(Clearwisdom.net)
In November and December of 2005, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Mr. Manfred Nowak visited China to investigate human rights abuses. Xinjiang was one of the areas he toured. During his stay in Xinjiang, the prison and judicial system, especially the Fifth Prison, where Falun Gong practitioners were detained in large numbers, used all kinds of false evidence in an attempt to deceive Mr. Nowak (although Mr. Nowak eventually did not actually visit the Fifth Prison). Before Mr. Nowak's planned visit, the detention centers and prisons put on a show. Instead of treating prisoners brutally and giving them very little food, they provided decent food and treated prisoners in a humanitarian manner. As soon as the Special Rapporteur left Xinjiang, they reverted back to their usual ways.
The Fifth Prison of Xinjiang established a "Reception Period Work Group" just to prepare for this potential visit of the U.N. Special Rapporteur. The heads of each division were assembled to falsify evidence. Each prison division selected some inmates to be "trained," making them memorize lies to answer questions that Nowak might ask. For example, the inmates were trained to say that they worked only eight hours a day, even though in reality, they worked more than 10 hours a day. They were required to lie and say that their daily meals met the food standard. The prison was overcrowded, but the inmates were required say that there was no overcrowding. To keep the number of prisoners seemingly low, the beds of some prisoners were put in storage, and these prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor at night. They also picked a number of prisoners to pretend to play games during the day, in order to make it seem as though the prison was a peaceful place.
The most absurd of all, they moved the prisoners who they thought would be hard to control to places outside of the prison. The "Agriculture Team" was a group of prisoners who were sent to the fields to do labor. Some other prisoners were hidden in a small room in a wood furniture factory, and they were called the "Sweater Team."
Falun Gong practitioner Chen Yujiang had been on a hunger strike since he was put in the Fifth Prison at the end of 2005. He had rejected all of the requests by the authorities, and said "Falun Dafa is great" at every opportunity. Because he refused to be force-fed, the guards knocked out several of his front teeth to insert a tube. In spring and summer of 2006, the prison moved Chen to solitary confinement. They put shackles on his wrists and ankles, and made him sit on a tiger bench, which is a concrete stool to which a person's hands and feet are fastened so that the person could not move at all. However, such torture did not shake Chen Yujiang's faith. The guards were shocked. Chen often shouted out "Falun Dafa is great," "Give me back my freedom," and "Stop the persecution." People going in and out of the gate of the prison often could hear his voice.
During Mr. Nowak's visit to Xinjiang, the prison also moved Chen Yujiang, who had been on a hunger strike for over one year and had been force-fed, to the Air Force Hospital for "treatment." They tried to conceal the move. As soon as Mr. Nowak left Urumqi City in Xinjiang Province, they moved Chen back to the prison, where Chen is still currently detained. Their fraudulent acts were condemned by many prisoners.
Many detainees and prisoners are eyewitnesses to these acts. By comparing the normal situation in labor camps and prisons with the conditions when Mr. Nowak was visiting, it was easy to see that the Chinese Communist Party was trying to deceive the United Nations and the world.
Falun Gong practitioner Yan Weihong has been on a hunger strike and refused to cooperate with the prison guards since he was taken to the Fifth Prison in July 2006. He actually has been on a hunger strike for longer than that, since he was first arrested by police from Manasi Police Station in Xinjiang.
