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In the 1960s, Chinese leaders visited model communities to learn new and better
agricultural and industrial methods. Today, Chinese authorities are sending
prison directors from around China to study model labor camps that have reportedly
been effective in “reeducating” or “transforming” Falun Gong practitioners through
torture and brainwashing methods.
The Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in China’s Hebei Province
is one such camp that has gained recognition for its ability to force Falun
Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs through torture. Because of its
evident success, Chinese authorities are routinely sending prison and labor
camp directors from around the country to Gaoyang to learn more “effective”
torture methods.
In addition to the rounds of prison directors, authorities
have also sent to Gaoyang many Falun Gong practitioners who have repeatedly
resisted torture, evidently hoping that the more radical methods used at Gaoyang
would work where others failed.
Ms. Cui Suzhen, 61, was transferred from a labor camp in Shijiazhuang
City to Gaoyang because authorities were unsuccessful in forcing Ms.Cui to discontinue
her practice of Falun Gong. Ms. Cui went on a hunger strike in order to protest
her illegal detention and the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
According to reports from those who were held at Gaoyang, on
three separate occasions the labor camp guards force-fed Ms. Cui large quantities
of human excrement. The guards also continuously beat her, shocked her with
electric batons, used pliers to pinch her skin and crush her nipples, and buried
her in snow for extended periods of time.
Ms. Liu Haiqin, a former employee of Handan City’s Bureau
of Finance was transferred to Gaoyang from a labor camp in Shijiazhuang. Because
she refused to sign a “transformation statement” renouncing her practice of
Falun Gong, Ms. Liu was handcuffed and forced to squat for sixty hours, all
the time suffering shocked by the guards with cattle prods (electric batons).
Ms. Song Jiaxian is a 39-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from
Chengde. Gaoyang guards tortured her with a technique called “tying the ropes“.
Victims report that this torture consists of a rope wound tightly around the
neck and arms while the arms are forced up behind the body making it very difficult
to breathe. The pain generated from this torture is so severe and intense that
victims often lose control of their bodily functions. Guards applied this torture
to Ms. Song 14 times, leaving both her shoulders dislocated.
Survivors of the Labor Camp say the women’s section of
Gaoyang employs a variety of torture techniques on Falun Gong practitioners,
including extreme sleep deprivation, electric shocks, electric shocks while
the victim is submerged in water, inserting needles under their fingertips,
burying them alive to the verge of suffocation, stuffing used sanitary napkins
into their mouths, and hammering nails into their toes.
Posting date: 20/Dec/2003
Original article date: 19/Dec/2003
Category: News from China
