Masanjia Labor Camp

Masanjia Labor Camp (马三家劳教所) is in Masanjia Town in Yuhong district in the Liaoning province of China.^[1] It also is called the Ideology Education School of Liaoning Province^[2] and was opened under China's re-education through labor, or 'laojiao' policy. It is claimed by Falun Gong supporters that several thousand Falun Gong pratictioners were detained at Mansanjia Labor Camp from 1999 to 2007.^[3] Dr. Veron Mei-ying Hung reported to the United States Congressional Executive Commission on China in 2002 that:

China has not disclosed the exact number of Falun Gong followers held in re-education through labor camps. But it confirmed in January 2001 that at least 470 followers were held at the Masanjia Education-Through-Labour Education Institution in Liaoning Province and the official media reported in August 2001 that “th[is] camp has also succeeded in `re-educating’ more than 90 per cent of the 1,000 female Falun Gong members housed there.” ^[4]

On August 23, 2001, spokesman Zhang Yuanyuan of the Chinese embassy in the United States denied a claim that "130 Falun Gong practitioners at the Masanjia Rehabilitation Center in China's Liaoning Province have been on hunger strike for more than 20 days in protest of the so-called extension of their terms".^[5]

The Labor Camp includes a women’s section and the penal labor they do as part of their sentence is mainly that of textile production.^[3] According to Falun Gong websites, the workshops there have mainly processed and produced toxic arts and crafts products for profit, many of them for export, over the past few years^[6] and eighteen female practitioners were stripped naked and forced into the cells of male criminals to be repeatedly raped and abused. ^[7] The directors of Masanjia in 2003 were believed to be Sun Fengwu, Zhang Chaoying and Su Jing. ^[8] According to the People's Daily it is the institution most heavily attacked by Li Hongzhi and his organisation. ^[9] The Falun Gong organisation abroad claimed many members of Falun Gong had been tortured. ^[10] It is near Sujiatun prison camp. ^[11] Inmates lead an easy life according to the People's Daily. ^[12] Most Masanjia Labor Camp Falun Gong practitioners have been moved to Sujiatun Concentration Camp. ^[13] Masanjia Labor camp has been mentioned in a U.N. Special Rapporteur report. ^[14] It is connected to Masanjia Xinsheng Farm. ^[15]

References

1. ^ "Liaoning Masanjia". http://wordpress.com/tag/liaoning-masanjia/. 
2. ^ "Liaoning Masanjia Labor Camp". http://chinaview.wordpress.com/category/social/politics/labor-camp/liaoning-masanjia/. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group". http://www.flghrwg.net/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1330&Itemid=0. 
4. ^ Mei-ying Hung, Veron. "Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Punishment of Minor Crimes in China". United States Congressional Executive Commission on China. http://www.cecc.gov/pages/roundtables/072602/hung.php#_ftnref45. Retrieved 2008-06-25. 
5. ^ "Falun Gong's Fabrication About Masanjia Will Get Nowhere". http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/ppflg/t36596.htm. 
6. ^ "Clear Harmony". http://clearharmony.net/articles/200710/41707.html. 
7. ^ "Falun Dafa". http://www.falundafa-florida.org/Persecution/persecution_china.htm. 
8. ^ "Falun Gong Woman Exhibits Torture Injuries, Dies in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp". http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=7667. 
9. ^ "People's Daily". http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200105/24/eng20010524_70866.html. 
10. ^ Gittings, John (February 20, 2001). "the guardian". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,440270,00.html. Retrieved May 12, 2010. 
11. ^ "Friends of Falun Gong USA". http://www.fofg.org/news/news_story.php?doc_id=1266. 
12. ^ "People's Daily". http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200102/18/eng20010218_62663.html. 
13. ^ "Epoch Times". http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-3-10/39111.html. 
14. ^ "Justice for Falun Gong". http://www.flgjustice.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=748&Itemid=1. 
15. ^ "laogai.org". http://www.laogai.org/hdbook/liaoning.htm.