Supplementary written evidence submitted
by Hongwei Lou
My name is Hongwei Lou. I am from Beijing and
I am now studying at the University of Cambridge. My husband Dongwei
Bu and I are both practitioners of Falun Gong since 1996. After
the Chinese government banned the practice, we wrote to some high
officials in the central government, telling them the truth about
Falun Gong and urging them to stop the persecution. In July 2000,
we were arrested from our work-place by police officers from Beijing
police station. A month later, without any legal proceedings,
we both were sentenced to one year forced labour. He came back
to home with hoary hair in 2001.(He was only 33 years old that
year)
On 19 May 2006, my husband was arrested again
from home by police officers from the Beijing Police Station of
Haidian District. About seven or eight police officers darkened
the door and asked him to surrender the book "The Nine Commentaries
on the Communist Party". Dongwei Bu told them he didn't have
such books. Then they thoroughly searched our home, but didn't
find the book they wanted. But they still forced him to go with
them and took away our computer. Now Dongwei Bu is in the Haidian
Qinghe Detention Centre.
I have no information at all about his situation
and safety since his arrest. No lawyer is allowed to deal with
Falun Gong issues, no family members are allowed to see him. And
the police officers didn't even leave any written notice or confirmation
of his arrest. In China, the issue of Falun Gong is beyond the
constitution, no law is to be abided by when dealing with Falun
Gong people.
From 2000 to 2001, he was forced to do hard
labour and suffer brain-washing in Beijing Tuanhe labour camp.
The following is what he told me after he came out of labour camp.
In the morning of 29 August 2000, the police
handcuffed my wife and me and sent us in a police car to Beijing
labour camp distribution centre. When the car entered the gate,
more than 10 policemen stood in two lines, holding electric batons,
and handcuffs. One policeman sternly ordered us to obey their
every command: practitioners cannot lift their heads while standing
and walking. They must lower their heads with both hands in front
of their abdomens. Practitioners must cross their hands and clasp
the back of their heads while squatting down (during roll call,
waiting for meals, talking with the police, etc). Practitioners
must put their elbows inside their thighs and get their heads
into their crotches. When in that position, they are not allowed
to lift their heads. When the police call practitioners, they
must shout, "Hello captain," and then squat like this
in front of the policeman.
After the men and women were separated, the
staff forced our practitioners to read the regulations and write
a pledge promising, "not to practice or teach Falun Gong,
not to go on a hunger strike, and not to injure themselves."
Any practitioner who refuses to write this is shocked, and beaten.
Then the practitioner's hand is held down firmly for them to write.
Practitioners must walk perfectly straight and take small steps.
If anyone resists even a little bit, the staff will shock, and
beat you.
The police assigned one or two criminal inmates
to monitor each practitioner. We were not allowed to talk with
each other and they monitored our activities. We were required
to shout insults during "Report" ("report"
must be shouted before each meal, before answering a question
that a policeman asks, while doing drills in formation, and before
going to bed). We were forced to sing "transform" songs,
and whenever we met a policeman, we were required to lift our
head and shout, "Hello captain," and then lower our
heads. After getting rice, using the restroom, or even being shocked
by the police, we were forced to shout, "Thank you, captain."
At night we were forced to learn the regulations by heart. If
we did not pass this test, we were not allowed to sleep until
midnight.
After several days, we were forced to work.
The work was to wrap wooden chopsticks with a layer of paper.
"Sterilized" was printed on the paper. In fact it was
not hygienic at all. Other detainees who had hepatitis, venereal
disease, and other illnesses also had to work. None of us were
ever asked to wash our hands before work. About 40 detainees were
crowded in one room, and the chopsticks were piled up on the ground
and on our beds. Hygiene was minimal. For example, every morning
and night there was only a few minutes for detainees to use the
restroom. Even when we didn't have use of any facilities to clean
ourselves, we had to work. We were not allowed to have a shower
until it was found that many detainees had scabies. Then we were
allowed to have a shower once, when several dozen detainees were
squeezed into one bathroom with only two taps available.
The distribution centre went crazy attempting
to gain the greatest benefits from the detainees. Each person
had to wrap from 7,500 to 10,000 chopsticks each day. It was nearly
impossible to finish, even if we worked from 6 am to 12 midnight.
Not only did we have unendurable back pain, but the police and
prisoners both abused and beat us. Every day was the same thing
for me during the 108 days in the distribution centre. Usually
people stayed one month in the distribution centre. Because my
work-unit is a big corporation, the police in distribution centre
wanted to take me as a hostage so as to gain financially. My work-unit
told me that after I came back from labour camp.
In the meantime, the distribution centre tried
to brainwash us. With a large numbers of electric batons in hand,
the distribution centre personnel, forced hundreds of Falun Gong
practitioners to watch video tapes slandering Falun Gong, and
asked the practitioners to write their understanding.
On 15 December 2000, I was sent from the distribution
centre to Beijing Tuanhe labour camp. The main task at Tuanhe
labour camp is to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners,
that is to use brainwashing, sleep deprivation, electric batons,
beating, physical punishment, mental manipulation, and torture
to force practitioners to give up their belief and write "four
letters" to denounce Falun Gong and support the Party. They
also videotaped practitioners when they were reading their "transformation"
pledge. They artificially set Falun Gong up as opposing the Party.
At first we refused to give up Falun Gong, so
we suffered all kinds of torture. Every day we were forced to
sit in a baby chair for 18 hours, and were brainwashed savagely.
We were not allowed to sleep until 2 am, although we had to get
up before 6 am . . . Sometimes we had to stay up all night for
over 10 days in a row. As soon as we dozed off, the prisoner on
duty woke us up. I lost so much weight that I looked like a mere
skeleton and my spirit almost collapsed.
In the brainwashing session, several prisoners
surrounded me and read materials slandering Falun Gong. I covered
my ears and refused to listen to their lies. They held my arms
and forced me to listen. One time they almost broke my fingers.
One prisoner caught hold of my head and slammed it against the
wall. Another prisoner fiercely beat my lower jaw with his fist.
This kind of violence, to force Falun Gong practitioner to accept
brainwashing, happened all the time, but the policemen on duty
never did anything about it.
If a practitioner still persisted in his belief,
the police would put drugs in his food. But the persecution did
not stop here because even after we completed the term, if we
did not succumb, the term would be extended without any legal
proceedings. Finally I collapsed from exhaustion and psychological
pressure and was "transformed" by them which was completely
against my will. It is a great shame for me.
In April 2001, several foreign reporters were
planning to visit the Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp. The whole labour
camp, from the top levels down to the lower levels, began their
customary acts of deception, forcing practitioners of all groups
to repeatedly watch those internally-produced video programmes
entitled, "60 Questions and Answers for the Foreign
Reporters. " They drilled practitioners, forcing them
to be consistent in speaking these astonishing lies. For example,
if asked whether the detainees here were verbally abused, beaten
or physically abused, the answer must be "no." Practitioners
were forbidden to say that the reason for their detention was
for practising Falun Gong; instead, they had to say that they
were detained for "having disrupted the social order."
If asked how the food was, the answer had to state the amount
of flour, oil, meat and vegetables per person per month. All these
mandatory replies were utter nonsense, to deceive foreigners.
Besides, each practitioner who had not given up the practice was
threatened not to "talk casually," or otherwise the
practitioner would be held "responsible for the result."
Police officer Ni Zhenxiong threatened us during
the meeting, "If the reporters ask questions, you are not
allowed to say you are being beaten in the labour camp, let alone
mentioning that there is such a place as the "Dispatch Centre'."
That day, a reporter went to the Third Team,
located on the first floor of the east building. In fact, the
Third Team had transferred dozens of those who did not give up
Falun Gong and those who did not satisfy them, to quarters located
north of the Intensive Training Team. What the reporters saw,
therefore, was only a pre-arranged charade. Whenever there were
visitors, the labour camp meal for that day would be upgraded.
In addition, the routine, public, physical torture of Falun Gong
practitioners would be cancelled and replaced with a ball game.
As soon as the visitors went out of the gate, the physical torture
would resume.
Because the environment was so highly enclosed,
there was no way for other prisoners in the labour camp and the
outside world to know the actual situation. People from the outside
who came to visit and interview certain people in the Tuanhe Labor
Camp couldn't enter the "Intensive Training Unit" or
the building where we were being detained. Brainwashing was only
the method, the final goal of the forced labour camp was to force
us to write the documents to give up the practice and actively
defame our practice of Falun Gong. They also videotaped the process,
in order to deceive other Falun Gong practitioners and the media
inside and outside of China, to display their so-called "Educate,
Transform, and Save" policy; to cover up the inside truth
of the brutal persecution.
The hard labour in Tuanhe Labor Camp includes
braiding hair for wigs, making unsanitary tourniquets, constructing
advertising products, making pieces of hardwood floors, packaging
DVD's, and other forms of manual labour. I remember once they
had to make various propaganda cards promoting the Trakinas biscuits
for the Nabisco Company. One of the tasks was to make a greeting
card in which the Trakinas (biscuit) inside is connected to the
cover with paper so that when flipped open, the Trakinas will
open automatically and give a three-dimensional impression. Of
course they never pay for our labour.
Hongwei Lou
July 2006
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