Authorities at Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp Brutally Persecute Ms. Ding Shumei from Hebei Province

On August 10th 2005, officers from the Xhanhua Police Department arrested Ms. Ding Shumei, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. Without a warrant, they sent her directly to the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp. Since Ms. Ding refused to cooperate after the arrest, they beat and tortured her with electric batons. To protest the persecution, Ms. Ding held a hunger strike. In return, the authorities brutally force-fed her. Currently Ms. Ding is in an extremely weak physical condition. We appeal to all kind-hearted people to pay attention to Ms. Ding's situation.

Ms. Ding Shumei, 44, is an elementary school teacher. On March 2nd 2000, when she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, she was illegally detained for one month.

In October 2001, Ms. Ding tried to tell the facts of Falun Dafa to people about the persecution to others. To punish her, the authorities sentenced her to three years of imprisonment at the Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City.

Before the local police finally managed to send her to Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp in Hebei Province, their attempts to imprison her in other labour camps failed because the authorities at these labour camps all refused to accept her. The authorities at Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp, however, agreed to admit her after the local police bribed them with a lot of money.

On August 12th three days after Ms. Ding began her hunger strike at Gaoyang Labour Camp, the authorities began to force feed her, but Ms. Ding threw up everything they fed her. A doctor's examination a few days later concluded that she was not suitable for force-feeding. Disregarding the doctor's conclusion, Li Xuejun, Wei Hongling, and a doctor surnamed Bai, continued to force-feed Ms. Ding every day. After ten days of such torture, they tied her to a hospital bed and administered an infusion against her will. Then they took her back and continued the force-feeding. On the fifteenth day, Ms. Ding was sent back to the hospital and persecuted in the same way. Following instructions from Li Xuejun, the nurse fed Ms. Ding simultaneously through her nostrils and mouth, nearly suffocating her to death.

At the time of writing, they continue to force feed her routinely. As a result, Ms. Ding is in a terribly weak condition.

On the evening of August 26th Li Xuejun, the head of the brigade, led Jing Guoping, the director of the labour camp; Ran Xuefeng, the political commissar of the labour camp; and Han Kexin, the associate director, to the women's building. They called the roll, but some of the practitioners refused to answer. These practitioners were punished. After these officials casually reduced some inmates' terms by eight days per month, they visited place where Ms. Ding was being held. Despite her critical physical condition, Ms. Ding continues to be imprisoned and is constantly under the intimidation of the brigade head and the prison doctors.

The hospital associated with the Gaoyang police is the Legal Hospital of Gaoyang Chinese Medicine Institute. This hospital has long been involved in treating patients from forced labour camps who have been beaten by police or are in a critical condition. They never report the abuse to higher levels of government. Moreover, they often issue false death certificates for people who die from police torture.

The police departments in the various counties and districts of Zhangjiakou City have also been cooperating with Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp by bribing them to imprison citizens they have arrested without a warrant. According to the official regulations, labour camp detainees from Zhangjiakou City are supposed to be sent to Tangshan City, but as a Zhangjiakou resident, Wang Peiyi, the former director of the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp, was very supportive of the local police. Wang himself was arrested back in 2004 for graft, but was released under pressure from the Judicial Department of Hebei Province. With his connections, Wang managed to retire from his post and escape punishments.

Since May of this year, authorities at Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp have started a layered administrative system that includes open, half-open, and closed governance. The inmates in the forced labour camp who are subject to the "open governance" (such as Jing Guoping) all have connections and have bribed the authorities. Not surprisingly, no Falun Gong practitioners are allowed to be in the "open governance" category.

The west wing on the second floor where Ms. Ding is imprisoned is where the guards torture people. There are various torture instruments on that floor. These instruments have been used to torture the imprisoned, including those who are still in the labour camp.

One of the rooms on the second floor is full of many ugly pictures and words slandering Falun Dafa and its founder. Whenever the authorities want to torture Falun Dafa practitioners, they always send them to that room.

Among the practitioners imprisoned in the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp, a few were released when they were in a critical condition, but they died only days after they returned home. It is suspected that these practitioners died because the authorities at the labour camp injected them with nerve-damaging drugs. The doctors in this brigade, including the one surnamed Bai, Wang Guoyou, and Wei Hongling, have been directly involved in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. In particular, to further torture Ms. Ding, who was holding a hunger strike, they once purposely force-fed her every other day.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/9/23/111024.html