Harbin Women's Prison (Heilongjiang Province) Authorities Intensify Persecution of Falun Dafa Practitioners through Strict Monitoring

Harbin Women's Prison has intensified its persecution of detained Falun Dafa practitioners through strict monitoring since the end of November 2006. The prison guards reassigned all practitioners to the middle of the prison cells and to the lower bunk of the beds. The guards then began to monitor them 24 hours a day and prohibit them from reciting the Falun Dafa teachings and doing the exercises. They also recruited many of the common prisoners from the sweatshop, sending them in groups of two, and sometimes as many as four, to monitor each practitioner.

The prison guards did not allow practitioners to move in and out of their cells freely. The common prisoners were required to get the practitioners meals and clean their dishes. They did not allow practitioners to go to the washroom to clean themselves or take baths. There was strict control of the time for using the washroom and they could only use it according to a prearranged schedule. They did not allow Falun Dafa practitioners to see each other or talk to each other. They deprived practitioners of the usual weekend rest days. They forced practitioners to sit still from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day. The covered some of the cell windows to prevent practitioners from seeing or talking to each other. At night, there was a prisoner on duty in each room for the sole purpose of inhibiting practitioners from reciting the Falun Dafa teachings and practising the exercises. The prison guards, who tried to enforce the same restrictions, created hundreds of "constraining belts" to bind practitioners' hands and feet to their waists so as to restrict all movement. In order to disrupt sleep, they placed loud speakers in the new cells. These loud speakers were controlled directly by the 610 Office¹ and played once an hour from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. A single person was responsible for operating the speaker and was required to play them loudly.

Starting at the end of December 2006, the prison began reassigning practitioners to the the newly created 13th prison area on the 4th floor in the patients' building to undergo forceful "transformation²." The 13th prison area contained nine rooms. In each room were two inmates, two so-called "helpers," one of the collaborators³, and one prisoner. They worked together to control practitioners, forcing them to listen to slanderous articles and watch videos that slandered Falun Dafa and Teacher Li, and forcing them to sit still from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. At night, two inmates took turns monitoring practitioners. It should also be noted that if practitioners drank the "boiled" water they were given, they would immediately experience headaches and dizziness and were unable to sleep. When practitioners drank the tap water, they were fine. When they used the "poisoned" water to bathe, their bodies would feel chilled, even the tips of their noses. Practitioners suspected that psychotropic drugs were used by prison authorities as a hidden psychological torture method to aid them in reaching their "transformation" goal.

Liu Zhiqiang (male), director of the prison, said, "The focus of our work in 2007 is to forcefully 'transform' Falun Gong practitioners. Those who wear mechanical tools are regular prisoners. We will give each of them a notebook so that they can record practitioners' behaviour, how much they eat, and the depth of their spiritual understanding..."

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/1/29/147836.html