(Clearwisdom.net) I am Ms. Chen Hua, 34, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Guangzhou City of Guangdong province, China. I was employed at a large state enterprise that was involved in international trade. I began to practice Falun Dafa in March 1997. Soon after beginning the practice, my chronic gastritis and hepatitis C were cured without medical treatment. It was considered a miracle that my hepatitis C disappeared and my liver function became normal. Living by the principles "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance," I became a kind and compassionate person and received a lot of praise at work and home.
  Ms. Chen Hua before the persecution |
  Ms. Chen Hua during the persecution of April – July 2004 |
Since 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned and persecuted Falun Gong, I was illegally detained in the Tianhe District Detention Center of Guangzhou City five times, temporarily detained in the Tianhe District Brainwashing Center of Guangzhou City once, and illegally sent to Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp of Guangzhou City twice (two years and two and half years, respectively).
The first time (July 2000 – January 2003), the forced labor camp did not release me at the end of my term. The second time (April 2004 – July 2004), I was released for medical leave after I had been on hunger strike for more than eighty days. I began on the hunger strike on day one at the forced labor camp.
I overcame many difficulties and was able to escape to Thailand, where I applied for United Nations’ refugee status. I am now able to expose the torture that I experienced at the Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp. I had brought with me two original documents that I recorded at the forced labor camp. It escaped detection by numerous monitors and was taken to the outside without being detected at multiple checkpoints.
First Illegal Imprisonment Exceeding Original Term at the Forced Labor Camp (July 19, 2000 – January 23, 2003)
During my first time at the forced labor camp, I refused to be "transformed" or collaborate with the persecutors. My term was extended by five hundred more days and I suffered many different torture methods, including being confined in a solitary cell and continuous brainwashing (please see attachment for details). At the beginning of 2002, because I refused to be "transformed," I was imprisoned in the "back courtyard" – a two-story house, used to imprison steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. I was closely monitored by two drug addicts around the clock and prohibited from contacting anyone. They brought in different people, using different methods to try to "transform" me daily.
After torture methods failed, the forced labor camp director tried three months using what is called "fortress attack." Finally, the director said that I was too stubborn and wanted to have me taken to Northern China. He believed that I might be "transformed" there. It was called "transforming at a different location." The forced labor camp decided that I would be the first person to be taken to the North after receiving instruction from the top. The director tried to persuade me to stay at Chatou (Guangzhou City), so I could be near my relatives, although I was not allowed to see them. I was told that I could see them after my "transformation." If I was taken to a different location, I would not be able to see them at all. This happened between June and July of 2002.
In September 2002, the guards in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, who were sent to Beijing to learn "how to handle Falun Dafa practitioners" at Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, returned. They put steadfast Dafa practitioners into a "dark room" for torture. A few "transformed" people came with them from Beijing. Among them was a tall man named Mr. Xu who claimed to be the husband of Ms. Li Xiaomei, a member of the Beijing Falun Gong Research Institute, Xue Huiling who is in her fifties, and a middle aged woman named Zhang Lijun. These people, drug addicts and guards were assigned to torture us. At 9 a.m. on October 14, 2002, when I had been already there three months longer than my original term, the guard took me to the dark room for a discussion. The room’s windows and doors were covered tightly with newspaper. Ms. Xue Huiling and Ms. Zhang Lijun said that they wanted to "share experiences" with me. I did not talk to these traitors. Then Ms. Xue flirted with me, asking me why I did not talk to or look at her. She said not to be afraid and claimed to "massage" my body and started pinching my whole body and acupuncture points. She also held my head back and tried to kiss me. I shouted, "Do not touch me. Be respectful." They said, "Finally you started to talk." Then they asked three or four drug addicts and other collaborators who had been waiting outside to come in and tie my hands and feet together.
They used the torture of "tying the legs" (putting my legs in double-leg crossing position, and then tie them together with bed sheets into the shape of an "8"), handcuffed my hands behind my back, beat me, force-fed me with spicy water, deprived me of sleep, forbade me to go to the bathroom, and scolded and tried to brainwash me by talking loudly into my ear for more than ten hours. I was not able to stand up or walk after that. I had seen that two practitioners who were over 40 years old, Ms. Jiao Jian and Tang Yiwen, were crippled by this torture. Right after this torture, they tortured me with the "cross stand" (stretching my arms straight and to the maximum extension, and then cuffing them to the iron bed). They beat my legs. My legs immediately became swollen and I bled profusely. They prohibited me from using the bathroom. I had to relieve myself in my pants. Then they forcibly put a pen into my handcuffed hand to sign, making my hands bleed. They continued this for over three days. While my mind was not clear, I signed the Three Statements, something that a Dafa practitioner should have never done. I was released on January 23, 2003.
Second Illegal Imprisonment -- Arrested and Taken to Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp (April 23, 2004 – July 14, 2004)
On the evening of April 23, 2004, officers from the Tianhe District 610 Office broke into my small restaurant. They threw all of the customers out of the restaurant, detained my employees, and ransacked my restaurant, my employees’ living rooms and my home. Then they took me to the Tianhe District Brainwashing Center. I began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Four days later, they transferred me to the Tianhe District Detention Center. On May 12, 2004, a 610 official sentenced me to two and half years of forced labor. About a week later, I was taken to the Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp again.
I continued my hunger strike to protest this arrest and demanded to be unconditionally released. In the mean time, I started to appeal and file lawsuits. The Group Political Instructor from the Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp told me that because I complained, the Tianhe District 610 Office purposely hid the fact that I had been holding a long-term hunger strike while with them. They were afraid that the Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp would refuse to take me.
Staff at the forced labor camp force-fed me through my nose, inserting a tube from my nose to my stomach. They did not remove the tube until seven days later, when it smelled terribly. Then they inserted another tube through the other nostril into my stomach. They kept alternating for over eighty days. By then, I was in critical condition and suffered from an irregular heartbeat and slow cardiac rhythm. Then they allowed my family members to take me home for "medical care outside the forced labor camp."
Attachment A: Materials exposing the evil persecution that I was able to smuggle out after overcoming numerous difficulties
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Summary of Suffering at the Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp
Staff at the Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp forced steadfast Dafa practitioners to wear a red badge on their chest. They were called the "red badgers." They set up the "monitoring" of firm Dafa practitioners – ordering non-Falun Gong practitioners or collaborators to watch firm practitioners on a one-to-one basis at all times. They monitored them during work, meals, taking a shower, going to the bathroom, and even when they slept. Firm practitioners were forbidden to approach, talk to, look at or smile at each other. The monitors had to listen into all conversations and read everything the practitioner wrote. Practitioners were not allowed to sit with legs crossed. The monitors received points if they monitored successfully. If not, they were blamed, lost points or their terms were extended. Taking advantage of the practitioners’ wish to be released quickly, their benevolence toward others, and implication methods, staff at the forced labor camp forced practitioners to adhere to prison rules. Otherwise, they would spread vicious rumors, claiming that practitioners were "selfish and harming other people."
Once a drug addict who was monitoring a practitioner was asked about a practitioner who was about to be released. She responded that the practitioner was a steadfast Dafa practitioner. The guards became angry and took 500 points away from her, claiming to give her a lesson. Another time, a steadfast Dafa practitioner put an appeal letter into a reporting mailbox on her way to bathroom in the morning. The guard dragged her monitor aside and scolded her, "Why weren't you watching her?" The guard threatened to take her points away. The monitor came back very angry, claiming that the "red badger" was harming her. She claimed that she was about to complete her term and if she lost points and her term was extended, she would punish the Dafa practitioner. Another Dafa practitioner was put into a solitary confinement after Teacher’s articles were found on her. Her monitor was sentenced to two more months in the forced labor camp. Even a drug addict monitor said, "Because our freedom is in the hand of the guards, whatever they ask me to do, I will do it. Even if they ask me to beat you to death, I will do it." Because of unrelenting pressure and fear, these criminals yelled at and scolded Dafa practitioners. Some were even ordered and encouraged by the guards to physically abuse or torture Dafa practitioners, such as forcing practitioners to sit on small stools to "think" and prohibiting them from sleeping until midnight, 2 a.m., 4 a.m., or even an entire night. They forbid practitioners to take a shower, drink, or go to the bathroom when they hadn’t completed the assigned work.
On orders from guards, several drug addicts stripped naked a 28-year-old steadfast Dafa practitioner and cuffed her hands behind the back. They applied medicinal ointment on her body and gagged her mouth so that she was not able to cry for help. Her wrists were swollen and her feet were bleeding. After this incident, she requested numerous times to see the on-duty Political Instructor and guards, but was told that they "had no time" to meet with her. An on-duty guard opened and read a Dafa practitioner’s letter to the discipline inspection officials of the forced labor camp to report the aforementioned incident. They ordered her to the guard-room at midnight that day. Four on-duty cadres and several guards scolded her. When she pointed out that they illegally opened and read her appeal letters, forcibly and violently applied medicine on her body, used torture instruments to damage Falun Gong practitioners’ bodies, and humiliated Falun Gong practitioners, the Political Instructor said, "The top allowed us to do so." When she asked, "What do you mean by the top?" She answered, "It’s the nation’s top leaders." Then they injected an unknown liquid into her muscles.
Another steadfast Dafa practitioner who was over fifty was handcuffed and force-fed with medicine. She felt very uncomfortable afterwards. She reported it to the officials, but she was then force-fed with medicine again. She was further tortured by being forced to sit on a small stool facing the wall in her room for two months – called "hooked to the room." She was only allowed to leave the room to use the toilet for five minutes in the morning and take a shower for 15 minutes in the afternoon. She had to do everything else in her room. This was a form of long-term confinement. Later she was ordered to do at least three hours of calisthenics every day.
As more and more Falun Gong practitioners were taken to the forced labor camp, the third group was solely for Falun Gong practitioners, and drug addicts were gradually transferred or released. Collaborators became monitors. Dafa practitioners were forced to wear the "red badge" after they arrived at the forced labor camp and were assigned a monitor. The practitioner was not allowed to get in touch with anyone, nor was she allowed to leave the room without special permission. Washing and using the toilet were done in the same room. She was forced to exchange experiences with "transformed" people and listen to their twisted logic. She was prohibited from sleeping before midnight, forced to sit on a small stool to do "homework" – putting on paper what she had learned. If she refused to be "transformed" or realized that renouncing Falun Dafa was wrong and wanted to retract the "Three Statements" that she signed earlier, she became a strictly controlled target for "fortress attack." Starting around May of this year, the forced labor camp implemented even more cruel torture methods – such as the "Fortress Attack" and "the Rules to Strictly Control the Red Badge Wearers."
In addition to having to follow rules of the camp, steadfast practitioners were taken for a drill under the hot sun in the morning and in the afternoon. They were also forced to recite material that slandered Dafa. If they couldn’t recite the material on time, they were not allowed to take a shower. A fifty-five-year-old Dafa practitioner was not allowed to take a shower for three days in the hot month of June and her skin developed eczema.
The so-called "exchange" meant that a dozen "transformed" people surrounded one firm Dafa practitioner for scolding, insult and verbal attack. They shamelessly spread their evil "enlightenment" theory. The face of a firm practitioner was slapped because she rejected the evil "enlightenment" theory. The collaborators would go to sleep when they were tired, but Dafa practitioners were forbidden to sleep and forced to sit on the small stool to "think." If the practitioner refused to be "transformed," they would go through the same drill the next day. Besides verbal abuse, they also beat the practitioners. They shamelessly claimed that this was to help the steadfast practitioner to get rid of her karma. They also claimed that they had reached a higher level and therefore it was okay for them to beat other people. They kept insulting and blaspheming Dafa. One night, the collaborators in one room continued to verbally abuse Dafa practitioners for an entire night, making it impossible for other people in the same building to sleep. These games were not stopped by the guards. Some Dafa practitioners were prohibited from sleeping for three or four days. All this was planned and arranged by the collaborators and were strongly supported by the forced labor camp authorities. A lot of Dafa practitioners were "transformed" due to these high-pressure tactics. Later practitioners gradually began to awaken and announced that they were retracting everything that they wrote when they were under great duress. They declared that they were returning to cultivation and the Fa rectification process.
The forced labor camp often did not allow Dafa practitioners to meet with visitors or imposed a lot of restrictions when they met with visitors. Once a Dafa practitioner wanted to hire an attorney because her term at the forced labor camp was illegally extended due to her refusal to renounce Falun Dafa. She was prohibited from seeing anyone for eight months. Another practitioner wanted to hire an attorney, but her parent was old and illiterate. She asked the guard permission to write down her request so that her parent could take it with her. The guard agreed. However, her parent told her during the next visit that another guard took and destroyed her request right after the visit. Her parent was also harassed by the guards and told that her child would never be released if she refused to be "transformed." Being extremely worried and frightened, this senior parent knelt down to the guards to lessen the possible damage that she would bring to her child.
It had been quite "normal" that Dafa practitioners could neither send letters to relatives, nor could relatives write letters to the practitioner. Sometimes private letters were publicly read, distributed, printed or copied without the acknowledgement or permission from the recipients. According to the law, "work at the forced labor camp should not exceed six hours each day" and "people in the forced labor camp should rest on holidays and weekends," but since June of this year, Dafa practitioners were forced to work more than ten hours a day, including weekends.
Furthermore, if Dafa practitioners showed their firmness in Dafa cultivation or signed with "Dafa practitioner xxx (name)" in their weekly report, their term would be extended an additional one to three months, with the excuse violating "The Reward and Punishment Regulations at the Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp of Guangzhou City." Their terms would also be extended if they refused to write weekly reports.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what went on at that labor camp. In general, if a practitioner refused to be "transformed," she would face a lot of hidden, unfair and unjustified treatment, negative points and term extensions. We had reported to various authorities, including the forced labor camp’s discipline inspection office, procurator stationed at the camp, Baiyun District Procuratorate, Guangzhou City Forced Labor Camp Bureau, Guangzhou City Legal Office, and etc. A procurator stationed at the forced labor camp said publicly, "As long as a Falun Gong practitioner refuses to be 'transformed,' even though she just insists in thoughts, she should be punished. She would get negative points or a term extension. We will deal with them in any manner necessary to transform them." When we asked them to show the specific legal regulation, guards, labor camp heads or even procurators claimed that "this was the regulation from the top," or "this was according to the spirit of the instruction from the top" and so on.
Relatives and friends, you know deep in your heart why we are practicing Falun Gong. The Fa is rectifying the cosmos, and rectifying everything that is not righteous. Evil persecutes us and also blames us for not being considerate towards others. They even try to use practitioners' personal feelings, fear of authority, and lack of understanding of the legal process to aggravate the persecution of us. We need to awaken! Never stand by the evil! Letting the evil go on unchecked is in itself undermining justice. Maybe you think, "I must get out first, and then discuss what to do." But did you know that if only more and more people have righteous thoughts will we be released?
August 8, 2001
Appendix
To respond to the many inhuman incidents at the camp, some steadfast Dafa practitioners began protesting the evil persecution by not working since July 2005. There were more than thirty people participating in August 2005, and most of them were "red badge wearers." Then the officials of the forced labor camp began to pay attention to it. On August 21, 2005, the forced labor camp directors and the procurator stationed at the forced labor camp by the Baiyun District Procuratorate of Guangzhou City held a meeting with all Dafa practitioners who refused to work. They said that they would provide an explanation for these reported incidents and requested Dafa practitioners to go back to work. However, their explanations avoided the real issues, and the directors as well as the procurator even denied, distorted, or covered up certain facts that were obviously in violation of existing laws and regulations. They refused to guarantee the protection of practitioners’ rights of appealing and no physical abuse of practitioners.
For example, a practitioner in her fifties was beaten because she did the Falun Gong exercises. This was a clear case of physical abuse. Director Li Xuezhen who was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners said, "It’s okay as long as you don’t hit her face and don’t kill her."
Also, several Falun Gong practitioners were hung up with handcuffs, or cuffed with their four limbs stretched and cuffed in a fixed position to a bed from several days to a month. They needed help eating, drinking, urinating or having a bowel movement. They were only allowed to take a shower every several days. Once a practitioner in her forties needed to have a bowel movement. The on-duty monitor thought it was too comfortable for her to use a bed pan, so she just let her do it on the bed and then beat her. Another practitioner in her thirties was cuffed on the bed for 312 hours. Her hair started to turn white. When Dafa practitioners questioned Director Li, she answered, "This was not physical abuse. If she dies, I will say that she committed suicide by knocking her head against the wall." This kind of physical abuse has been continuously used since March 2001. After the meeting with the directors and procurator, on August 23, three Dafa practitioners (Ms. Zhou Yuyun, Ms. Dai Yanhong, and Ms. Chen Hua) were put into solitary confinement for "being absent from work for no legitimate reason."
September 3, 2001
Attachment B Materials exposing the evil persecution that I was able to smuggle out after overcoming numerous difficulties
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Summary:
To the Leaders of the CCP’s Central Discipline Inspection Committee:
I am a Falun Gong practitioner currently illegally imprisoned in the 2nd Group of Chatou Women’s Forced Labor Camp of Guangzhou City. Recently, I have been physically abused many times by the guards or by other people, as ordered by the guards, just because I sat with both legs crossed in my room. Please read below as to what happened.
On the morning of October 30, 2001, when I sat with both legs crossed, several monitors and the on-duty guard violently pulled my legs and arms, verbally abused me, and sat on my legs. Then they dragged me from the bed to the floor and then to the window and used two pairs of handcuffs to cuff my hands to the window frame. Several guards from the 2nd group ordered the abuse. That evening, drug addict Ms. Yan Minyi and another two personal cangues Ms. Shi Xiaoli and Ms. Li Huiqiong told me that they would un-cuff my hands, but asked me not to loosen my grab on the window frame. When I tried to ease the pressure on my hands, these three people pulled my hands and pushed my arms to cuff my hands at a much higher position on the window’s frame. The on-duty guard was Ms. Chen. She stood at the door watching. I asked for her help. These three people said, "No guard is here." Ms. Shi Xiaoli turned my face to the door and said, "See? There is no guard here." Then guard Chen just left.
About two hours later, these three people and a few members of the self-management committee came to tell me that they were going to un-cuff me. But then they cuffed one of my hands to the bed frame and another hand to a window frame, making my arms almost a straight line. My right leg was injured. Guard Chen was present. The law prohibits guards to use torture instruments, physically punish people, or instigate other people do so. Especially inmates are forbidden from using a torture instrument. It was even a greater violation of the law if an inmate used a torture instrument without a guard’s permission. However, the guard not only did not stop this behavior, but encouraged and watched the torture.
That night when the guard came to check if we were asleep, I asked guard Chen about what happened earlier. She evaded the question. Then I reported it to another guard and showed her my injury. That guard said that since she was not on duty at that time, and as she had not seen it she could not take care of it. Then I appealed to the Group Leader Lai, but she refused to listen. Later they un-cuffed me and I started to sit with both legs crossed again. They sent six or seven monitors, inspectors, and self-management committee members to torture me. I was then cuffed in a straight line in my dormitory room in a standing position and not allowed to sleep for the entire night. My wrists were swollen and the skin was broken, both of my legs had multiple open wounds, and my right hand was numb. I requested a medical check-up of my injuries, but my request was ignored.
Since the time I was cuffed on October 30, I had not ingested any food or liquid. But my health had not suffered. I behaved normally, remained conscious and was able to have multiple conversations with the guards. I urged them to stop the vicious abuse. On November 1, doctors came to check my body and everything appeared normal. Director Li Xuezhen, Discipline Inspector Chief Ms. Liang Huiping and Education Division Chief Ms. Lu Ping told me that they had received my accusation letter and thought that the guards handled my situation improperly. They also told me that the forced labor camp had a regulation that "a person will be force-fed if she has not eaten for three days." I asked them to show me the official regulation. I knew that under the law, the administrative authority clearly stipulated "not to perform any actions that were not specified in the law," so as to prevent power abuse and violation of people’s human rights. But they ignored my request. Right after that, the Political Instructor Ms. Wang Ruixing of the 2nd Group, two guards from the health clinic and three monitors forcibly took me into the meeting room. The medical warden violently pushed me on a chair and asked the guards to cuff my hands to the arms of the chair. They began to force-feed me by putting a tube through my nose.
During the force-feeding, the monitors who did not have any medical knowledge even used their arms to straighten my neck, so my head would be straight for the medical personnel to insert the tube into my nose. It was difficult to breathe. When I struggled to take out the tube that had been inserted into my stomach, the medical personnel viciously used her fingernails to pinch my hand. She took the tube from me, so that she could insert it back into my stomach. I told her that I had never seen a doctor without any medical ethics before. But she said, "Haven’t you seen how mentally retarded people are treated?"
Anyone with medical knowledge should know that feeding through a nose tube was a special treatment for those who could no longer eat and were in critical health condition. And this procedure should be performed by professionals with great care, to avoid injury to the nose, throat, esophagus, stomach and intestines. Yet the staff at the forced labor camp performed violent force-feeding on me, using the excuse of "being responsible for my life and health" when I was in a good health condition. It was actually a torture and endangered my life and health. After the force-feeding, my left ear could barely hear for quite a while. When I swallowed, my throat was in great pain and I often vomited.
Another Example of Inhuman Persecution
From December 28, 1999 to January 11, 2000, I was under administrative detention at the 212 women’s room (and later transferred to 213 women’s room) of the Tianhe District Detention Center of Guangzhou City. The persecution I suffered included being forced to clean bathrooms on my knees, being beaten with a stick and force-fed with salt water. This was used to make sure that other detained people in the same room would stop us from doing exercises. I expressed my objection to the physical punishment, threats and implication policy and then went on a hunger strike. The next day, Director Zhu and medical personnel with the excuse of "saving my life" ordered four or five male inmates to hold me on the ground, face up. They cut a water bottle in half and used the top part as a "funnel." Then they used a toothbrush to pry my mouth open and put the "funnel" into my mouth. They poured a bag of salt into a plastic cup with a little water to partially dissolve it. They ordered the male criminals to pour that salt and water into my mouth. I closed my mouth, so they used a towel to cover my eyes and pinched my nose and chin to make me open my mouth. A female medical personnel even instructed a male criminal to use a plastic flower stem (detainees were forced to do labor work to assemble plastic flowers) to tickle me. The water and salt got into my nose. When I opened my mouth, they poured the salt and water into my mouth. This cruel torture almost made me lose consciousness.
After the torture, a male criminal lost consciousness suddenly. Director Zhu, who watched and directed the entire torture, scolded him, saying, "Why are you so useless?" Other detainees in the room were so frightened, but dared not cry. My gums were bleeding and both hands and feet were covered with blood. I could not speak and kept spitting out salt and bloody liquid for several days. It was very difficult for me to eat. Even though I was tortured like this, they still put foot shackles on me. This "feeding salt water" torture was widely applied on Falun Gong practitioners at the Tianhe District Detention Center at the time. Afterwards, we (another practitioner, Ms. Li Qigong, was also tortured like this) kindly told Director Zhu that he should not let this brutal lawless and inhumane torture continue at the detention center, otherwise it could cause people’s deaths. But he would not listen. As a result, we heard that a male Falun Gong practitioner, Gao Xianmin, suddenly died on January 17, 2000. Afterwards, all of the Falun Gong practitioners in the female section were taken to other detention centers in Guangzhou City. This had never happened at the detention center before. Later the government announced that Mr. Gao died of a heart attack. But I can say with certainty that Mr. Gao’s death was not as simple as the official announcement.
Falun Gong practitioners have never hurt anyone. We just keep clarifying the truth – Dafa indeed gives us great mental and physical benefits. Meanwhile, the CCP is using the dark side of human nature to attack and suppress Dafa. Please, I want you all to come to the right decision.
I have mailed a letter at the beginning of October this year [to officials]. I have not received any reply. I re-sent it in case it was lost. I really hope that you investigate and handle my case appropriately!
