After Ten Months on a Hunger Strike, Life in Danger for 55 Year Old Ms. Li Yushu

The Mohe County, Heilongjiang Province education committee director, Ms. Li Yushu, fifty-five years old, was detained, sentenced, and persecuted in the Harbin Women's Prison because she firmly practises Falun Dafa. Ms. Li has been on a hunger strike for 10 months and her life is in danger. Every day her hands are tied with a rope and her mouth is sealed with adhesive tape.

The prison officials from the Harbin Women's Prison Section Eight have threatened, tempted and tortured her, but none of their actions has moved her. Between September and November 2003, Ms. Li together with Shang Shuzhe, Ding Yu, Wang Hongjie, and Tian Guiqing protested against the persecution of Dafa practitioners in prison. As a result, they were force-fed for forty-seven days. Once, the guards inserted a stomach tube for force feeding. It was changed only once a week and the tube turned black. Every day two people were handcuffed together behind their backs while sitting back to back. They were not allowed to sleep in their beds.

In December of 2003, the guards twisted her arms and tied them behind her back, badly hurting her arms.

At the beginning of year 2004, Ms. Li was chained to the head of the bed together with another practitioner from the Prison Section 8. She had been on a hunger strike for three months to protest the persecution of practitioners. They did not let her sleep at night and forced her to sit with her hands cuffed behind her back around the clock.

Ms. Li has been on her current hunger strike since August 2, 2004. In November 2004, she was moved to Prison Section 9 and was locked in a small cell(1). She has been in solitary confinement in Prison Section 9 since February 3, 2005. She has continued her hunger strike, and her life is in serious danger.

Names and phone numbers pf responsible parties in the Harbin Women's Prison:

The Warden: Xu Longjiang, Liu Zhi Qiang
The Political Committee: Ms. Chu Xiuhua 86-451-86684001 ext. 3003
The Division Chief , Prison Section 4: Wu Yanjie, Tao Shuping
The Division Chief, Prison Section 8: Zheng Jie 86-451-86358314

Note:

(1) Locked in Small Cell: A small cell is a room of less than three square meters. It has no window, no bed, no water, and no toilet. The practitioner is locked in a small cell for months, having to eat, sleep, and excrete in the same small area. Since the height of the room is less than 1.5 meters, the practitioner cannot stand straight. To exacerbate the agony, the guards often handcuff the practitioners to the small cell door or behind their backs, so that the pain prevents them from being able to sleep.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/5/25/102605.html