Ms. Xu Xiuju Suffers Torture-Induced Mental Collapse at the Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp

Ms. Xu Xiuju, around 30 years of age, was a young executive at an industrial and commerce bank in the Jingxing Mine area of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei province. She travelled to Beijing to appeal in the summer of 2000, to tell people about the persecution of Falun Dafa, but the police arrested her and inhumanly beat her. After the local public security office agents brought her back to Shijiazhuang City, she was detained for half a month at the Jingxing Detention Centre. The police threatened and beat her and forced her to squat until she became unconscious.

Later, she was taken to a treatment centre and kept under twenty-four hour surveillance. She was released after a month. Afraid of being implicated themselves, the officials of her work unit actively participated in this persecution. They forced her to sell her job seniority right (state-owned enterprises compensate a dismissed employee an amount based on his/her length of employment. The dismissed employee will not receive any welfare and benefit). She not only had to take care of a paralyzed husband and a young daughter, but also had to face a cruel persecution. Her life was filled with hardship, as she had to deal with being constantly monitored and the loss of her personal freedom. They took away her right to leave town to visit friends or relatives. During the "sensitive days" she would be under 24 hour surveillance.

On New Year's Eve of 2001, the local police broke into her home. She was detained after they confiscated her family's property. She went on a hunger strike to protest against the persecution during the twenty some days in detention, but the police force-fed her. She was placed under surveillance and harassed after being released. Her family suffered hostility by those who didn't know the truth.

In the summer of 2001, Xu Xiuju went to Beijing to appeal again. She was arrested and faced even more brutal persecution. Police in the mine area detention centre locked her wrists and feet onto a bed frame. It was during a hot summer, and she could neither move nor relieve herself. After suffering for more than a month, she was sent to the Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp for two years. Under Jiang's policy to exterminate Falun Gong by "removing their financial resources, destroying their reputations, and eliminating them physically," Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp forecast that they would transform her within three days. During a night of unimaginably cruel torture, she wrote a "guarantee statement."(1). Jail guards forced her to criticize and defame Falun Dafa and Teacher in front of a large gathering. They sent a similar statement to related departments, her work unit, and homes of her relatives and friends. She was devastated, as she had chosen to follower her conscience and firmly believed in truthfulness, kindness and forbearance. But the jail police continued with an even more inhuman and long lasting torture. Finally, her spirit was broken and she suffered a mental collapse.

A policewoman hung her up on a rope, even after she became mentally traumatized. The torture caused her feet to swell and become very painful. Her agonized crying was heart rending to listen to.

(1) Guarantee statement: A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/1/66350.html