More Facts about the Persecution and Death of Schoolteacher Ms Hou Youfang from Gansu Province

On November 29th, 2002, Ms. Hou Youfang was tortured to death in the Ping'antai Labour Camp in Gansu Province.

Ms. Hou Youfang used to be a schoolteacher at the Xipo Middle School in Jinchang City, Gansu Province. She started practising Falun Gong in April 1999. After that, her many illnesses vanished, including gallstones. More importantly, she was deeply inspired by the profound principles articulated in the Falun Dafa book, Zhuan Falun. Through constant study she became more and more aware of the true meaning of life and was determined to conduct herself as a true cultivator.

In July of 1999, the Chinese government started to persecute Falun Gong. Ms. Hou overcame many obstacles in February of 2000 and resolutely went to Beijing to appeal against the unlawful persecution, but she was arrested. Those who took her back to Jinchang City were school principal Huang Jisheng and an officer from her local police station. Immediately afterwards she was illegally detained for two weeks. In less than three days after her release, fearing implication, her husband divorced her because she refused to give up Falun Dafa. After the divorce, she did not have a place to live and went to her school authorities asking for housing, but was refused. She had no other choice but to rent an apartment in the countryside. In addition, because of her appeal, the police fined her 3,000 yuan and the school officials fined her 6,000 yuan. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

The Jinchang City 610 Office¹ collaborated with the school principal to persecute her. They didn't allow her to teach classes and instead they assigned her to cook for dozens of students. They also gave her the most exhausting and filthy work to do and didn't allow her to rest. They verbally abused her on a daily basis and played all kinds of dirty tricks on her to make her life miserable.

Zhang Xueyou, a school official in the Ningyuan Section who is now transferred to the Jinchuan District government, is very vicious. He would force Ms. Hou Youfang to pick coal cinders from a coal pile, forbidding her to wear gloves. As a result, Ms. Hou's fingers were cut and often bled. She was paid only 200 yuan a month for living expenses.

Some "helpers" who were part of the persecution against her said, "As soon as you stop practising Falun Gong, you will be compensated for all your lost wages in the past several years, you will be assigned an apartment and your teaching privileges will be reinstated." Ms. Hou Youfang replied firmly, "I will not give up my practice! All I need is a simple apartment to live in." The "helpers" replied, "If you don't give it up, you'll get nothing from us."

In August of 2001, she was reported to the police when she was telling people about the goodness of Falun Dafa and explaining that practitioners are innocent people being wrongfully persecuted. Meng Jiaxian and Li Xinhua from the Jinchuan Police Department searched for her everywhere. She went into exile to avoid being arrested again. Once, when she went back to her previous place of residence to fetch some belongings, she was followed. Later on she was arrested, her home was ransacked, and Huang Jisheng confiscated 500 yuan in cash from her. Ms. Hou Youfang eventually escaped.

At the end of August in 2001, when Ms. Hou Youfang was telling people the truth Falun Dafa in the Minqin area of Gansu Province, she was once again illegally arrested and suffered the brutal torture called Tiger Bench² for three consecutive days. Following that, officers from the Jinchang Police Department took her back and sent her to forced labour several days later.

According to reliable sources, policeman Cai Jianjun from the Jinchang City Drug Rehabilitation Centre was in charge of sending Ms. Hou to the labour camp. Because Ms. Hou's health was very poor from the long-term persecution, the Gansu Second Labour Camp refused to accept her, as did the Gansu First Labour Camp. Cai Jianjun persisted, bribing the officials of the labour camps and saying, "My boss has said Hou Youfang has a stomach problem. Even if we have to open her stomach and pull her disease out, the labour camp has to accept her." When several inmates carried Ms. Hou out of the van and put her on the ground, she doubled over in pain and couldn't move. Inmates then carried her into the labour camp.

As soon as she entered the labour camp, the police immediately forced her to write the so-called three statements³ and urged inmates and collaborators⁴ to brainwash her. They also forced her to read books that contained slander and lies against Falun Dafa. In addition, they tortured her by handcuffing her, with one hand reaching up behind the back and other reaching over the shoulder, she was then hung up in this position. She developed severely itchy skin at the time, bringing about unbearable pain, both mentally and physically. Under pressure, she wrote the "three statements." Later she realised what she had done and made a solemn declaration that she would continue practising Falun Dafa. The police then incited inmates to beat her. They deprived her of sleep for a month, forced her to stand outside and forced her to do slave labour for long hours.

On one occasion she escaped but didn't make it far. Policewoman Hu Qingmei immediately beat her so hard that Ms. Hou couldn't stand up anymore. Several other police officers stomped on her abdomen, arms and legs. This was witnessed by locals who were passing by. After Ms. Hou Youfang died, to cover up their crime, the police found those who had witnessed the scene and bought their silence with several hundred yuan.

When Ms. Hou Youfang was carried back to Team 2, she screamed in pain, "It hurts so badly. My arms and legs have been broken!" All practitioners in Team 2 were driven back to their cells and forced to lie prone on their beds without raising their heads. Hearing Ms. Hou's miserable screams, a practitioner rushed to the door and saw that the police officers violently dragged Ms. Hou Youfang around, with her right arm completely limp. She was locked up in a confined cell. She was unable to stand, she was covered with dirt, and her face was dark purple. Not long after that the police officers carried her to the labour camp hospital. In less than 24 hours, the two inmates in charge of monitoring her returned and wouldn't say anything about her. One of them quietly told an inmate in a corner, "They beat her too severely and dare not assume the responsibility." The police took Ms. Hou to the hospital, planning to destroy the evidence.

After Ms. Hou Youfang was taken to the hospital, Falun Dafa practitioners in all of the teams were forbidden to use the toilet, day or night. They had to use a bucket in the courtyard. All the filthy and exhausting labour that only Falun Dafa practitioners were forced to do were now reassigned to the inmates. There are four teams in Division Seven, holding more than a hundred Falun Dafa practitioners. The police tightly blocked the information and forbade practitioners from talking to each other. For several months no family member visits were permitted and no practitioners were released, even after their terms had expired. As late as 2005, the police would still lie to practitioners in other teams, saying, "Hou Youfang was transferred somewhere else."

Ms. Hou Youfang was detained several times. Even when she was illegally sentenced to forced labour, her son had never had a chance to visit her. After Ms. Hou was tortured to death, fearing their crime would be exposed, the labour camp authorities did not inform her family members. They collaborated with the Jinchang City 610 Office and only informed her son. They told him numerous lies. Her son finally gave up the idea of having a last look at his mother after hearing the lies. He authorised the labour camp criminals to cremate his mother's body in the labour camp.

Ms. Hou Youfang and her ex-husband have a son who has a job. When she told him about the goodness of Falun Dafa , he wouldn't listen. Moreover, he mocked her and swore at her in public several times.

After Ms. Hou Youfang was tortured to death, her ex-husband Zhang Tingshun forged his son's name on documents to obtain an "inheritance." Through improper methods he acquired her pension money, was compensated for funeral expenses, and collected several months' back wages totalling over 10,000 yuan. He refused to give a share to Ms. Hou's elderly mother.

Ms. Hou's elderly mother had been looking forward to her daughter's return. The family members wanted to spare her the anguish of her daughter's death and did not tell her the tragic news for two years.

One day in 2004, when her mother accidentally heard from others that her daughter had been killed, she almost feinted. She spent the following days in deep grief and mourning for the terrible death of her daughter.

Note:

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

3. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

4. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/4/105418.html