Ms. Liu Guifu Sent to Forced Labour Camp Twice and Now in Exile Overseas

Former Beijing resident Ms. Liu Guifu was sent to forced labour camps twice for her belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." With the help of many kind people and international pressure, she was released on August 31st, 2007, and is now overseas.

When Ms. Liu Guifu was detained in the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp, the guards forced her to take unidentified drugs, did not allow her to sleep, made her sit in one position for more than 20 hours at a time, forced her to stand for long periods of time, and beat and mentally tortured her. Her daughter in the U.S. tried every way she could to rescue her mother, and many Americans helped her. U.S. Falun Gong practitioners notified the United Nations about Liu Guifu's case. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Mr. Nowak, asked to see her during his visit to the Beijing Women's Labour Camp, but his request was turned down.

Due to international pressure, Ms Liu Guifu was transferred from the "attack team" to the group training team, and her family was allowed to visit. They also improved her meals. Although the physical torture was reduced, the mental torture became even more severe. Besides using criminal inmates to isolate and watch her closely, those in charge frequently put her in solitary confinement. Even as she endured this treatment, she asked that the group training team improve other practitioners' meals as well as her own and strove to improve other practitioners' situations.

In order to detain Ms. Liu Guifu for a longer time and delay her release, those in charge altered the record of the date she began her sentence. A few months before her release, they stopped the physical abuse and her meals improved, so that she would not appear to be badly abused. Even so, she was still very thin and weak, her hair white and her face full of wrinkles.

Liu Guifu was sentenced to forced labour twice and was brutally persecuted because she refused to give up cultivating Falun Gong. In February 2001, she was sentenced to 18 months of forced labour. On February 28th, 2005, the police arrested her again from her home in Beijing. Even though they only found two flyers in her home, they claimed that they had found more than 20, so she was sentenced to two and a half years of forced labour. While detained, she was not allowed any contact with other practitioners who were there. Soon after her arrival, she was transferred from the 7th team to the "attack team", and she was isolated and closely watched.

On August 16th, 2005, after numerous requests, her family was finally allowed to see her. They could not even recognise her. Her weight had dropped from more than 70 kg to less than 50 kg. Her hair was totally white, her face full of wrinkles, and her movements were very slow. She looked like she had aged 20 years. She told her family, "They did not allow me to sleep and forced me to stand every day. In the beginning they allowed me rest from midnight until 4 a.m., but later it was changed to 2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. They also force-fed me a capsuled drug. After I took it, I would vomit sour, black fluid." Her family members questioned guard Song Lili, "She was not sick. Why did you force her to take drugs?" Song Lili was flustered and just repeatedly said that it was not poison.

Falun Gong practitioners from the U.S., Canada and Europe put in a lot of effort to rescue Ms Liu Guifu. Her family members also adamantly demanded to visit her. During their visits, they saw the extent of the persecution and sued guard Song Lili. The World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) also put the case on record to investigate.

Placed under severe international pressure, the labour camp authorities were forced to respond. They acknowledged that they refused to allow Liu Guifu to practise Falun Gong in the camp and that they considered her a "the key person" to manage. But they also declared that guard Song Lili and four inmates did not "beat, insult, physically punish and mistreat" her.

During her detention, Ms. Liu did not compromise her beliefs. She repeatedly asked for her case to be reconsidered and insisted in having her human rights respected. After she was released from the camp, the police still monitored her and constantly harassed her.

Liu Guifu has suffered from many kinds of persecution, and her life was in great danger. On December 29th, 2007, she was able to leave China to an undisclosed location.

Ever since the Chinese Communist Party and Jiang Zemin's regime started to persecute Falun Gong, Liu Guifu's family has been constantly under intense pressure. Her daughter, who is studying in the U.S., was placed on the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) blacklist because her mother practises Falun Gong. Ms. Liu and her daughter did not see each other for seven years. Her husband, Liu Baoguo, is weak and very sick. We appeal to people around the world to pay attention to the plight of Ms. Liu Guifu and her family. Please help to reunite them and allow them to return to their normal lives.

Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/10/8/65667.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/1/9/169920.html