Terms of Imprisonment for Falun Gong Practitioners Arbitrarily Extended at the Hebei Women's Labour Camp

Terms of imprisonment imposed on numerous Falun Gong practitioners held at the Hebei Province Women's Labour Camp have recently expired, but the authorities refused to release the practitioners and refused to provide an explanation. Guards had told practitioners to fill out and sign release forms but did not disclose the date of release.

Practitioners Wei Guoxuan and Chen Junsu are being held beyond their terms, which expired on July 2nd and July 3rd, 2009, respectively. Wei Guoxuan's family visited the labour camp twice and demanded her release, but the guards were ambiguous and denied that her sentence had expired.

Practitioners Bu Yueqin, Cui Zhining, Wang Xiaomian, Qi Hongjin are being held beyond their terms, which expired in June.

Camp officials also came up with a new rule, that practitioners who refuse to sing Communist Party propaganda songs will receive term extensions.

Hebei Province has suffered from consistent, blistering heat in recent weeks, and yet officials are forcing practitioners, many of whom are elderly, to plough the fields.

Practitioners are completely cut off from the outside world and are often denied family visits, as in the case of Meng Sufen from Shijiazhuang City.

Officials stripped female practitioners of their clothes and even slashed their underwear with scissors, then handcuffed them onto beds of bare wooden boards.

Guards confined practitioners Wang Hongmei, Wang Xiumei, Fang Hua, Xi Yonghong and Yang Liyun in isolation for refusing to wear an inmate's uniform. They slept on the ground without any bedding. Last winter their coats were taken away. They wore only sweatshirts and sweatpants until they were completely worn out. The practitioners were forbidden to brush their teeth or take a shower since December 2008 and cannot change their clothes.

The guards impose unreasonable time restrictions on toilet visits and use torture and beatings on those who need to relieve themselves outside the permitted time frame. Sixty-year-old Wang Wengui asked to use the toilet one day in September 2008. Guard Cong Shujuan took her aside and viciously slapped her face until she was exhausted before letting Wang Wengui go to the toilet.

Wang Wengui suffered many other forms of abuse as well. She could not walk due to blisters on her feet on August 24th, 2008. Division head Zhao Yuan and guard Zhang Jia handcuffed her, while Zhao Yuan slapped and pinched Wang Wengui's face with her sharp nails for one hour. As a result, Wang Wengui's face swelled up so badly that she could not even eat.

Practitioner Xiao Suying refused to respond to roll call on August 5th, 2008. Division head Zhao Yuan, guards Zhang Jia, Liu Yamin and others grabbed her hair and dragged her out of the room. They handcuffed her and then attacked her brutally. They stripped off all her clothes. She stood naked for about six hours, while they turned up the air conditioning until it was near freezing.

Practitioner Hong Mei spoke to the division head on February 8th, 2009 and demanded a normal bedtime for Falun Gong practitioners. Guard Liu Yamin handcuffed her to a metal frame in the storage room for two weeks. Then they forced her to sit on a small stool through April.

Practitioner Guo Hailian went to the washroom to get a pail of water on March 14th, 2009. Guard Gao Xinwei beat and kicked her until Guo Hailian's hands were bloody.

The guards also forbade the practitioners to sleep for days on end, made them stand for extended periods during which they bombarded the practitioners with slanderous lies. Xiao Suying from Gaobeidian City refused to cooperate with the guards and was forced to stand, followed by several days of being handcuffed to a bed. The collaborators also assisted the guards in torturing her; one of those was Wang Chaoying from Shijiazhuang City who has been released; and the others were Chen Xiuying from Zhangjiakou City, Liu Airong from Zhuozhou City, Wang Guijun from Langfang City, who has been released.

Shijiazhuang City Labour Re-education Bureau officials issued a decree that states Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to cooperate with the persecutors will receive sentence extensions between three to twelve months; in addition, practitioners who refuse to renounce their belief will be held in a brainwashing class for three months, followed by incarceration in prison.

Hong Mei, an employee from the Shijiazhuang Oil Refinery received a two-month sentence extension for refusing to wear an inmate's uniform, and Meng Sufen from Shijiazhuang City received a 14-day extension. Practitioner Wu Junshi who is physically disabled was due to go home on July 3rd, 2009, but officials from his local Party committee took him immediately to a brainwashing class.

Approximately 400 practitioners are held at this labour camp, many of whom were arrested around the 2008 Olympic Games and were handed a one-year sentence.

We urge the international community to speak out and demand that the Chinese Communist regime end the ongoing persecution.

Hebei Province Women's Labour Camp
Address: Shitong Road, Shijiazhuang City, Zip code: 050222
Office: 86-311-83939114
Head Zhou: 86-311-83939188
Su Ruiping: 86-311-83939198
Wang Ren: 86-311-83939196
An Huane: 86-311-83939168
Liu Weizhen: 86-311-83939138
Feng Kezhuang: 86-311-83939177
Yu Yan: 86-311-83939166
You Jie: head of Administration Section, 86-311-83939125, 83939124, 83939133
Head of Education Section: 86-311-83939129, 83939130, 83939162
Head of labour camp hospital: 86-311-83939123
Liu: head of Division 1, 86-311-83939136
Division 1 Office: 86-311-83939135
Head of Division 2: 86-311-83939140
Division 2 Office: 86-311-83939104
Head of Division 4: 86-311-83939112
Division 4 Office: 86-311-83939107

Hebei Province Forced Labour Bureau
Address: West Yuhua Road, Shijiazhuang City
Office: 86-311-85510100
Wu Tonglin: bureau head, 86-311-85510201
Han Ligong: deputy bureau head

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/7/13/204446.html