The Persecution Experienced by Practitioner Ms. Chen Liguang Inside the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

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Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Chen Liguang, 42 years old, lives in Huludao City, Liaoning Province. Because she practises Falun Gong, she has been arrested and tortured under orders of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials on numerous occasions. Her home was also ransacked, eventually forcing her to leave the area and wander homeless around the country for nearly two years. In September of 2003, Ms. Chen was arrested once again by police officers. During the next more than twenty months of detention, Ms. Chen suffered agonising struggles inside the infamous Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province.

On the night of the 23rd of September, 2003, when Ms. Chen was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution, she was accosted by police officers from the Gangtun Town Public Security Station. These officers brutally beat Ms. Chen, arrested her, and then detained her at the Huludao City Detention Centre. To protest the unlawful detention, Ms. Chen went on a hunger strike. Six days later she was transferred to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. There, she was force-fed and subjected to brutal physical abuse.

When Ms. Chen was transferred to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, already in a weakened state due to the six-day hunger strike, the camp broke its own regulations by admitting her in such poor physical condition. Inside the prison, Ms. Chen was dispatched to the Second Subdivision of the First Division, where she continued her hunger strike. Each day, several collaborators1, together with the prison officials, tried to brainwash Ms. Chen to change her mind about Falun Gong. These collaborators also physically abused Ms. Chen and kept her from sleeping at night. All of the practitioners held there were forced each day to watch television programmes slandering Falun Gong, to study government-issued propaganda and to do hard physical labour. Any practitioners who still remained steadfast in their belief in Falun Dafa were physically tortured or locked inside tiny prison cells. Some practitioners were locked in these small cells for as long as several months at a time. As a result of this persecution, Ms. Chen's physical and mental health were severely damaged.

On April 1st, 2005, the labour camp set up a special division, called the "Strictly Monitored Division," to implement a set of even stricter rules against steadfast practitioners. This division was specifically for practitioners who refused to wear the prison uniform, do the prison exercises, do the assigned physical labour, or take part in the group-study sessions of the anti-Falun Gong propaganda. All "offenders" were to be held and persecuted together inside this division; Ms. Chen was one of them.

Inside the "Strictly Monitored Division," practitioners were allowed only five minutes to wash their faces and brush their teeth in the mornings, and then a further five minutes to use the toilet. No one was allowed to either shower or wash his or her clothes. At certain times, practitioners were not even allowed to drink any water. They were deprived of all personal freedom. The prison guards beat or insulted practitioners to get them to put on the prison uniforms; some practitioners were hit so hard that they fell to the ground. A practitioner named Li Hong was immediately thrown into a tiny prison cell after refusing to wear the uniform; another practitioner named Wang Manli was slapped several times on the face by a vicious prison guard when she tried to stop such barbaric treatment. Wang Manli had two black eyes for quite some time as a result of being struck. The perpetrators in this incident included a prison guard with the last name of Guo and another one with the last name of Liu; both of these guards were in charge of "training" practitioners in this special division.

Ms. Chen was brought alone to the prison guard's reception room to be persecuted. They tried to force her to put on the prison uniform, and she was slapped across the mouth when she struggled. In the end, Ms. Chen had no choice but to wear the uniform. The following day, many of the practitioners inside the "Strictly Monitored Division" started hunger strikes to protest the persecution; they also took off the prison uniforms. Six days later, more prison guards arrived at the division and started force-feeding the practitioners. Ms. Chen was held on the ground with all four limbs pressed to the floor by prison guards; one guard sat on her stomach while others grabbed her hair and ears. These thugs then tried to pry open Ms. Chen's mouth to feed her corn porridge; they held Ms. Chen's nose and mouth after forcing food into her so that she could hardly breathe. Ms. Chen shook her head violently due to the terror of being unable to breathe, and tried to yell out for help. Some depraved prison guards even started laughing loudly at seeing Ms. Chen's struggles. Since then, the division has carried out brutal force-feedings daily; twice each day practitioners are fed in this barbaric manner. Some practitioners have almost died as a result of these brutal feedings. Ms. Chen began to experience a sore throat and vomiting after being force-fed; she also started coughing, developed shortness of breath, and eventually developed a high fever. As a result of this maltreatment, her stomach ached and she also became dehydrated. Many practitioners developed similar symptoms after being brutally force-fed. Ms. Chen was sent to the hospital for examination on several occasions; ultimately she had difficulty urinating and became very weak. At that point, camp officials contacted Ms. Chen's family and asked them to come to take Ms. Chen home.

When the family arrived at the camp, they realised that they had been deceived by the camp officials; Ms. Chen was too ill to go home. Instead of taking her home, they took her to the Shenyang Medical College Hospital for treatment. It was obvious that the labour camp officials wanted to avoid taking any responsibility for Ms. Chen's condition. When another practitioner stopped breathing immediately after being force-fed and was sent to the hospital, she was never seen again at the camp. When yet another practitioner named Wang Jinfeng had her eyeballs roll back into her head after one such feeding, it was suspected that the camp might have put drugs into the food.

By early June in 2005, Ms. Chen had been on a hunger strike for two months. She was diagnosed with a uterine melanoma and an ovarian tumour. On June 14th, 2005, the labour camp had to release Ms. Chen; when her family came to pick her up, certain camp officials lied to them and said that since Ms. Chen had borrowed money from some other practitioners, the family should repay that money to them. In the end, the family was extorted out of almost seven hundred yuan2 by these corrupt officials in order to secure Ms. Chen's release.


Note:

(1) "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

(2) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/10/105822.html

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