My Sister and I Experienced the Cruelty of the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp (Photos)

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My Sister and I Experienced the Cruelty of the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp (Photos)

November 24, 2012 | By a Minghui correspondent from Liaoning Province, China

(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioner Li Chunhong, from Tieling City, Liaoning Province, was arrested and taken to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) police in 2010. She suffered much persecution during her two years of detainment.

Li Chunhong’s sister, Li Chunlan (Li Chunyu), was arrested and taken to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp three times. There she was subjected to severe persecution during 2006-2008, resulting in psychological problems. She still has not recovered. The persecution was so brutal that she is now emaciated, and unable to even take care of her basic needs.

The following is what Li Chunhong stated about her persecution experiences in the detention center.

“After the communist party began persecuting Dafa practitioners in 1999, my father Li Zhongbin and Li Chunlan were arrested three times and subjected to forced labor, and persecution. My sister suffered a mental collapse due to persecution.

I was arrested by the Kaiyuan National Security Team of Tieling City and sent to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, where I was held from March 3, 2010 to January 19, 2012. During those two years, I was treated brutally. I was subjected to brainwashing, and groups of police beat and slapped me, and even slammed my head up against the wall. Very little food was provided, I slept poorly, and was forced to work many hours. I had no free time, was not allowed to talk, and basically had no human rights at all. I was continually humiliated, and lived under such pressure every day.

As soon as I arrived at Masanjia, I was besieged by two teams. One was made up of so called converted Falun Gong practitioners. They asked me when I began practicing, and about my understanding of the Fa. During this period, Zhao Yonghua, a "converted" practitioner, asked me with ulterior motives whether my family had a history of psychiatric disorders. I knew this question was from the labor camp police because they were the culprits that persecuted my sister to the point of mental instability, and they wanted to shirk their responsibility. (Note: After Zhao Yonghua betrayed Dafa, she stayed on at Masanjia and took the position of “psychological teacher,” in which she persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. She was paid by Masanjia, until she left in 2011).

The groups besieged me for several days but could not dissuade me from the practice. So I was sent to the team head, Zhang Huan. Zhang Huan took me to Donggang, a place that was specifically for brainwashing. I tried to convince Zhang Huan not to uphold the laws made by such bad people. I explained that the Tiananmen self-immolation was staged by the CCP.

I was subjected to brainwashing for one month. During this period of time, many practitioners could not tolerate the intense brainwashing and gave in, writing the repentance statement against their conscience. They were then sent to the so called “rebirth” team and forced to accept the lies. The remaining practitioners, still loyal to Dafa, were kept in the newcomer team and forced to suffer more. Maybe because my sister had been persecuted to the point of mental instability, they were hesitant to be overly brutal with me. On April 18, 2010, Zhang Huan transferred me to the workshop to work on clothing.

There was a rule in the Masanjia Forced Labor camp that anyone who had been there for three months must sign a “thought improvement” form and write a repentance statement. I heard that Zhao Lihua, another Falun Gong practitioner, wrote “Falun Dafa is Good.” I begged the camp head to think about it, but she was severely beaten.

I was a practitioner and had done nothing wrong, so I wrote the following on the form, “I was sentenced to labor camp for two years because I believe in Falun Dafa and follow the principles of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance to cultivate myself. Falun Dafa has spread around the world, and has received tremendous honors and praise...”

Team head Zhang Lili saw these words before I finished my form. She sent me to the politics instructor Zhang Zhuohui, who beat me severely. My lips were split open, and my front teeth fell out when I next tried to eat. She kicked me so hard that she broke her shoes, and then blamed me for the ruined shoes. She took out the electric batons and threatened, “Who do you think this is for?” I said, "I thought you looked like a good person. Why won't you listen to reason?" She only replied that Falun Gong was not allowed.

During the June assessment, the guards took me to the office. Team heads Zhang Jun, Zhang Huan, and Zhang Zhuohui pulled my hair, beat, and kicked me. Zhang Huan said I wrote junk on the form so the whole assessment would start over again and I would have to stay longer. She tried to force me to sign for this reassessment, but I refused. She then tried to force me to hold the pen in my hand. My hands were then cut open by the end of the pen. They handcuffed me, and tried again to force the pen in my fist and make me sign. After they realized that I would absolutely not sign, Zhang Zhuohui lied and said that I had signed it myself.

The next day at work, I had trouble simply raising my head. I informed group head Zhang Huihan that I could not work. She reported this to captain Zhang Jun over the phone. In a short while, Zou Xiaoguang, the team head, took me to the Donggang building, where they asked, “What are you doing here?” I replied, “You brought me here. I have pain all over my body. I can't even raise my head. I unconsciously leaned back. My scalp and neck are especially painful.” They said, “Your health is poor, and you should go to a hospital.” How can they cover up their persecution as my poor health?

Torture re-enactment: Hung up with hands cuffed over the top of the head--stretching torture

Guard Fang Yehong told me to squat down to speak to her. However, after I squatted, she took off her belt, and lashed me across the back. She also stabbed my shoulders with nails. Zhang Huan slapped me and used an electric baton on my neck. I was later locked in the storage room. Zhang Xiurong ordered me to recite the thirty prison rules prescribed by Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. I said I could not do it. Zhang Huan immediately tied me to the bed to begin the stretching torture. My legs were tied together and my arms were handcuffed to the beams on both sides of the upper berth. Ropes were used to stretch my arms to the extreme and tied there. Guard Zou Xiaoguang used a toothbrush to jab me in the armpits. At noon, Zhang Huan came over to monitor me. I told her, “You earn the wages of sin.” She would not hear it. I broke out in sweat from the pain in my arms. My arms soon became numb, and the bed board was drenched by my sweat. After more than two hours, Zhang Zhuohui and Zhang Jun released me. I then saw how the handcuffs had cut into my arms, and that my hands were black and blue. I experienced the stretching torture for only two hours, but the pain was intense. It's really hard to imagine how other practitioners could stand the stretch torturing for several days and nights without sleeping! My experience made me understand how my sister was persecuted to mental collapse. Her suffering must have been so much more than what I had endured.

I was later forced to go back to work without having any food. They not only tortured our physical bodies, but also enslaved us!

After this group beat and tortured me, my entire body was sore, and I was in constant, severe pain. During the next two weeks, my teeth chattered often. After more than a year of incarceration that was like slavery, with little or no food and nutrition, I was in poor condition both physically and mentally. I frequently felt nervous and jumpy.

For the July assessment Zhang Lei, Zhang Zhuohui, and Zhang Huan again tried to force my hand to sign the assessment form. For the August assessment, Zhang Lei again grasped my hand to sign the assessment. She also slapped me and wrote on my hands.

In Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, Zhang Huan and other prison guards often searched Falun Gong practitioners rudely to see if they were carrying any Dafa materials. If they were, they were tortured.

On October 8, 2010, they thought that I affected their “conversion rate,” so I was transferred from the Team Three to Team Two, working with sewing machines. I was enslaved there for another 15 months with an extremely heavy workload. When the workload was heavy, I often worked until well into the middle of the night. Ren Hongzan was the head in charge of persecuting Falun Gong in Team Two. Pei Feng, an assistant group head for this team in charge of persecution, was called. These two also tried to force me into signing the assessment. Ren Hongzan also tried to force me to sign a repentance statement. I told them not to push me. After I mentioned my sister, they did not force me to sign.

In this evil Masanjia labor camp, the monitors, double-teams, systematical brainwashing, and extreme evil persecution were all over the place.

Photos below compare Falun Gong practitioner Li Chunlan before and after persecution.

My sister Li Chunlan before persecution