Practitioners Ms. Zhu Yourong and Ms. Zhang Zhibin Tortured to Death at Labour Camp in Hebei Province

In December 2000, authorities in Hebei Province First Forced Labour Camp (also called Tangshan City Kaiping Forced Labor Camp) tortured Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Zhu Yourong and Ms. Zhang Zhibin to death.

Ms. Zhu Yourong was in her thirties. She had been sentenced to forced labour around 2000. Because she strove to create an environment for the practice of Falun Gong, she suffered inhuman tortures. In September 2000, Ms. Zhu was looked up in a small cell (1) by the guards after she went on a hunger strike, protesting the persecution. In the small cell, the guards tortured her with force-feeding, physical abuse, beatings, and curses. In December 2000, she died without bearing any feeling of resentment. The persons who were directly involved in her persecution were: the guard officer, Zhang Wenjun, and the section chief, Cai Lianjing (the day when Ms. Zhu died, she was the one on duty).

The small cells were humid and cold. No sunlight could get in. Anytime the guards saw practitioners practising Falun Gong, they would punish them with beatings, curses, physical abuse or tie them up on the cold concrete ground. They also cruelly force-fed practitioners. Four guards were involved in a force-feeding action. One of them pried open a practitioner's mouth with chopsticks while sitting on the practitioner's stomach. The guard was so heavy that the practitioner couldn't breathe. Some practitioners' teeth were broken and their mouths bled badly due to prying open of their mouths. After prying open the practitioner's mouth, another held the practitioner's head, and a third one poured food in. Sometime the pieces of potatoes were too big to pass through into the practitioners' throats, so they would force the food down with chopsticks, usually causing serious injury to the practitioners' throats.

The guards intentionally over force-fed. Sometimes they force-fed too much coarse food, and then the practitioners' stomachs were over loaded. Even when practitioners were suffering from the last over-feeding, the guards would force-feed again on schedule. There were nine practitioners in the small cells. They suffered cruel force-feeding every day, even though no one surrendered (they had been on a hunger strike for over five months). That was not all. The practitioners still had to suffer other tortures such as physical punishment, beatings, curses, restricted movements, and lying on the cold cement ground.

On the evening of December 12, 2000, Ms. Zhu Yourong was tortured to death.

Ms. Zhang Zhibin was thirty years old. After Ms. Zhu Yourong died, over eighty Falun Gong practitioners from the 4th Brigade in the Kaiping Forced Labour Camp went on a hunger strike together to protest. They recited Teacher's books and practiced the exercises. They demanded an investigation into the cause of Ms. Zhu's death and punishment of the guard directly responsible for Ms. Zhu's death, Zhang Wenjun. They also demanded that local authorities report her case to higher authorities and that Falun Gong practitioners nationwide be released from prison.

Six days later, The First Forced Labour Camp hadn't investigated or punished the persons responsible for Ms. Zhu's murder. Instead, they forced the practitioners to separate (to protect each other, the practitioners decided to stick together). Ms. Zhang Zhibin, Ms. Qiu Liying, Ms. Ren Juxiu and Ms. Wu Xiuguang, and others were locked into the small cells by the guards. In the evening (probably December 18), the shock sounds of electric batons and screams could be heard from the camp's "hospital." The cries of agony went on for a long time. Practitioners later found out that Ms. Zhang Zhibin had been tortured to death that night.

When one practitioner visited another practitioner in the camp, a driver unintentionally told the practitioner that he took a person to a hospital on the evening of December 18, but the person was already dead. Consequently, Dafa practitioners knew that Ms. Zhang Zhibin had passed away. When the practitioners asked the section chief, Cai Lianjing, where Ms. Zhang was, she lied. After practitioners asked repeatedly, she finally acquiesced and told them Ms Zhang had died, and said: "I was afraid that you couldn't take it and would do something if I told you she had died. It was for your own good."

Notes:

(1) Locking up in a small cell: The detainee is locked up in a very small cell individually. The guards handcuff practitioners on their back in a fixed position, in which the practitioners can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served to detainees locked up in a small cell during the daytime. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/4/28/73231.html