Ms. Chen Chujun Dies While in Custody at a Mental Hospital

Name: Chen Chujun
Gender: Female
Age: 30s
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Formerly Southern Station accountant of Huaihua City Railroad in Hunan Province
Date of Death: March 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 5th, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Huaihua City Brainwashing Centre
City: Huaihua
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Sleep Deprivation, Electric Shock, Forced Labour, Brainwashing, Forced Injections/Drug Administration, Beatings, Hung Up, Torture, Extortion, Fired from Workplace, Physical Restraint, Mental Hospital, Detention

Ms. Chen Chujun was arrested before the Beijing Olympics, detained, and taken to a forced labour camp. It was recently discovered that she died in March 2009 at the Huaihua City Fourth People's Hospital, which is a mental hospital.

Ms. Chen's father is a divisional level official who worked in the army corp of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Ms. Chen took a ten-year legal absence from her job to study English in Beijing, and learned Falun Gong before the persecution started in July 1999. She appealed for Falun Gong seven times after the persecution began, and her employer took her to the "Legal Education School" (a brainwashing facility) to go through forced brainwashing in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.

In 2001, Ms. Chen was taken to Baimalong Forced Labour Camp, and in November she was taken from the "Production" Team to the so-called "Transformation" Team to undergo brainwashing. The day Ms. Chen was taken to the "Transformation" Team, the guards ordered administrators to push her down on the floor and tie her hands. They held her face against the floor and cut off her hair against her will. Ms. Chen protested this brutal mistreatment by going on a hunger strike. After six days, she was sent to the camp clinic for intravenous injections. After a couple of weeks the director ordered two officers to watch her. According to witnesses, the staff injected glucose, along with a nerve-damaging drug called Thorazine, into Ms. Chen. After being injected with this drug, a person will gradually suffer memory loss and sleep all the time. The punitive measures resulted in serious afflictions for Ms. Chen, such as severe brain and cognitive dysfunction.

The guards also handcuffed the practitioners detained together in the same cell. They were hung up by their handcuffs and fixed in a position where the tips of their toes barely touch the floor. After this torture, Ms. Chen shivered so severely in bed that the whole bed shook. The guards would force the entire cell to stand all night, otherwise they would use electric batons to shock them, along with punching and kicking them. The camp used male guards in the women's cell overnight, and as soon as they found a practitioner doing the Falun Gong exercises, they would shock everyone with electric batons. All the practitioners were scarred.

Prior to the 16th National People's Congress in October 2002, Ms. Chen went to Beijing again, attempting to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong. Unfortunately, she was arrested and taken to a secret railway detention centre and later sentenced to three years in prison by Huaihua Railroad Transportation Court in Hunan Province. Throughout the trial, two bailiffs held Ms. Chen by the arms to prevent her from collapsing. It appeared she still suffered from severe cognitive dysfunction, as she had lost the ability to speak.

In June 2004, Ms. Chen was taken to the Strictly Controlled Ward in Hunan Province Women's Prison. Prisoners hung her and other practitioners up and beat them until they passed out. The guards would not allow them to sleep after doing 20 hours of labour in one day. In March 2005, Ms. Chen and four other practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest the hard labour and recited Falun Gong teachings to encourage one another. The guards and prisoners tortured these five practitioners for more than 40 days with electric baton shocks, handcuffing them in different ways, forcing them to sit on stools with only one leg for 16 hours per day (except for three meals times), forcing to stand for a long time, brutally force-feeding them, and putting them in solitary confinement.

After being on a hunger strike for more than 20 days, Ms. Chen was forced to run, and she was dragged from the fifth floor down to the first floor and locked in solitary confinement. She was once tortured until she could not see or walk. Other practitioners had to carry her to the toilet. Once when she could not walk, run, or do push ups, the guards ordered prisoners to drag her in circles on the floor, and then locked her in solitary confinement.

Prisoner Zhang Genlin poked Ms. Chen's throat with a plastic tube several dozen times and said, "That was fun." Another prisoner said, "Then let me have some fun as well." Ms. Chen's throat swelled, and she was in such extreme pain that she could not even swallow water or talk. Another time when guard Li Ling shocked her with an electric baton and hung her up in the air by her handcuffs, Ms. Chen passed out. Prisoner Yan Meiying pinched her and said, "She is still alive, we can leave her hanging."

Before the Beijing Olympics in May 2008, the Huaihua City 610 Office¹ harassed and arrested several dozen practitioners. Around May 10th, 2008, 610 Office agents arrested Ms .Chen on her way to a bus stop. She had just picked up her pay check from her former employer and was heading home. She was detained in the Zhijiang County Detention Centre, where she was beaten by drug offenders until her head was injured and bleeding. She was soon sent to Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp again, and then taken to the Huaihua City Brainwashing Centre. A source indicted that she died in March 2009 when detained in Huaihua City Fourth People's Hospital, which is a mental institution.

Important note on Thorazine:

The psychotropic drug Thorazine (also known as Aminazin, Chlorpromazine, Largactil, Thorazine or Wintermin) is a drug used in the treatment of psychiatric patients. Thorazine may result in rather severe side effects, such as an irreversible neurological disorder afflicting the involuntary muscle movements, such as eyelids, tongue, arms, legs, mouth, lips, tongue, etc.; a global deterioration of mind and mental faculties; general dulling of awareness; emotional numbing; and cognitive dysfunction.

According to Amnesty International medical advice, these drugs are not in themselves sinister. There are specific disorders for which they are prescribed, but only qualified doctors should administer them, and they must be monitored. Given that Falun Gong practitioners are subject to torture and maltreatment, and in the absence of evidence that they suffer from any psychiatric disorder, it is evident that the administration of such drugs are a punitive measure. In other words, Falun Gong practitioners have been inappropriately administered psychotropic drugs in order to punish them for their spiritual belief in Falun Gong.

Related report: The Drug, Thorazine Used As Punishment - Practitioner Ms. Chen Chujun Suffers Cognitive Dysfunction as a Result of Forced Injections http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/12/29/43592.html

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.cc/mh/articles/2009/9/21/208730.html