(Clearwisdom.net) Whoever is sent to Langfang City Detention Center learns that the forced labor there is extremely intensive and unendurable. There are always countless beans waiting to be picked and chopsticks waiting to be wrapped up. The person in charge assigns daily jobs to every detainee. Detainees who are unable to finish their assignments, are punished by either not being allowed to sleep or by being given evening duty. They are forced to work more than 10 hours every day. On hot summer days, because of working in poorly ventilated cells, many suffer heatstroke. Newcomers usually face an even harsher environment since they need time to learn those labor skills. If they cannot finish their assignments during the daytime, they are forced to continue their labor at night. The monitor in each cell does not allow them to go sleep if they have not finished their assignments. Some of them finally get their job done just before daybreak. Then the next day's assignment is waiting for them. Although detainees are forced to perform such intensive labor, they are only given two buns and a bowl of light soup per meal. Male detainees usually are unable to eat enough food every day, not to mention getting enough nutrition. After working for an entire day, everyone's stomach is rumbling with hunger.

The only time they get a break is when some authorities come to visit or inspect the detention center. At that time, the officer asks everyone stop working and takes the products away and hides them well. All detainees would start cleaning cells and yards. Then they would be asked to sit down on the ground and recite the detention center's rules and regulations. After the visitors leave, they would begin their work again. Actually the above-mentioned situations currently take place in all detention centers and labor camps in China. The intensity of the forced labor is unimaginable. All detainees have been turned into slave laborers.

Currently many Falun Gong practitioners have been sent into detention centers, labor camps and jails. As a result, they have experienced all the darkness and brutality. They have been suffering barbarous torture for refusing to be treated so inhumanely, but they have never yielded to the persecution. In China, even average citizens in many respects have no human rights, not to mention those detainees. I sincerely hope all kind-hearted people in the world will give their concern and support to Chinese Falun Gong practitioners!

January 17, 2004

Practitioner in China