By a practitioner from China

On December 31, 2003, I went to Beijing to stand up for the rights of Falun Dafa practitioners and unfurled a banner that read, "Falun Dafa is Good." I was abducted by plain-clothes police and taken to a local police station. I was then sent to a Detention Center in the Dongshan District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, where I was illegally sentenced to one year of forced labor. I was then detained in the Chatou Forced Labor Camp, where I suffered from various types of torture such as physical punishment, humiliation, and psychological persecution. Among the tricks used to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners, they forced Falun Gong practitioners to sing, "The Same Song." If you refused to sing this song, it would be construed as being confrontational. Those who were "transformed" by force had to sing this very song. This was an intentional act of brainwashing and psychological persecution. A practitioner who had been "transformed" once told me: "They are just rogues. They force you to give up everything and also force you to say that it is your own will doing so."

In the Chatou Forced Labor Camp, whenever a meeting was held, a performance during a holiday took place, or when the upper level 610 Office managers came to inspect the rate of "transformations", as well as when some practitioners were "transformed" by force, we had to sing "The Same Song."

Once a person who had been "transformed" tried to force me to sing a song and gave me the lyrics. I realized that it was "The Same Song," so I told that person that I was not in the mood to sing. As far as the police and those collaborators were concerned, if a practitioner refused to sing the song with them, they viewed it as being against them. My refusal to sing "The Same Song" with them was construed that way, and because of the position I took regarding this song, I was listed as a key figure for "transformation" in the labor camp. They started enforcing more strict measures against me. I was detained in a solitary cell and was besieged by more than 20 collaborators every day.

No matter whether it was during the day or at night, I was not allowed to sleep. I was forced to sit on a small stool with ridges all the time so that my bottom started to fester. They also tried to force me to read books that defamed Falun Dafa and Teacher. I refused to read them so they just read them to me and forced me to listen. The summer in Guangzhou is very hot. In the burning sun when the temperature was above 40^oC, I was forced to take a drill, a kind of physical punishment. This drill lasted for a half-day and made me often feel dizzy. Under this kind of physical torture and mental pressure, I experienced extreme pain and almost collapsed. My hair became dry and turned yellow. My endurance reached its limit.

When those who had been transformed were told to sing "The Same Song," I did not sing it. It was against my will and my conscience. It was against my belief; it would have been selling my soul. Can you imagine the agony? However, if you did not sing "The Same Song", they took it as a sign that you had not been totally "transformed"; therefore they would not allow you to go home. At one point, a guard asked me: "What is your opinion on Li Hongzhi's Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance? Do you think it is right or wrong?" My heart was shocked. Without hesitation, I told the guard that: "I think it is correct." Since that was not the answer they wanted to hear, they gathered another group of collaborators in order to brainwash me. Then they put me in handcuffs and sent me to the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp for Men and ordered the collaborators there to brainwash me as well.

In a word, they start torturing you psychologically so that their carefully planned brainwashing steps can be successful.

Posting date: 1/15/2006
Original article date: 1/15/2006
Category: Eyewitness Accounts

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