Practitioner Ms Zou Qianzhu Died as a Result of Torture at Guizhou Women's Forced Labour Camp

Falun Dafa practitioner Zou Qianzhu died as a result of persecution on October 22, 2004, at Guizhou Women's Forced Labour Camp.

Ms. Zou Qianzhu was 44 years old and worked at the No. 103 Geophysical Exploration Brigade is Guizhou Province. She was an outstanding worker and had many times been highly praised by her unit as the "Most Outstanding Worker." She first started practicing Falun Gong in 1996 and experienced great health improvements. She had been a practitioner ever since.

The Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. The local police, the 610 Office, and Ms. Zou's work unit all tried to persuade her at length to give up Falun Gong, yet Zou Qianzhu persisted in her practice despite the pressure. The Guiyang City and Qingzhen Township governments put her on the black list as a "most wanted" target for surveillance after she openly proclaimed that it was her unalienable right to believe in Dafa.

Qingzhen Township police and deputies from the local Maanshan Police Station broke into and raided her house numerous times. They confiscated her Dafa books and tapes, as well as putting her under multiple kinds of surveillance such as phone tapping, following and shadowing her, and 24-hour surveillance of her home.

In the summer of 2001, the Maanshan police abducted Zou Qianzhu while she was doing the Falun Gong exercises in a park. She protested her detainment with a hunger strike, and they released her after five days.

In September 2002, the Political and Judicial Committee deputies of Guizhou City charged into Zou's home and told her that they were going to take her to the Guiyang City Lannigou "Legal Training Class," which is actually a brainwashing class. After Zou sternly refused to cooperate, five men carried her out against her will.

At the "Legal Training Class" Zou remained resolute about her faith and tried to reason with her captors. In order to resist such cruel "transformation," Zou again went on a hunger strike to protest. Only after her life was in danger did the brainwashing class officials take her to the Guiyang Workers' Hospital for emergency treatment. Five days later, Zou walked out of the hospital after recovering some of her physical strength and evading the guard and surveillance. From that point on she was forced to stay away from her home and keep moving in order to avoid abduction.

Two months later, the Tongren City Police in Guizhou Province learned that Zou Qianzhu was staying with her parents. They immediately sent several dozen deputies to surround her parents' home and proceeded to abduct her. They put Zou into a detention center and notified other concerned government agencies. The next day, police deputies from Tongren City and Guiyang City formed a special escort squad to take Zou Qianzhu to the infamous Lannigou Detention Centre in Guiyang City. They tried a variety of hideous means to try to force Zou to write a "Repentance Statement."

In 2003, because Zou Qianzhu remained resolute in her faith in Dafa, she was transferred directly, without any due process, to the Guizhou Provincial Women's Forced Labour Camp.

The Guizhou Provincial Women's Labour Camp was originally the women's division of the Zhongba Labour Camp in Guizhou Province. Because of the large number of abducted practitioners, the women's division engaged in a large-scale expansion project, which continued until 2004, and eventually was designated as a separate women's labour camp. This camp was dedicated to detaining female practitioners. Many of the female guards at that camp were notorious for their cruelty.

Zou Qianzhu persisted in doing the Falun Gong exercises after being transferred to the Women's Labour Camp. When her family visited her in August 2004, Deputy Long of the Education Department threatened Zou in front of her family, "If you do not listen to the Communist Party and write a 'Repentance Statement,' you will never leave here alive."

On October 22, 2004, Zou Qianzhu died at the labour camp. After her family learned the news, they clearly stated the following: (1) the labour camp must take full responsibility for her death, and an autopsy must be performed to establish the cause of death, (2) Zou Qianzhu's body must not be cremated until her family members arrive. Yet on October 24 at around 10 p.m., the guards at the Guizhou Women's Labour Camp conspired with other concerned government agencies to secretly cremate Zou's body before her family had a chance to arrive and view her body.

After this incident became public, everyone was angry about Zou Qianzhu's wrongful treatment and strongly demanded that Guizhou Women's Labour Camp and the government agencies involved come forward with honest explanations. These agencies then tried to smother the public outcries and claimed that Zou Qianzhu died of natural causes. They refused to provide an autopsy report and related documents, and have even tried to threaten and coerce the public. In the end, the unit where Zou Qianzhu worked even cancelled her memorial service altogether.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/12/30/92484.html