ways is to get the practitioners to raise up their buttocks [with head lowered], spread salt on them and then kick them with their shoes. They say this way the wounds will not swell or become inflamed.
The Chaoyang City Labor Camp denies that they use corporal punishment. They say: "How can you call this corporal punishment; they are only asked to sit on a little stool, or stand , or squat for a while." In reality, the "little stool" is a torture instrument. It is made of steel, around 20 cm in diameter and 30 cm high. The top surface is uneven and full of ridges. It is unbearable to sit on it. After a period of time, the buttocks develop calluses. A practitioner named Shi Chunde from Huludao City was ordered to sit on it for 3 to 4 days. Afterwards the lower half of his body was numb, with no sensation during urination or defecation.
Another punishment is called "flying airplane," whereby one is ordered to stand against the wall and bend over to touch the toes with one's head. At the same time, the two arms are braced back and up to simulate an aircraft in flight. They have to maintain this posture for a long period of time. A 60-year old practitioner named Yong Xiufan was ordered to stand like this. His face was all swollen afterwards. Another punishment is squatting. Most people are not used to squatting. Their legs will become sore after a while, and they will be drenched in perspiration. There is also the so-called "horse stance," in which one has to stand in a half-sitting posture as if riding on an imaginary horse, with both hands stretched out in front. Can you image how it feels? In winter the practitioners who dare to do the exercises will be handcuffed to the heat pipes and not be allowed to sleep for the whole night. In the summer, they will be ordered to kneel on the ground under the scorching sun.
After the torturing in Squadron 3, the practitioners will graduate to Squadron 2 for brainwashing. The police take turns endlessly bombarding the practitioners with fabricated materials, distorting the truth or slandering Fa. They will keep on talking all day and night, not allowing the practitioners any rest. Eventually the practitioners' brains become totally exhausted and muddled.
Notwithstanding this, many practitioners maintained their determination and righteous thoughts. No matter how terrible the torture was, they were steady as a rock. In that case they would be returned to Squadron 3 for more hard labor and torture. If the practitioners still insist on practicing Dafa, they will not be allowed to go home even after the scheduled term is over. It will be extended indefinitely. There was a practitioner named Liu Chunhua. He was not allowed to go home after his term had expired, so he started on a hunger strike. The police handcuffed and shackeled him. It lasted for 3-4 months. During this period he had over 50 hunger strikes. Each time a few days into the hunger strike they would force-feed him with tubes. This caused his health to deteriorate drastically and inflicted serious damage to his kidneys.
The severe physical and mental abuse took its toll, and some practitioners finally succumbed and made statements damaging Dafa. But they felt extreme pain inside with profound remorse afterwards. The hair of some of them turned white in just a few days. Some even lost a lot of hair. Many of them felt they would rather die than not practice Dafa so they started practicing again.
Some practitioners who longed for an easy life could not bear the torture. They started finding excuses for themselves and proceeded down an evil path. They cooperated with the evil forces, not only finding excuses for themselves, but also trying to harm the true practitioners. They wanted to drag other people to hell along with them. Some became totally under the control of the evil forces, and acted as their most vicious helpers. They savagely beat up their old fellow practitioners, having totally lost their human nature.
A friend told me that there were three practitioners in his class that he knew had completely given up Zhen, Shan, Ren. It was easy to tell, because two of them started smoking, drinking and gambling; the third went to look for prostitutes. Ironically, the company they worked for felt relieved after learning this.
My heart is hurting. Is this what our government wants? With bribery and corruption everywhere, is this society not bad enough? Why do they feel threatened when there are more good people in society? Is it that necessary to get rid of good people in our country? Practitioners practice Dafa, purify their minds, strengthen their bodies, and do all kinds of good deeds. But the evil forces in the government are doing their best to persecute and get rid of them. Why?