The Atrocities at Nanmusi Women's Labor Camp in Zizhong County, Sichuan Province
        
        
        
          March 10, 2004
          
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          By a practitioner in Sichuan, China
          
        
       
      
        (Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Gong in 1997, after which all my 
illnesses miraculously went away. When the persecution started, I clarified the 
truth to others about Falun Gong, and was arrested and illegally sentenced to 
two years in a forced labor camp. I was imprisoned at Nanmusi Women's Labor Camp 
in Zhizhong. The following is my personal testimony of the brutalities I 
witnessed in the labor camp.
  - 
  
The labor camp forces newly 
  imprisoned Falun Dafa practitioners to sit facing a wall for at least 
  seventeen hours a day. They are also forced to watch and read slanderous 
  material. The labor camp assigns two inmates [non-practitioners] to 
  monitor and constantly keep close watch on each of the practitioners. 
  Practitioners are not allowed to move away from the spot where they sit. Even 
  for eating and relieving themselves, they need to do it on the spot. Prison 
  guards and inmates abuse practitioners regardless of their age. The random 
  cursing and beating of practitioners are common. Practitioners who refuse to 
  write a "repentance statement*" after two or three days of such torture are 
  forced to stand facing the wall for even longer periods of time each day. If 
  they still refuse to write it, they will be forced to stand with both of their 
  arms stretched out and tied to the wall. I witnessed some practitioners being 
  put into solitary confinement right after they arrived at the labor camp. They 
  were handcuffed, and water was poured over their bodies and their beds. 
  *Repentance statement: 
  In this statement the practitioner is forced to express remorse for practicing 
  Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with 
  other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.
 
  - After the first month, practitioners will be sent to a team that is 
  specialized in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. Those who persisted in 
  practicing Falun Dafa are subjected to scolding, kicking, electric shock, and 
  being beating with police batons. The prison police often call on inmates to 
  beat up practitioners. After the beating, they further punish practitioners by 
  forcing them to stand under the scorching sun, or to stand facing a wall. They 
  even keep practitioners from sleeping at night. 
 
  - I once witnessed twelve inmates taking turns torturing a practitioner who 
  refused to participate in the prison exercise drills. They pinned the 
  practitioner to the ground and tortured her in various ways. It turned out 
  such incidents happen quite often. It is common that a practitioner's clothes 
  are torn apart while she is being dragged and kicked on the ground. The 
  practitioner's body would be covered with cuts and bruises afterwards. To make 
  matter worse, they force the practitioner to stand from 6 am to midnight or 
  even until 3 the next morning. I know some practitioners who were forced to 
  stand like that for more than a month, and their jail terms were also 
  increased for a few months. Prison guards even framed practitioners for 
  beating other inmates.
 
  - Prison guards often consciously look for excuses to punish those Falun 
  Dafa practitioners who refuse to give up the practice. They often force 
  practitioners to stand under the scorching sun for ten days or up to two 
  weeks. They also don't allow practitioners to brush their teeth, wash their 
  faces, take showers, or change their dirty clothes. It does not matter if it 
  is in the middle of a bitter winter, as long as it is not raining, prison 
  guards can torture practitioners by forcing them to stand day and night 
  outside where the wind blows the hardest. They limit the practitioners to 
  using the toilet only twice a day. Even then, practitioners still need to 
  plead for permission to go to the toilet. It is not unusual for practitioners 
  to urinate or defecate in their clothes. As part of the torture, they force 
  the practitioners to drink a glass of water every two hours. If they refuse, 
  the prison guards will force feed them with dirty water and then stuff their 
  mouths with dirty socks. I knew some practitioners who were tortured in this 
  way for almost two months. Afterwards, they could not stand up straight and 
  their bodies were covered with injuries.
 
  - Some practitioners were tortured for more than sixty days. They had less 
  than twenty hours of sleep and spent most of the time standing. As a result, 
  their calves swelled so badly that they were bigger than their thighs. These 
  practitioners all had blisters on their feet. Yellowish fluid came out when 
  the blisters broke. If the practitioners dozed off while standing, jail guards 
  would have inmates take turns dragging practitioners while they jog. If they 
  fall to the ground, they are severely beaten. Whenever an external inspector 
  came and inspected the labor camp, all Falun Gong practitioners would be 
  locked up inside so the inspector would find nothing wrong.
 
  - Other torture methods include forcing practitioners to stand by a wall 
  during the day and to stand in the middle of a field at night. Also, they do 
  not allow practitioners to sit or even crouch down when they are eating. Some 
  practitioners were punished by being forced to eat standing next to the toilet 
  surrounded by maggots. I knew some practitioners who were forced to stand over 
  21 hours a day in the middle of the winter, and they were all over fifty years 
  old. Some of them did not sleep for more than two months straight.
 
  - The labor camp often puts practitioners into solitary confinement. To make 
  things worse, they handcuff the practitioners in various torturous positions. 
  Sometimes they hang the practitioners by the handcuffs. Sometimes they cuff 
  both hands behind the back and then hang the practitioner. Or, they cuff the 
  practitioner's hands behind her back with one of her arms over the shoulder 
  while the other arm against her lower back. To increase the pain, they 
  sometimes stuff a blanket between the practitioner's back and hands. They 
  sometimes cuff the practitioner's hands and feet together so that they won't 
  be able to move at all.
 
  - Prison guards instigate inmates to beat or scold practitioners at will. 
  They sometimes force practitioners to swallow inmate's spit. I knew a 
  practitioner who had gallstones and was not able to eat. The prison guards 
  ordered inmates to force-feed her; they claimed she was pretending to be ill. 
  Later on, doctors diagnosed her as having gallstones. But, she was so 
  underweight the hospital did not dare operate on her. If a practitioner does 
  not have any money in her account, the prison guards will not take her to a 
  hospital at all.
 
  - In order to brainwash practitioners, I witnessed prison guards stripping 
  practitioners and forcing them to stand outside in the middle of winter for 
  two hours. I also saw inmates making obscene gestures and stuffing foreign 
  objects into practitioners' vaginas. They also forced practitioners to mimic 
  their gestures and they beat up those practitioners who refused. In order to 
  humiliate the practitioners, they dragged them in front of mirrors without any 
  clothes on.
 
  - I knew some practitioners who had been in the labor camp for more than a 
  year, and they spent most of their time in solitary confinement. They were 
  forced to sleep on the floor and they were often beaten and handcuffed. The 
  prison guards forced one of the practitioners to sit cross-legged; they then 
  tied up her feet and left her sitting in that position on the cold floor in 
  the middle of winter for a long period of time. Now one of her legs is 
  crippled.
 
  - The jail police constantly look for new ways to torment Falun Dafa 
  practitioners. They often force practitioners to slander Dafa and the Teacher, 
  or to write statements of breaking off from Falun Dafa and the Teacher. Those 
  who refuse are physically abused. They also increase practitioners' jail 
  terms-- some by eight months. Some practitioners were not released even three 
  or four months after they had completed their sentences.
 
  - Every few days, in the middle of the night, the prison guards organize 
  inmates to drag Falun Dafa practitioners outside and beat them up. I witnessed 
  many practitioners who suffered permanent injuries to their backs, legs, and 
  faces. The police work very hard to force practitioners to give up Falun Dafa 
  because they get a few thousand yuan as a bonus for each successful case. [500 
  yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.]
 
  - All practitioners suffered from swollen feet and legs after being forced 
  to stand for long periods of time. In severe cases, swelling even occurred in 
  the abdominal area. Many practitioners' feet were frostbitten, and broken 
  blisters with pus oozing out were very common. Some practitioners could not 
  walk after the punishment. The police sometimes put stacks of newspaper on top 
  of practitioners' heads and between their legs while they are standing. If the 
  paper falls, they will beat the practitioner.
 
  - I saw a practitioner whose hands were cuffed behind her back. Two people 
  pressed her shoulder and head down. Another person used an electric baton to 
  shock the top of her head. They were also beating and kicking her at the same 
  time. She was beaten into unconsciousness and now has permanent injuries to 
  her back and chest.
 
These are either my own personal experiences or incidents that I witnessed. I 
did not see many other practitioners' horrible experiences because they were 
confined separately on the third floor.