(Minghui.org) The Masanjia Labor Camp is notorious for the brutal torture methods used on female Falun Gong practitioners. Various vicious means, including slave labor and brainwashing sessions, are used in attempts to force practitioners to give up their beliefs.
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Qiu Tieyan, 54, was born in Tieling and lives at Shenbei New Community in Shenyang City. When she started to practice Falun Gong, she became a kind person who cares about others and follows the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She previously had been a hot-tempered woman who became agitated at the slightest trifle. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution against Falun Gong, Ms. Qiu was arrested and imprisoned three times, and illegally subjected to forced labor and brainwashing.
The following is a personal account from Ms. Qiu.
I was distributing informational materials about Falun Gong at 8:00 p.m. on June 7, 2011, when I was arrested and dragged into a police vehicle by police officers Lu Guoqing, Yang (last name) and Ma (last name) from the Puhe Police Station, Shenbei New Community, Shenyang City. They damaged my clothes and shoes and forcibly put handcuffs on me. I was taken to the Puhe Police Station, where they forcibly body searched me, slammed my head against a wall, and pulled my hair. I was not allowed to drink or use the restroom, and over a dozen guards took turns watching me.
Torture reenactment: Slamming head against a wall
Liu (last name), the director of the Domestic Security Division of Shenbei New Community, along with three other police officers in plain clothes, interrogated me at about 10:00 p.m. Liu said, “It's you again. Now that you are in my grasp, I have no worries at all that you won't confess.” Another one of them said, “Once we transfer you to the second section, you won't be treated this nicely. How about you cooperate with us? That will lessen your punishment.” They interrogated me, taking turns, for over an hour. Since I didn't give in, they handcuffed me to an iron bench.
That night, Duan Qingzhu and Gao Dawei from the Domestic Security Division, and Wu Yingwei, Lu Guoqing, Yang (last name), and Ma (last name) from the Puhe Police Station illegally broke into my home and stole my computer, Dafa books, MP5 player, 500 yuan in cash, and personal belongings without leaving a receipt.
The next morning at 9:00 a.m., I was taken to the Domestic Security Division of Shenbei New Community and locked in a big cage. My hands and feet were cuffed separately, so I could only squat down, but not move. There were no lights, and I was locked up for one day and one night. The next day, Director Liu brought in a group of people to illegally interrogate me. They asked, “Are you feeling OK? Will you speak now or not? Will you be obedient now?” By then I had difficulty walking, and my extremities were swollen. Liu said sarcastically, “You looked sharp yesterday when you were sitting in the lotus position. Why are you now in such condition?”
I was then taken to the brainwashing center at Zhangshi Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City, where I was maltreated for 14 days. Since I didn't give in, the police took me back to the Domestic Security Division on June 20. One of them said to the others when he got out of the vehicle, “Let's compile something and submit it anyway in order to close out this case.” Liu didn't let me get out and interrogated me inside the vehicle saying, “If you cooperate with us it'll be good for you. You can pick a job and your own salary.”
Seeing that I wasn't swayed, he shouted loudly, “Watch her closely, and take her away for now.” They later took me to a hospital for a physical examination, and that night I was handcuffed and taken to the Shenyang First Detention Center in Zhaohua Township. During this period, the so-called case handlers, Bai Fucheng and Wu Yingwei, interrogated me three times. Bai Fucheng said to me, “Look at your interrogation records. There is no confession. How are we going to close out this case?”
On the 37th day, other plainclothes police officers illegally interrogated me. One of them claimed that he came from a law school in Shenbei New Community. He said, “Our leader has said that you will be sentenced to a labor camp. What can you tell me? Who is the boss here?” They wanted me to sign a document, but I refused and said, “I didn't violate any law. It's you who violates the law. Do you dare to tell me your name?” He said, “It's no use for you to ask for my name. Are Falun Gong cases all handled in this way? If you want to argue, you should go to the United States. I asked him whether he notified my family. He replied, “I don't care, I will just ask a random person to sign in place of your family.” I was illegally sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor. When I was released and returned home, I found out that my family had never been notified of my whereabouts.
Torture, Slave Labor, and Brainwashing in the Labor Camp
I was taken to the Masanjia Labor Camp on July 26, 2011. Three and a half months later, Bai Fucheng and Wu Yingwei interrogated me again at the camp. They asked, “How do you feel now? We will ask the same questions. Let's do this... You can just randomly throw out a few fake names in order to cooperate with us, so we can close this case. We can make a change to your forced labor term and shorten it by more than two months. How about that?” Seeing that I didn't budge, Bai Fucheng shouted, “We have sentenced you too lightly. You might feel more comfortable when we sentence you to a few more years.” Upon saying this, he left angrily.
The guards at Masanjia forced Falun Gong practitioners to plead guilty; otherwise they were tortured or their terms were extended. Those who participated in the tortures included Ma Jishan, three police officers and team captain Zhang Jun, Zhang Huan, female political instructors Zhang Zhuohui, Zhang Lei and Zhang Xiurong, and others. They took turns torturing practitioners around the clock. Falun Gong practitioners who were tortured with the stretching method included Wang Tan, Wang Xuemei, Sun Guifang, Xu Guihua, Hao Qiujing, and Wang Yingqin. The longest torture lasted about nine hours.
When I arrived at Masanjia, Wang Xuemei had been on a hunger strike for over two months, and Wang Tan for over a month. Zhang Jun, Zhang Zhuohui, Zhang Lei, and Zhang Xiurong threatened me, forced me to be “transformed,” and pressured me to sign documents. Afterward, when I woke up and became clear minded again, I made a solemn declaration that those signatures were null and void, and were made against my will.
Falun Gong practitioners were forced to perform slave labor at a workshop during the day, and watch videos slandering Master and Dafa at night. We were forced to write our thoughts in two large notebooks and do chores for people. We were forced to take tests twice a week, and answer questions that slandered Master and Dafa. People from the Liaoning Provincial Labor Education Bureau came to audit us in 2011, and ordered that every Falun Gong practitioner needed to take a test. Our medical examination document listed us as drug addicts, but in fact, out of the nearly 400 inmates, only four were drug users.
We had to work six hours every day making military coats, forest coats, and firefighter jackets for the Jihua 3504 Limited Corporation in Changchun City. Outside of the workshop, we had to load and unload things, clean, and do other chores. Guard Wang Guangyun brought in her dirty laundry from home, and we had to wash it. We had to keep this a secret and do it quickly.
One day when I had finished the work at the workshop, I had planned to copy Dafa articles onto a piece of white cloth. When I had written about ten characters, guard Dong Bin took the cloth away and said, “I will wait for the director to come, and discuss this with him. This could be as big an issue as you want it to be.”
The next morning, Wang Guangyun ordered me to go to a small warehouse for a talk. As soon as I entered the room she slapped me in the face, kicked, and beat me. When she got tired, she tried to force me to write two sentences 50 times, that slandered Dafa and Master. I refused, and the next day she called me to the workshop and punished me. She made me stand facing a wall, and did not allow me to move or use the restroom. This punishment lasted from 7:00 a.m. to midnight (except when I had a meal) every day for seven days.
I went on a hunger strike to protest. Seeing that I didn't give in, Wang Guangyun brought me to Donggang, a place within the Masanjia Labor Camp specifically set up for torturing female Falun Gong practitioners. She said to guard Zhang Xiurong, “I brought you one more. She's not obedient.” She also brought in captain Zhang Huan and political instructor Zhang Zhuohui.
Zhang Huan carried a pair of handcuffs, and said while walking, “Look how angry you have made us. You're making trouble for us. Do you think you will get anything good? Do you think we're all your relatives? The more familiar we are with you the worse off you will be. We will not hesitate to abuse you. Let's give you the torture of stretching.” Three people then came to afix my extremities to an iron bed with handcuffs, to stretch my body. They also stuffed dirty towels into my mouth. They forcefully pulled on the handcuffs in order to suspend my body into the air for about three hours.
Torture reenactment: Stretching
The guards ordered inmates to monitor Falun Gong practitioners in their jail cells, classrooms, activity rooms, cafeteria, and workshop, and strike practitioners every two minutes. Wang Guangyun forced everyone to recite the prison rules and sing songs that praised the Chinese Communist Party loudly every day. When anyone was singing with a lower voice, she was punished and made to stand straight until midnight for one week. They were also forced to shout military drills, and those with a weaker voice were forced to continue at the drilling grounds. During their remaining time at noon and at night, they had to continue the drill.
About one week before my release from the labor camp, personnel from the provincial discipline committee came to check my condition. When Wang Guangyun notified me about this, she threatened me not to reveal the tortures Falun Gong practitioners received at the labor camp.
