Ms. Zhong Shujuan from Dalian, Liaoning Province Sentenced to Forced Labour Camp for the Third Time

On April 13th, 2007, Falun Dafa practitioner Mrs. Zhong Shujuan, 52, from Liaoning Province was arrested while informing people about the persecution of Falun Gong and dispelling the state propaganda attacking the practice. On April 30th, she was sent to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang Province. This was the third time that Ms. Zhong was sentenced.

Detained Repeatedly in Eight Year Period

At 5:00 p.m. on April 13th, Zhong Shujuan was explaining the facts of Falun Gong to people on Qianshan Road, Ganjingzi District when she was reported to the police. Police officers led by Zhu Nianyong, Director of the Huadong Road Police Station in Ganjingzi District to arrest her.

The police confiscated Ms. Zhong's house key and ransacked her home, although the family was at home at the time. They then sent Ms. Zhong to the Yaojia Custodial Station in Dalian City. They didn't allow her family to visit her.

When relatives went to the police station, the police didn't release Ms. Zhong but tried to extort money from her husband and interrogated him about other practitioners. Her husband used his connections in an attempt to see Ms. Zhong. The local police told him to wait for news of his wife on May 8th. The family later learned that the 610 Office¹ in Dalian had sentenced Ms. Zhong to two years of forced labour. On April 30th, she was secretly sent to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp.

Zhong Shujuan's husband worked in the Dalian Petroleum Chemical Company after serving as an officer in the military. He is now retired. Ms. Zhong lived in the Company's family compound on Huanan Square in Ganjingzi District. Her mother lived in Wangjia Village, Lingshui Town, Ganjingzi District.

Zhong Shujuan worked in the shop of Dalian University of Technology for 20 years. After she began practising Falun Gong, she recovered from severe rheumatic arthritis. She improved her temper as well. She was helpful and earned praise from her colleagues. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Zhong was fired from her job for her belief in Falun Gong.

She has been severely persecuted since then. She has been detained in the forced labour camp for a total of four and a half years. This is the third time that Zong Shujuan was sentenced to forced labour.

Inhumanely Tortured in Dalian Forced Labour Camp

In October 2000, Zhong Shujuan went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, after the CCP slandered Falun Gong. She was detained and sentenced to two years in a forced labour camp by the 610 Office in Dalian. After her sentence was completed, the authorities extended Ms. Zhong's sentence by three months.

In December 2000, more than eighty female Dafa practitioners in Dalian Forced Labour Camp went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Yong Mingjiu, Wang Jun, Lin Yi and over ten other policemen savagely cudgelled the practitioners using electric batons and plastic rods. The practitioners sustained many bruises and internal injuries; some practitioners could not move afterwards. Some were beaten until they lost consciousness. The police thought that Zhong Shujuan and another thirteen practitioners organised this hunger strike and thus isolated them from other practitioners. They then relentlessly lashed these practitioners with leather whips.

In April 2002, Han Jianmin and Wan Yalin, leaders of the prison guards, promised prisoner Yu Xiujuan, who committed robbery, a reduced sentence if he tortured Zhong Shujuan. These persecutors locked Ms. Zhong up in a small cell, severely beat her and then hung her up from an iron bar. They stuffed a towel into her mouth and separated her legs far apart and tied them in that position. They kept pushing up her legs, placed a high-backed chair under her, and used the hard back of the chair to strike Zhong's vulva. They also forcefully and repeatedly kicked Zhong in the vulva and inserted a sharp brush handle into her vagina, then beat her face and mouth with this swab handle. Ms. Zhong was beaten until she fainted. The persecutors then poured cold water over her body and into her mouth. When she closed her mouth, they used bottles to knock open her mouth.

Han Jianmin came in several times. He praised the torture methods Yu Xiujuan and others used and didn't care about Ms. Zhong's life at all. They handcuffed her and hung her up from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The flesh on her hands and wrists was torn, and bones were exposed. Her vulva was swollen and had many black bruises. Her mouth also swelled badly. However, Ms. Zhong Shujuan didn't give in. The persecutors were afraid to take responsibility for Ms. Zhong's death, so they put her down. Her legs were severely injured.

The persecutors dragged Ms. Zhong into a cell. Inside, there were several wooden beds but most of the planks on the beds were missing. There was no bedding. They put a helmet over Ms. Zhong's head, handcuffed her hands to the bed frame, and tied her legs to the bed as well. If she moved a bit, they would beat her. Ms. Zhong bled profusely from her vagina, and the bed was covered with blood. In April it was still cold and there was no heater in the cell. Ms. Zhong wasn't given any quilt. The persecutors intentionally opened the windows. Ms. Zhong was frozen and trembled terribly. Her legs were swollen, but she was still not allowed to move. On the eighth day, the handcuffed part of her wrist blistered, so the persecutors opened one handcuff. She could sit up and move a bit. They didn't allow her to have a shower or go out for a walk. She had to eat and go to the toilet all inside this one cell.

After Ms. Zhong could walk a bit, she was taken back to the previous team and was forced to work. Team Leader Wan Lingyue (she changed her alias several times because her evil deeds were exposed online, but she has continued to persecute practitioners) didn't allow Ms. Zhong to tell her experience to others. Wan claimed that if other people learned of Ms. Zhong's story, she would be given the same torture all over again. Zhong Shujuan and over 200 other practitioners were often forced to work until midnight each night. Many elderly practitioners couldn't complete the assigned tasks, so they were forced to work through the night.

In 2003, Zhong Shujuan was Sentenced to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp for Exposing the Persecution at a Wal-Mart Super Store

In March 2003, one month after Zhong Shujuan was released from the Dalian Forced Labour Camp, she was exposing the persecution to people at the Huanan Wal-Mart Super Store. She was reported and arrested. The 610 Office in Dalian sentenced Ms. Zhong to two years of forced labour in the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp.

In October 2003, the second women's division of Masanjia launched an intensive campaign against Falun Gong practitioners to force them to give up their beliefs. Ms. Zhong was severely tortured twice. She was not allowed to sleep for seven days. Her health deteriorated. She was then shut into a garage with the windows sealed with newspapers. Articles slandering Falun Gong covered the walls of the garage. People outside couldn't see inside. Six people tied Ms. Zhong to a chair, and immobilised her legs and arms. They beat her arms until they bled. Her arms were covered with black and blue bruises. The persecutors taped slips of paper with slanderous words against Falun Gong all over Ms. Zhong's head and body. Then they beat her head and shoulders and pulled her chin and her ears. The persecutors also put a tall paper hat on her head and paper belt around her waist and paraded her all around the room. They then stripped Ms. Zhong naked and used coloured markers to write slanderous words against Falun Gong all over her body. They also wrote insults against her.

In Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, Zhong Shujuan also went through the following tortures: in the dark and damp small cell she was pinned down to the ground and was force-fed via a nasal tube. The perpetrator straddled her body; she was locked inside the toilet for nearly 20 days; she was locked inside a dark room for 12 days. Ms. Zhong developed hypertension, tachycardia, and malnourishment from the abuse and torture. She was forced to perform hard labour; for a whole half a year, she was only given preserved vegetables and half-cooked buns specially made with stale corn flour and sand. Ms. Zhong was also not given enough water to drink.

In December 2004, Zhong Shujuan was sent to a special team that severely tortured inmates. In March 2005, her sentence was due, but the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp extended her sentence by three months and continued torturing her.

Persecution Takes Toll on Family

Zhong Shujuan was traumatised at Dalian Forced Labour Camp and Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, but she never gave in. Instead she informed the persecutors about the true nature of Falun Gong. The CCP not only persecuted her but also her family.

In 2000, the police arrested Zhong Shujuan and ransacked her home. Her daughter resisted the search and demanded that the police release her mum. Two policemen pummelled and kicked her. They dragged her for two miles to the police station and detained her. She was traumatised by this experience and dropped out of college as a result. She stayed at home and didn't want to see anyone. So far she hasn't found a job yet.

In 2003 after Zhong Shujuan was sent to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, her husband and daughter were heartbroken. To avoid police harassment, they didn't leave the house for three months. They didn't open the door for anyone and didn't answer any phone calls. But soon the police station, community centre and the retiree committee of the petroleum factory colluded and went to their home. They brought with them a construction ladder and tried to enter her home from the balcony on the fourth floor. When they climbed up to the balcony, her husband discovered them and didn't let them in.

Zhong Shujuan's mother is in her eighties. When Ms. Zhong was arrested, the elderly woman knew that her daughter hadn't done anything wrong, and that it was the CCP that persecuted good people. She misses Ms. Zhong very much. The family hasn't told the elderly mother about Ms. Zhong's newest arrest, but when her daughter didn't go and see her during the holidays, she realised that something bad had happened.

Huadong Road Police Station: 86-411-86511216
Director Zhu Nianyong: 86-13840875755(Mobile)

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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/17/154995.html