66-Year-Old Ms. Xiao Shufen Persecuted to Death at Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Xiao Shufen, 66 years old, from Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, had been detained and persecuted at Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison for several years. On June 8th, 2006, the prison staff notified Ms. Xiao's family that she had passed away. Ms. Xiao's children asked to see her body on the morning of June 9th. The prison stalled and would not let them see the body. Nothing had been achieved by 3 o'clock that afternoon. We do not know what happened afterwards.

Ms. Xiao's children went to visit her on May 28th, 2006. They said that Ms. Xiao didn't look seriously ill and she seemed to be mentally fine.

Ms. Xiao Shufen lived on Buxing Street, Mudanjiang City. She was a kind person and a hard worker. After she began practising Falun Gong, she became healthier and treated others even better. Falun Gong brought a peaceful and pleasant atmosphere to her family. But after July 20th, 1999, Jiang's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gang began the brutal persecution of Falun Gong and Ms. Xiao was detained several times at the Xinglong Detention Centre. A good family was broken up by the persecution.

In late 2002, Ms. Xiao was again detained by the Political and Security Brigade of Mudanjiang City, because she explained the true situation of Falun Dafa to people, told them about the persecution, and made leaflets exposing the persecution that revealed the lies made by the media. At the Mudanjiang City Police Station, Ms. was tortured around the clock for seven days. The police tied her on a tiger bench¹ and forcibly fed her lots of a large quantity of black mustard oil. They put a plastic bag over her head until she was half dead. Then, they pulled her teeth with pliers, and tortured her fingers. They repeatedly tortured her and deprived her of sleep for seven days, until she was barely alive.

Several Falun Dafa practitioners including Ms. Xiao and Ms. Xu Fuzhi were secretly sentenced to long prison terms, and taken to Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison in Harbin in June 2003. The prison refused to take them because of bad health. They were in bad physical condition because of the extended detention and persecution. They were supposed to be released on bail for medical treatment, but Li Changqing and others offrom the 610 Office² refused to release them and denied them medical treatment. Li, with the support of Yu Chenglong, the chief of the detention centre, continued to detain and torture these female practitioners, who were already ill from being persecuted, for several more months. They were then taken to Harbin Women's Prison. They changed Ms. Xiao Shufen's age from 60 to 58. Ms. Xu Fuzhi was persecuted to death in May 2004.

In winter 2003, Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison used inhuman torture on practitioners during extreme cold temperatures. After the 2004 New Year, several teams including team 1, 5, 7, and 9, used isolated rooms to torture practitioners. They hung practitioners by handcuffs more than one hundred times. Many times practitioners were hung until they lost consciousness. On February 9th, policeman Zhang Xiaoying beat Ms. Xiao Shufen. Another practitioner, Ms. Wang Aifang, said, "Stop beating people. Beating people is a crime." Police then tortured her by tying her to heater pipes. Ms. Xiao was tied to a bed for about twenty days. Police force fed her through a tube because she was doing Falun Gong exercises.

In February 2005, Ms. Xiao was transferred from the fourth to the third floor of the prison's patient section. Police wanted to "transform³" her. Zhang Xiaoying and a group of people carried Ms. Xiao to the third floor, covered her with a blanket, and injured her back when walking up the stairs. They wanted her to slander Falun Dafa, but she refused. They, then asked prisoners to choke her neck. Guards searched practitioners for Falun Dafa teachings on the third floor. They pulled Ms. Xiao's trousers down to humiliate her.

The Heilongjiang Province Women Prison uses slogans such as "civilised prison" and "humanely controlled," but in reality they use sinister and ruthless methods to "transform" practitioners. When the first round of forced "transformation" ended, and before practitioners had time to recover from the injuries to their bodies and hearts, the second round of "transformation" began. The head of the prison, Li Zhiqiang, has used almost all prisoners for criminal activities against practitioners since March 2006. These criminals were trained solely for persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners and to "transform" them.

The children of Ms. Xiao went to visit her on May 28th, 2006. They did not expect to hear on June 8th the sad news of their mother's death.

Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison
Address: Harbin City Nangang District Xuefulu 389, Zip 150069
Main phone: 86-451-86684001, 86-451-86684002, 86-451-86684003
After dialling the main number, ask for any of the people below:
Warden: Xu Longjiang, ext. 8001
Deputy wardens: Cong Xin, Chu Shuhua, Liu Zhiqiang (in charge of bail for medical treatment)
Prison political commissioner: ext. 8002
Political commissioner: Chu Xiuhua (female), 86-451-86684001 ext. 3003
Prison hospital chief: Zhao Yingling, ext. 8053

Note

1. "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.

2. "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.

3. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/12/130218.html