-- By a Practitioner Recently Released from

Masanjia Forced Labor Camp

By Xu Qingyan, from Liaoning Province, China

My name is Xu Qingyan. I was recently released from the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. This labor camp is just one of the concentration camps where Falun Gong practitioners are being tortured. I am still alive, although I was near death. I want to solemnly declare here that I am innocent, not guilty of any charges leveled against me. I'd like to tell everyone what I experienced in the forced labor camp.

The inhuman and brutal treatment and tortures that I suffered during the year in the labor camp made me realize that the so-called rule-by-law society in Communist China is nothing but a fraud. Masanjia Forced Labor Camp is a hell on earth.

I started to practice Falun Gong in 1997. I became much healthier and benefited greatly physically and mentally from the practice. After the persecution started, just because of practicing Falun Gong, I was unlawfully arrested and sentenced to forced labor a number of times. My house has been ransacked many times. I suffered brutal tortures and almost lost my life due to the persecution.

On the night of February 2, 2004, armed police officers Cai Yong, Zhang Wenxin, and a few others from the Daxue Public Security Station of Taihe District, Jinzhou City, ransacked my house, and arrested and detained me in the Jinzhou City First Detention Center. At the end of the month, I was arbitrarily sentenced to three years of forced labor. I was then sent to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.

The staff at the labor camp has been trained to torture Falun Gong practitioners. When I first arrived at the camp, they tied me to a bed for several hours. Then, they tried very hard to open my mouth. As a result, my lower front teeth became loose. After they successfully pried my mouth open, they stuffed onions into my mouth. They wanted to keep me from talking. They also wrapped my mouth with a piece of towel. Another time, Yu Shimin slapped my left ear so hard that I lost my hearing in that ear.

One day, camp guards Zhang Xiurong, Da Yuhong and Yang Xiaofeng and others rushed into my cell and handcuffed both my hands to the bed. Then, they wrapped my mouth with duct tape and left me alone in the cell. I felt nauseated, short of breath and lost consciousness. I was kneeling with my left knee on the ground and my head touched the ground. After I woke up, I realized that my entire body was in a sweat and my face was as white as a piece of white paper. I was tied up in this position for several days. During each subsequent day, I was allowed to eat and go to the rest room only after 8:00 p.m.

One day in June, I was dragged into a tiny cell. The cell was only large enough to place two twin beds together and had no ventilation. A loudspeaker had been installed inside the cell, through which they continuously broadcast ear-damaging high-decibel noises, such as the high-pitched sounds from a broken radio or record player. Practitioner Wang Jinfeng vomited blood after being locked in the cell for three days. Another practitioner, Mi Yanli, had a heart attack after being locked in the cell.

Around January of 2004, practitioners Zhu Yun and Xie Dewen, who had gone on hunger strikes to protest the torture, were locked into the cell there for more than three months. The floors of the tiny cells where they were imprisoned were covered with bloodstains. At one time, practitioner Xie Dewen was forced to sit on a tiger bench, injuring his buttocks, which festered. I was also once tied up in a straight position in a completely blocked tiny cell, and was not allowed to sleep for 24 hours. I was also forced to sit on a tiger bench for 20 days. After I was released from the tiger bench, camp guard Yang Xiaofeng sneered at me and said, “Ok, now you must have been comfortable. Look at your feet; they are as swollen as pig's feet.”

In September 2004, guards Zhang Xiuyin and Yang Xiaofeng handcuffed me to a rack in a storage room for nine days and nine nights. They didn't allow me to sleep. I was forced to stand continuously with my arms stretched out at my sides. Consequently, my feet became swollen and were covered with blisters.

In December 2004, guards beat and kicked me severely. After that, they threw me into a tiny cell that was freezing cold. I was locked in the cell for several days. After I was finally released from the cell, all my joints began to hurt severely. I don't have the words to explain the pain I suffered. Even after one month, I still needed someone to help me walk.

In January 2005, I went a hunger strike to protest the torture. In February, I was again locked into the tiny cell. As a result, I passed blood from my rectum, a condition that lasted for more than 40 days.

One day in April 2005, a group of guards rushed into the cellblock and dragged practitioners, holding them to the ground. They then placed a plastic bag around the practitioners' heads and began to beat them with police batons. The whole building was immediately filled with unbearable screams.

To protest the torture, practitioner Dong Jingzhe went on a hunger strike. Her legs were paralyzed as a result of the abuses.

Another practitioner, Song Lianyin, had her legs paralyzed after undergoing forced intravenous injections. Many other practitioners were given such injections and suffered from paralyzed legs.

As further abuse, the forced labor camp extended the term for many practitioners. Some of the extensions went beyond half a year.

On the morning of April 17, 2005, camp guard Xie took me to the reception room and began to beat me. He shouted at me, "I just want to beat you." Afterwards, he handcuffed me to a heater pipe and I had to stand there for a long time. The upper and lower teeth on my right side became loose; my heart began to ache severely and I lost consciousness for a long period of time. My clothes became wet from a cold sweat and I no longer could stand up. I had to squat down. The more I tried to pull my hands from the handcuffs, the tighter the handcuffs became. I didn't know how long I was unconscious. After I woke up, I tried to stand up. But, as soon as I almost stood straight, I lost my vision and fell down, with my head hitting a nearby office desk. I lost consciousness once more.

When I woke up for the second time, I noticed that camp guard Li Mingyu had come into the room. She had come to interrogate me. I refused to sign any documents, and Li stood up and kicked me. She then duct-taped my mouth and yelled at me, "Who asked you to talk to me." I finally was taken from this room at 10:00 p.m. The pain in my back and legs was excruciating. I could barely stand such pain. That night, I couldn't close my eyes or sleep the entire night. I developed unbearable pain in my lower abdomen.

Around April 19 or 20, I was sent to hospital due my deteriorated condition. The hospital diagnosis was that I had five tumors. The diameter of the largest tumor was around 12 centimeters and the smaller ones were around five to six centimeters.

On April 24, 2005, around 10:00 a.m., I was rushed to the emergency room again. After I returned to the camp, guard Xie took me to the reception room and threatened me, "O.k, I know you were telling everyone in the hospital that I beat you. Let me tell you, if you continue to do that, I will continue to beat you. See, if you have the power; go ahead and sue me."

On April 26, 2005, at 6:30 a.m., the camp sent me home as I had taken a turn for the worse and was barely breathing. My stomach was so swollen, as if I were six months pregnant. My face was swollen, and two thirds of my hair had turned gray.

type=case, women;type=case,torture; type=Labor Camp,Masanjia Forced Labor Camp;location=Liaoning