The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) released today
a list of 51 labor camps for journalists to investigate while they are in China for the
Olympic Games.
CIPFG reports that there are nearly 300 labor camps in China, where torture, “re-education”
(brainwashing), and forced labor take place. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners
are said to be held there, and among them are those arrested in large purges that took
place in the months before the Olympics.
The regime in China has been known to deny independent investigations of claims of torture
and abuse in its labor camps, which people can be sentenced to without trial.
In the lead-up to the games, CIPFG released to journalists a guide to seven labor camps
near the Olympics venues, titled “Torture Outside the Olympic Village: A Guide to
China’s Labor Camps.” These camps held practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual
practice that is heavily persecuted in China.
Sources reported that the Chinese regime relocated many of the Falun Gong practitioners in
the camps to ones in other provinces, and put on show tours for foreign media.
Falun Gong has been persecuted since 1999 when the practice was outlawed after it grew to
an estimated 80–100 million practitioners. Reports from human rights organizations
document brutal persecution against practitioners, including rape, torture, and the
harvesting of organs. The Chinese regime has not explained a surge of transplants done
since 2001, including 40,000 transplants with donors unaccounted for.
8.20, 2008, http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/list-labor-camps-international-journalists-china-3119.html