Currently there are more than 1,300 female Falun Gong practitioners detained and tortured at the Masanjia Labor Camp, which is infamous as the place where female Falun Gong practitioners are receiving the worst maltreatment. The new four-floor building that was built last November is not big enough to hold practitioners. There are about 40 people detained in each room and every four people have to sleep on double-jointed single beds. There are six small solitary prison cells specifically designed to torture those who refuse to renounce their belief. Practitioners in the solitary cells are being severely beaten and shocked with electric batons, and are often locked up for months without any movement.

Practitioners who refuse to work or wear the criminal badges have been only allowed to eat corn bread and drink tap water. There is no salt in their food so they have become extremely sick. Some of them went on a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment. The east side of the main building is full of practitioners who are on hunger strike. They are force-fed with one bowl of corn congee every two days, for which the Labor Camp is even charging them 80 Yuan per bowl (equivalent to approximately $10).

Due to the prolonged mental and physical torture, and the terrible living conditions, some practitioners detained there are suffering from serious diseases. Yet the police continue to detain practitioners that suffer from diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cerebral thrombosis, infectious skin diseases, hepatitis B, and nerve damage. Practitioners are forced to work 15-16 hours every day. The police have cursed, beaten, shocked, injected, and tied them up among other tortures, and have already tortured several practitioners into insanity. The following details some of the facts that have been disclosed.

Victims:

1.      Xia Ning, over 50, from Xingcheng, Huludao City, Liaoning Province

2.      Wang Haiying, age 31, resident of Shahe District of Dalian City, Liaoning Province

3.      Wang Lifeng, an employee of City Management Bureau, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province

4.      Wang Yan, from Liaoning Province

5.      Song Caihong, from Liaoning Province

6.      Li Ping, from Dalian City, Liaoning Province

7.      Zhang Juxian, from Dashiqiao City, Liaoning Province

8.      Li Liming, from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

9.      Sun Jinjun, from Anshan City, Liaoning Province

10.  Song Guixiang, from Dandong City, Liaoning Province

11.  Hu Ying, from Tieling City, Liaoning Province

12.  Yan Baoju, from Liaoning Province

13.  Wang Junying, from Liaoning Province

14.  Wang Yaling, over 50, from Benxi City, Liaoning Province

15.  Lin Yan, 30, from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

16.  Lin Ping, from Liaoning Province

17.  Li Yanjun, from Liaoning Province

18.  Ge Chunling, from Liaoning Province

19.  Li Xiuping, from Liaoning Province

20.  Zhang Shuhua, 37, from Dalian City, Liaoning Province

21.  Yang Chunfang, from Liaoning Province

22.  Zhang Chunmei, from Liaoning Province

23.  Qi Zhenrong, from Liaoning Province

24.  Zhang Yongli, from Liaoning Province

25.  Liu Guijuan, an employee of Lianshan District Chemical Factory, Huludao City, Liaoning Province

26.  Other female practitioners in Masanjia Labor Camp

Location: Masanjia Labor Camp, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

Perpetrators:

1. Zhang Chaoying, Director of the Masanjia Labor Camp, phone number: 86-24-89212096-206

2. Su Jing, female, 52, Director of the No. 2 Female Brigade, Masanjia Labor Camp, phone number: 86-24-89210822-305

3. Zhang Xiurong, female, 32, the Director of the No. 2 Team, No. 2 Female Brigade, Masanjia Labor Camp, phone number: 86-24-89210074-382

4. Zhou Qian, police officer of No. 2 Team, No. 2 Female Brigade, Masanjia Labor Camp, phone number: 86-24-86611998, 86-24-89210406, 86-13940231388

5. Dong (surname) and Dai (surname), Directors of the No. 3 Team, No. 2 Female Brigade, Masanjia Labor Camp, phone number: 86-24-89210074-383

6. Wang Naimin, female, over 50, team Director, Masanjia Labor Camp, phone number: 86-24-89210074-310

7. Huang Haiyan, Director of the No. 2 Female Brigade, Masanjia Labor Camp

8. Qiu Ping, police officer of Masanjia Labor Camp

9. Zhou Qian, police officer of Masanjia Labor Camp

10.  Yang Jianhong, from Shenyang City, an inmate of Masanjia Labor Camp

11.  Fu Wei, a man from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

12.  Other police of Masanjia Labor Camp

Description:

Police of Masanjia use the "sandwiching" method of torture on the persistent practitioners. That is, two people work on a practitioner to isolate her and prevent her from talking with others. If this has no effect, they will punish the practitioner with electric batons, handcuffs, and beatings. They torture practitioners mentally and physically by denying them sleep and forcing them to "squat" for long periods of time. Practitioners are made to hold the squatting posture for more than 20 hours a day and are only allowed 2 hours of sleep or no sleep at all. Sometimes the practitioners are also forced to squat during meals. They are slapped and beaten if they cannot maintain the squatting posture. After being tormented in such a way for more than a month, every practitioner detained at Masanjia was totally exhausted and many lost a lot of weight. Such long-term "squatting" hurts so badly that some experience nerve damage, the legs become so numb that one cannot move. Some women fell down when they tried to walk after squatting for a long time and others have uncontrollable trembling because of the pain

No. 1 brigade was mainly responsible for making paper flowers, fabric flowers, and other decorations. Many of these products were for export. For each flower, they had to attach a paper strip to a metal wire by squeezing the paper until it stuck to the wire. Many practitioners' fingers were left bleeding, swollen and aching due to the repeated kneading and squeezing actions. When practitioners failed to hold the paper strips tight to the wires due to injured fingers, they would be chastised by the section leaders. Practitioners were not allowed to sleep if the assigned work could not be completed. After some practitioners were released and went home, they could not bend or straighten their thumbs properly for eight to nine months. They also knit flowers on sweaters and sewed colored beads onto sweaters. While sewing, the colored beads needed to be arranged in rows. If they made a mistake in counting the number of knitting knots in the sweater or formed an incorrect bead pattern, they had to redo it overnight. Their eyes and necks quickly became sore, and after a long day's work shoulders and lower backs were also too painful to move. In the summer it was so hot that they could hardly breathe and their bodies were full of rashes and covered in sweat. The police also purposely assigned extra work to punish those who were firm in practicing Falun Gong.

Until today, Ms. Xia Ning has been locked to a bed for over eight months because she tried to practice the Falun Gong exercises. Once she was locked to a bed and kept standing for four nights. When she practiced the double leg-cross of Falun Gong exercises, her legs were tied up for many hours until she felt so painful that she lost her mind.

Because Ms. Wang Yan and Ms. Song Caihong recited Falun Gong books, police stuffed their mouths with towels and beat them many times. Police also forced practitioners to step on the picture of the founder of Falun Gong. They ordered practitioners to put a bowl full of water on top of their heads. If the bowl dropped on the floor, they would have to endure another round of beating. The practitioners are tortured day and night, non-stop.

From 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. every day, practitioners did nothing else but work, except for mealtimes, brief bathroom breaks and a one hour noon break. Sometimes when extra work needed to be done, the noon break was canceled. They were not allowed to talk while they worked. One time, practitioner Wang Junying requested several times in vain to go to the washroom because of her period. Because warden Xie Ping did not approve her request, Ms. Wang's pants became wet, and she cried from not being able to change her pads.

On July 31, 2001, the director of the No. 2 Female Brigade Huang Haiyan incited Yang Jianhong, a criminal inmate, to beat Ms. Li Yanjun. Yang grabbed her hair and beat her until her own hands hurt. She then used the heel of her shoe and a screwdriver to continue the beating for 5 hours. Ms. Li’s entire body was covered with wounds and her skin was black and blue. The second day she began to expel blood in her stool.

One evening in November 2001, the police took Ms. Zhang Yongli to a restroom and took turns slapping her in the face and head with rubber-soled shoes. Some of them even slammed her head into the wall. Ms. Zhang was tortured until the next morning. The bruises all over her face badly deformed it and her head had swollen to nearly twice its normal size. Once six criminal inmates stripped off Ms. Zhang’s pants, pinched her on her thighs and sat on her neck for a whole morning. The pinched area (about 15 x 11 square centimeters) was festering the next day. The pain Ms. Zhang felt was as if her flesh had been torn off.

Ms. Lin Ping was punished by director Qiu Ping with "half squats" [Squat down with legs apart and both arms raised forward parallel to the ground] that resulted in one of her toes losing all feeling. Qiu also shocked her for three hours with an electric baton to the point that her skin was burnt.

In July 2000, the team director Zhang Xiurong, the inmate Yang Jianhong and a group of collaborators tortured Ms. Ge Chunling for more than twenty days. She was not allowed to drink water, go to the restroom or go to bed, and had to assume the "half squat" position for 24 hours. In May 2001 Ms. Ge was put into the "Strictly Managed Brigade" where police didn't allow her to go to the restroom for such a long time that it resulted in edema in her entire body and her heart rate slowing down (48 beats/min). She could barely move her arms and legs, yet she was still forced to do heavy labor.

Once several guards took Ms. Li Xiupin to a private room and hit her all over. One guard choked her neck so she couldn't breathe, another one rode on her back while others hit her head and face, and others stabbed her with 2-inch stainless steel needles. They poked her body, foot arches, and palms randomly here and there. She was tortured to the brink of death. After the torment, Ms. Li was disabled and bed-ridden for several days.

During her detention in Masanjia, Ms. Yang Chunfang suffered beatings many times. In early 2001, she was beaten for a whole night and the next day she could not walk anymore. She could only move little by little, with others' help. Even after more than one year has passed, her legs had still not fully recovered. The police did not allow her family to come to visit her.

In early 2002, Ms. Qi Zhenrong was badly tortured at Masanjia and she went on a hunger strike for 87 days before she was released. One month later, she was sent to Masanjia again because she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. As of April 2002, Ms. Qi had been on a hunger strike for more than one month and force-fed many times. She was extremely weak.

In September 2001, Ms. Zhang Chunmei was sent to Masanjia, and since then her hands have been shackled together except when she ate, washed her face and used the toilet.

The warden encouraged Fu Wei, a man from Shenyang, to force a female practitioner from Jinzhou to sit on the tile floor at the corner of the shower room and spread her legs into a painful position. Fu then sat straddling her head while putting his legs on her shoulders. He forced her to support his body weight. He beat her when she could not endure any longer. Fu broke her neck bones by such torturing. She has been paralyzed for a long time and must be carried from place to place.

In January 2001, Ms. Wang Haiying was kidnapped and sent to Dalian Labor Camp, together with her husband Mr. Li Qinhua. At present, she is detained at Masanjia Labor Camp. During her detention there, Ms. Wang wrote to her husband detained in Dalian Labor Camp. Her letters were confiscated by his labor camp team leader. Ms. Wang sued him for violations against people’s privacy rights.

In October 1999, Ms. Lin Yan was sentenced to 3 years forced labor. She had been tortured so badly that on July 1, 2000, she punched an iron stick into her left chest to get hospitalization. After she left the hospital on July 24, she was forced to do hard work at Masanjia, which made Ms. Lin feel chest pain, have difficulty breathing, and become too weak to get out of bed. The labor camp refused to send her to hospital for further diagnosis.

Practitioners Li Ping and Zhang Juxian have been on a hunger strike for three and half months and their situation is very critical now.

Police of Masanjia also tried to extend practitioners’ detention periods. In May 2002, the detention periods of Li Liming, Sun Jinjun, Song Guixiang, and Hu Ying were referred to the Liaoning Province Police Department for extension.

A female practitioner was locked up to a heating pipe for 10 days and nights, which made her four limbs all swell badly. Another old lady was forced to stand for over one hour, with both legs straight, back bent at a 90-degree-angle and hands straight but not touching the ground. Then she was forced to squat for two hours, with her left foot flat on the ground, but her right foot pointed with only the toes touching the ground.