Blog: My life inside a Chinese labor camp
People are taking part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights action this week by writing letters and signing petitions to show solidarity with individuals who suffer human right abuses.
Former prisoner of conscience Bu Dongwei spent over two years in a Chinese Re-education through Labour (RTL) camp until his release in July 2008, following campaigning by Amnesty International and its supporters…
By Bu Dongwei
"I was working in Beijing for a US NGO on a project funded by US government funds when I was detained and sent to a ‘Re-education Through Labor (RTL)’ camp due to my belief in Falun Gong.
On May 19, 2006, six to seven police broke into my home and searched for the book ‘Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party’. They didn’t find the book they wanted but found several Falun Gong books. They put me in the detention centre in Haidian District, Beijing.
I was locked in a small cell (about 220 square feet) with 30-35, sometimes over 40 people. I stayed in the detention centre for over three months before I was transferred to the labor camp.
It was to be my second time in this labor camp. In 2000, I was sent to the labor camp for one year the same reason.
Persecution in the labor camp includes; deprivation of basic needs, brain-washing, no freedom to go to the restroom, no freedom to wash clothes, bad food and bad living conditions.
In the Beijing Tuanhe Labor Camp, all Falun Gong practitioners are forced to repeatedly listen to guards insult the Falun Gong, watch videos that slander Falun Gong, forced to denounce Falun Gong and, every day, forced to sing songs that praise the Communist Party.
Force-feeding is a torture method that labor camps often use on Falun Gong practitioners, particularly on those who have staged hunger strikes to protest their unlawful persecution.
One practitioner, Mr. Yu Ming, whom I first met in Tuanhe labor camp in 2001, was in the labor camp for the third time. But this time I never saw him because he staged a hunger strike and was put into a special, small room with a video camera.
One day a guard took me into their office. He forgot to turn off the monitor before I went in. On the monitor, I saw Yu Ming bound on a small bed in the center of the room with four non-Falun Gong detainees sitting around him.
Every day, the doctor would come to force-feed Yu Ming. He had been bound on the bed for over six months before he was transferred to another labor camp in April 2007. .
The guards arranged some non-Falun Gong detainees to live with us and monitor Falun Gong practitioners. The guards promised to reduce the non-Falun Gong detainees’ terms if they ‘worked well’. Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to talk to each other.
Forced labor work
During my first time in the camp, we were forced to pack disposable chopsticks in very unsanitary conditions. Every day we were forced to pack 6,000-7,000 pairs of chopsticks. All the chopsticks were put on the ground of the small room and people often stepped on them. Some of those chopsticks are for export.
In July, 2009, while I was having lunch in a cafeteria in Capitol Hill, Washington DC, I saw that the disposable chopsticks in the cafeteria were made in China. I’m not sure if these chopsticks were made in labor camps… but we made the same chopsticks.
In my second time in the camp, we were forced to pack carton boxes and were exposed to poisonous glues with little protection.
With the help of the US government, the European Parliament, the British and German government, Amnesty International and others, my daughter and I eventually came to the US to join my wife following my release in July 2008.
I sincerely thank all the people who have helped my family and me in the past two years.
Today, millions of Falun Gong practitioners are still being persecuted in mainland China. Many have lost their jobs, their homes and their freedom. Some have even lost their lives just because of the strength of their beliefs.
Even when I was in the labor camp, I could feel from the attitude of the guards that they got pressure from the outside world. One guard even mentioned to me once that international human rights organizations cared about me.
Only after I arrived in the US did I learn that Amnesty members around the world had written me hundreds, if not thousands, of letters. All the letters were impounded by the authorities. But I believe that the pressure from international society, of course including the letters from Amnesty members, helped me a lot.
From my experience, attention and pressure from international society can help to improve the conditions of jailed people. The Letter Writing Marathon is a great idea. Chinese people are now beginning to launch similar programs for those in China’s jails. Please help to stop the persecution of various kinds of people. The injustice must be – and will be – stopped by the joined efforts of all upright and kind people."
Obama must press China to uphold human rights
President Obama must use his first official visit to China to urge the authorities to reverse the sharp rise in human rights violations in the country, Amnesty International said on Friday.
The organisation reminded President Obama in an open letter that he has a responsibility to publicly push for an improvement in China’s poor human rights record during his scheduled visit to China next week.
Thousands of Chinese activists and human rights lawyers continue to face arbitrary detention, harassment and imprisonment following unfair trials while the authorities continue to execute more people than the rest of the world combined.
“The Chinese government has stepped up efforts to silence any internal criticism or challenge, despite the country’s massive economic growth. President Obama must take this opportunity to show that the US views human rights as a central plank of its relationship with China,” said Sam Zarifi,Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director.
Amnesty International continues to monitor the cases of many individuals who are being held in administrative detention, including the “re-education through labour” detention system, where detainees can be locked up for up to four years without trial.
Torture by law enforcement personnel is endemic, resulting in many prisoners’ deaths while in custody.
Human rights lawyers are harassed, intimidated, assaulted, abducted, forcibly disappeared, placed under surveillance and house arrest and faced criminal charges for protecting the rights of others.
In the first half of 2009 alone, Amnesty International documented the cases of at least four human rights lawyers who were threatened with violence; at least 10 who were prevented from meeting with or representing their clients in courts, and at least five who were briefly detained, one for one month, because of their human rights work.
The announcement this week that authorities had executed eight Uighurs and one Han Chinese for their alleged role in the July riots are further proof of the urgent need for the US administration to push China for an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation of the events surrounding the July riots.
Uighurs and other ethnic minority and religious groups such as Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners continue to be ill treated and face persecution for their beliefs.
“Despite China adopting a human rights action plan after hosting the Olympic Games last year its government needs to show the world that it is serious about meetings its obligations under international human rights law,” said Sam Zarifi.
Amnesty International calls on China to show its commitment to human rights by immediately meeting the following benchmarks:
• Abolition of the “Re-Education through Labour” detention system. There is a strong domestic call in China for the reform of the system. In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, an open letter calling for its abolition solicited 15,000 signatures.
• A public and independent investigation of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators. Human rights defenders and activists face police harassment and surveillance when they press the authorities to take responsibility for the crackdown in 1989.
• A lifting of all restrictions and obstacles to freedom of worship. Thousands are detained for their religious activities.
• Cessation of the repression of Tibetans and Uighurs and respect for their ethnic, cultural and religious identity. Tibetans and Uighurs has been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations. These include arbitrary detention, torture, severe restrictions on freedom of religion and employment discrimination.
It also calls on President Obama to urge China to:
• Release Shi Tao, a journalist who was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on charges of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” due to an email he sent to a US-based website. Court records show that one of the evidence was Shi Tao’s account holder information provided to the police by Internet company Yahoo! Inc.
• Release immediately and unconditionally those detained solely for engaging in peaceful protest, including support for the Dalai Lama, the independence of Tibet, or greater autonomy for Tibet.
• Release prisoner of conscience Ablikim Abdiriyim, son of Uighur activist Reibya Kadeer. He is serving a nine-year sentence in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) on charges of “instigating and engaging in secessionist activities.”
There are serious concerns that he may have confessed under torture. Ablikim Abdiriyim was detained with his siblings and several family members in May 2006. Their detention prevented them from meeting with a United States Congressional delegation on a scheduled visit. His brother Alim Abdiriyim is also in prison on charges of tax evasion, which may be politically motivated.
• Ensure lawyers’ rights to carry out their legal work without harassment, intimidation, violence or fear of criminal prosecution.
Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Psychiatric Torture in Southeast China
New York—A 40-year-old female Falun Gong practitioner in Hunan province has died in custody, apparently due to psychiatric torture, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned. The woman had been detained in May 2008 in a local crackdown before the Olympic Torch passed through the province.
Ms. Chen Chunjun (陈楚君), a former accountant at the local railroad company, was arrested on May 10, 2008 in Huaihua city by agents of the 610 Office, an extra-legal task force created in 1999 and charged with wiping out Falun Gong. (6-10 Office) She was walking to a bus stop on her way home when she was detained. Chen was one of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners arbitrarily detained that month in Hunan, as part of a crackdown by local officials ahead of the passage of the Olympic Torch relay through the province from June 1-3, 2008.
Sources inside China recently discovered that Chen died in March 2009 at Huaihua Psychiatric Hospital (a.k.a. Huaihua No. 4 People’s Hospital).
China: Detainees ‘Disappeared’ After Xinjiang Protests
(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately account for all detainees in its custody and allow independent investigations into the July 2009 protests in Urumqi and their aftermath, Human Rights Watch said in a new report on enforced “disappearances” released today.
South Korea, please stop deporting Falun Gong refugees back to China
The South Korean government needs to get in shape. Despite plenty of evidence that Chinese authorities can persecute anyone who practices Falun Gong in China, even if they practiced in their homes, the South Korea government has repatriated 3 Falun Gong refugees back to China in the past weeks.
Here’s hoping that South Korea is able to do the right thing.
Falun Dafa Information Center Urges Korean President to Protect Falun Gong Refugees
Excerpt:
However, a wide range of eyewitness accounts and third party reports – including those from Amnesty International, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and the United Nations – document the ongoing systemic and widespread nature of persecution against Falun Gong in China. Practitioners fleeing the country are regularly granted asylum in the United States and Western European countries, as well as protection from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees because of the risk they would face should they be forced to return to China. South Korea has ratified several international human rights treaties that prohibit repatriation of individuals to countries where they risk torture.
China: Cease Attacks on Rights Lawyers
(New York) – The Chinese government’s closure of a Beijing-based legal aid and research organization and disbarment of 53 Beijing lawyers marks a sharp intensification of official efforts to silence China’s human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human rights lawyers disbarred in China
Chinese human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong has had his professional license revoked by the Justice Bureau of Beijing Municipality. Amnesty International has condemned the decision.
“There are only a tiny group of lawyers left in China who are brave enough to take the risk of representing victims of human rights violations. A further crackdown against human rights lawyers is a major blow not only to these legal professionals but to the human rights defence movement in China,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director.
There are more than 140,000 lawyers and 14,000 law firms in China but only a small proportion take the risk of taking on cases involving human rights violations, including providing legal aid to Tibetans who were detained in connection with the March 2008 protests. Others cases these lawyers worked on involved Falun Gong practitioners, human rights defenders detained for peacefully exercising their freedom of expression and families of victims affected by the baby milk powder scandal.
The Justice Bureau of Beijing Municipality issued a notice stating 53 lawyers’ licences, including Jiang Tianyong’s, were revoked in accordance to articles 23(1)(3) and 23(1)(4) of Methods for the Management of Lawyers’ Practice.
The justice bureau also issued a list of 24 Beijing-based lawyers who will not have their licences re-registered. According to the list these lawyers “failed their assessments” and include prominent human rights lawyers, Li Heping, Li Xiongbing, Li Chunfu, Wang Yajun and Guo Shaofei.
Without a license, lawyers are restricted in their ability to represent those seeking to obtain justice and redress for human rights violations.
Members of Congress Urge President Obama to Support Falun Gong Practitioners in China
The 10th anniversary of the start of the Falun Gong persecution in China is July 20. It really is one of the cruelest persecutions of our time, and the media is rather silent on reporting it. Hmmm, wonder why?
Congressional letter calls Falun Gong plight “one of the most unjust and cruel persecutions of our times.”
WASHINGTON DC — In a bi-partisan letter sent to President Obama yesterday, sixty one members of Congress urged the President to “speak very clearly and specifically” in support of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
“We applaud these members of Congress,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Mr. Erping Zhang, “for articulating in no uncertain terms that the United States government will not tolerate the arbitrary arrest, torture and death of Falun Gong practitioners — peaceful, law-abiding citizens — as a result of a systematic Communist Party-run campaign. We hope President Obama and his administration will heed their call.”
Initiated by Congressmen Rob Andrews (D-NJ) and Chris Smith (R-NJ), the letter highlights how Falun Gong practitioners were first targeted by the Chinese regime ten years ago and how an extrajudicial security force known as the “6-10 Office” was established to stamp out the traditional Chinese practice. “The ‘6-10 Office’ ruthlessly implements the ban [on Falun Gong],” the letter states, “through massive propaganda campaigns intended to demonize Falun Gong and…supervises the arbitrary detention, beating, torutre and ‘transformation through reeducation’ of Falun Gong practitioners.”
Read more at Falun Info Center.
China must investigate 156 deaths during protests in Urumqi
One hundred and fifty six people were killed in the city of Urumqi in western China late on Sunday, after a protest turned violent, according to media reports.
Xinhua, the official state news agency, reported that police in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and home to over 8 million Uighurs, have detained 1,434 individuals in connection with the protests. These include more than ten key figures that were accused of instigating the unrest.
Amnesty International on Monday called on the Chinese authorities to immediately launch an independent and impartial investigation into the deaths.
“The Chinese authorities must fully account for all those who died and have been detained,” said Roseann Rife, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific programme.
“Those who were detained solely for peacefully expressing their views and exercising their freedom of expression, association and assembly must be released immediately. A fair and thorough investigation must be launched resulting in fair trials that are in accordance with international standards without recourse to the death penalty.”
“There has been a tragic loss of life and it is essential that an urgent independent investigation takes place to bring all those responsible for the deaths to justice,” said Roseann Rife. “Violence and abuses from either the authorities or protestors is in no way justified.”
Amnesty International urged the authorities to respect their obligations under domestic and international law, which protect peaceful freedom of expression and assembly, prohibit arbitrary arrest and torture or ill-treatment in custody. The organization also called on the authorities to allow free access for domestic and foreign journalists and independent observers to report on the incident.
The protests are reported to have begun with non-violent demonstrations against government inaction after a violent riot at a factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, resulted in two deaths. On 26 June, hundreds of Uighur workers clashed with thousands of Han Chinese workers at a factory where Uighurs had been recruited from the XUAR.
Police were reported to have detained the man, a laid-off employee from the same factory, who circulated the rumours which provoked the deadly clash. In response to the violence in Guangdong the authorities imposed an information blackout on the incident, with websites and online discussion boards instructed to delete posts related to the clash.
Beyond responding to the immediate outbreak of violence, Amnesty International said that the authorities need to address issues that have given rise to tensions. Since the 1980s, the Uighurs have been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations. These include arbitrary detention and imprisonment, incommunicado detention, and serious restrictions on religious freedom as well as cultural and social rights.
Chinese government policies, including those that limit use of the Uighur language, severe restrictions on freedom of religion, and a sustained influx of Han Chinese migrants into the region, are destroying customs and, together with employment discrimination, fuelling discontent and ethnic tensions.
The Chinese government has mounted an aggressive campaign that has led to the arrest and arbitrary detention of thousands of Uighurs on charges of “terrorism, separatism and religious extremism” for peacefully exercising their human rights.
World Media Follow Beijing’s Lead in Xinjiang Reporting
This is a very interesting article from The Epoch Times and I have observed the same. It seems the world’s media is following, seemingly without questions, China’s state-controlled media in reporting the Xinjiang violence.
Excerpt:
But media experts and Uyghur activists say that China’s state-controlled media are working to frame the story in favor of the regime, a strategy one Hong Kong-based Chinese media expert calls “Control 2.0.”
“By getting the information out, officials can get the ‘peripheral media’ (influential portal news sites, and commercial newspapers) to work for them,” writes David Bandurski editor of the China Media Project Web site in his analysis of the earlier riots in Shishou.
“These media feed off of the original Xinhua reports, amplifying their effect. Those same reports, with only slight permutations in many cases, become AFP, Reuters, and AP reports.”
Read the full article: World Media Follow Beijing’s Lead in Xinjiang Reporting