By Ben Larkman
Falun Gong practitioners are being sold to Chinese hair-care firm Henan
Rebecca and utilized as slave labor.
Hair products manufacturer Henan Rebecca, Inc. is contracting work to
notorious Chinese labor camps that buy Falun Gong practitioners as slave
labor, reports the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI), an organization
dedicated to publicizing details of the persecution of Falun Gong. The
Information Center says that labor camps such as Shibalihe and Xuchang
buy Falun Gong practitioners from other labor camps for 800 RMB each (almost
$100 US), and force them to work day and night. Many have been tortured to
death as part of a “reeducation” program that aims to crush their spiritual
beliefs.
The labor camps are located in Henan Province, where hair products are the
number one export. Henan Rebecca describes itself as “the largest hair
product company in China and one of the biggest in the world,” including the
U.S. Its wigs and other products are sold worldwide under many brand names,
including Shake-N-Go Hair and Royal Imex, Inc.
Company officials have denied using followers of the banned spiritual
movement as slave labor.
A source in China who is familiar with forced labor contracts told the FDI:
“Many of these wig product factories don’t hire a lot of employees
outright.” Instead, they rely heavily on the slave labor of detainees in
forced labor camps, jails and detention centers, including many illegally
detained Falun Gong practitioners.”
According to the FDI report, the No. 2 Shibalihe Female Labor Camp, located
in Henan’s Zhenzhou City, was assigned a new director in May 2003. After
arriving at the position, Qu Shuangcai — previously the head of the No. 3
Xuchang City Labor Camp — introduced torture methods from his former labor
camp in an effort to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief
system. Within several months, at least three practitioners died of this
torture, including Zhang Yali, an accountant in her thirties.
Sources say Qu also signed a production contract with Henan Rebecca and
began manufacturing hair products for export. Qu’s former labor camp also
manufactures hair products for the same purpose.
“A while back, when the labor camp was short of funding and was about to be
shut down, many Falun Gong practitioners became available,” Shen Jianwei, a
guard at the Xuchang camp, told the FDI. “The government allocated 20,000
Yuan to ‘reform’ each practitioner. The labor camp used eight million Yuan
of this government funding to construct residential buildings to encourage
the guards to persecute these practitioners.”
Currently, the labor camp is buying Falun Gong practitioners from other
places as slaves to increase production volume. Sources familiar with the
Xuchang camp state that prisoners are forced to work overtime, day and
night, under high-pressure supervision. If prisoners make a slight mistake,
they are beaten by the guards.
Falun Gong practitioners at the camp have received a heightened workload and
those who are not able to complete the work on time are deprived of sleep,
forced to stand against the wall and have had their sentences extended. Two
young, male Falun Gong practitioners, Li Jian and Yao Sanzhong were tortured
to death at the Xuchang camp.
The Xuchang labor camp was awarded the “National Civilized Work Unit”
citation from the Central Politics and Law Committee’s “6-10 Office, “and
the Labor Camp Bureau. The 6-10 Office is a secretive organization directed
and empowered by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin to eliminate Falun
Gong in China. The award applauded the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners
imprisoned at the camp.
The FDI report also describes the torture methods used in these camps,
including one technique in which guards tie practitioners’ arms behind their
backs in a straight jacket. According to an eyewitness account, the arms are
then raised over the shoulders to the chest and the victims suffer broken
arms, torn tendons, as well as dislocated shoulders, wrists, and elbows.
Other forms of torture include tying practitioners’ and hanging them upside
down from the windows; and gagging practitioners’ mouths with cloth and
placing earphones to drill anti-Falun Gong propaganda into their minds. The
spines of those who endure this torture for a long time are sometimes
broken, killing the individual.
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