Ms. Sun Shuxiang Close to Death in Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp after Being Arrested 12 Times

Name: Sun Shuxiang
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Address: Changchun City, Jilin Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 21st, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp
City: Changchun
Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Electric Shock, Sleep Deprivation, Forced Labour, Brainwashing, Beatings, Torture, Force-Feedings, Physical Restraint, Home Ransacked, Interrogation, Detention

Ms. Wang Yuhuan, who was interviewed by the famous lawyer Gao Zhisheng, was tortured to death in 2007 (see http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200807/45179.html). Another Falun Gong practitioner Lawyer Gao interviewed, Ms. Sun Shuxiang, was again sentenced to 2 years of forced labour. Ms. Sun was taken to Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City, Jilin Province, on October 26th, 2009. She is now close to death.

Ms. Sun used to be very thin with a yellow complexion and had many painful diseases. After a few days of beginning to practise Falun Gong in 1997, she did not need her medications anymore and stopped taking them. Forty days later, she regained perfect health. In the past ten years of the persecution of Falun Gong, she has persevered in explaining the facts of Falun Gong to people. She has been arrested, detained, sentenced to forced labour, and tortured at least 12 times. Her husband was pressured, terrorised, and forced to divorce her. Her mother died broken-hearted.

In Lawyer Gao's open letter on December 12th, 2005, he reviewed the case of Ms. Sun, 48 years old, arrested and detained 9 times during six years of persecution. Only a few incidents are recounted below.

At the beginning of July 2002, Ms. Sun went to her father's home. A few plainclothes officers stormed in and arrested her. They covered her face and took her to a dark basement the next day. Eight to nine officers were in the room. They carried her to the Tiger Bench¹, bound her chest and abdomen tightly with a rope and a thick metal stick through the chair arms. One officer said, "If you tell us everything, you only need to sit here for one hour. Otherwise, we will put you go through all sorts of torture."

Another officer slapped her and asked which fellow practitioners she knew. Ms. Sun refused to tell them anything. He then used an electric baton to shock her deep in between her lower ribs. Then he asked her if she remembered any phone numbers of fellow practitioners. She refused to say. He then shocked one side of her, from her fingertips to her arm and up to her head and then went to the other side and did the same thing. He went back and forth slowly two times. He changed to another baton with a higher voltage and started to shock the tips of her toes and up her whole body twice.

Seeing that she still did not give out information about her fellow practitioners, the officers targeted her eyes with the electric baton. She felt as if her eyes were about to fall out, and she could hardly see. They began to shock her ribs and breasts while continuing to ask her for information. They put the baton in her mouth and shocked it. It swelled up. There were many blisters around her mouth and it was scarred inside. They still repeatedly burned her mouth. Ms. Sun almost died.

At the beginning of 2003, Ms. Sun was living in the home of a fellow practitioner, Ms. Xing Guiling. Very late one night, her two doors were hammered open. Armed police stormed in, arrested them, and took them to Luyuan District Police Department. They again restrained Ms. Sun on the Tiger Bench and beat Ms. Xing brutally down to the floor, then kicked her up, beat her down, and kicked her up again. They were trying to force her to give out contact information for her fellow practitioners. Seeing that she would not betray the others, they choked her with a leather belt until she was almost dead. Then they began to torture Ms. Sun on the Tiger Bench. The two women were tortured 3 days before being taken to the Changchun City Third Detention Centre.

On August 4th, 2003, when Ms. Sun was putting up posters exposing the persecution of Falun Gong near a university, she was arrested by a patrol officer and taken to Nanguan District Police Department. There, the police slapped her in the face and banged her head against the wall. She was tied to the Tiger Bench and nearly suffocated with a plastic bag. Her feet were placed in a metal ring with a stick to adjust the size. The guards stepped on the stick to tighten the ring. Ms. Sun lost conscious due to the extreme pain around her bleeding ankles. She was later detained in the No. 3 Detention Centre. She held a hunger strike without water to protest the persecution. Only when she was about to die did the police allow her family to take her home.

In March 2005, Ms. Sun was reading a Falun Gong book on the train from Changchun City to Guangzhou City. The train security staff arrested her and took her to Changchun Railway Police Department, which later reported her to the Changchun City Police Department. Two officers from Changchun City Police Department came and said after seeing her, "Oh, it's her. We can't handle her. You deal with her with more experienced staff." The police in the railway police department took turns interrogating her for a whole day but got nothing. The only words written down on the interrogation form was "Name: Falun Gong." There was no signature or fingerprint. She was then detained in the railway detention centre. She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The next day she vomited a lot of blood. Afraid of being held responsible if she died, the police released her.

On November 3rd, 2006, Ms. Sun went to visit a fellow practitioner and was arrested by plainclothes officers from the Development District Police Department. She was sent to the No. 3 Detention Centre. Nine days later, she was sentenced to six months of forced labour. By this time, she had many symptoms of sicknesses due to the long-term abuse. The forced labour camp refused to accept her.

Sun Shuxiang hadn't recovered completely, but on January 17th, 2007, she went to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong on Hongqi Street. She was brutally tortured in the Hongqi Police Station. After 20 days, her condition was critical. She was sentenced to six months of forced labour. Since Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp refused to accept her, the police released her just before the Chinese New Year, on February 18th, 2007.

During the early morning on September 22nd, 2009, Ms. Sun was taking care of her grandson in her daughter's home. Changchun City Domestic Security and 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) agents arrested her. They tortured her again until she was near death. Her daughter received a notice to visit her at the Third Detention Centre. The guards said she was rushed to the Police Hospital. Her daughter rushed to the hospital but was told Ms. Sun Shuxiang's whereabouts were unknown and would not tell her her mother's whereabouts. Ms. Sun's daughter rushed to the 610 Office but was refused entry. When she called the 610 Office, the case worker said, "Your mother is in good health." But that person refused to give her name or phone number. They told her, "Your mother is a Falun Gong co-ordinator. We can still dig some information out of her."

From September 22nd to October 26th, Ms. Sun was detained in the Police Hospital and placed on intravenous injections. On October 26th, 2009, Changchun City 610 Office took her to the First Ward of Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp to serve a 2-year forced labour term despite her perilous condition. New inmates are usually permitted to notify their families to visit them and bring personal items, but because they are afraid of their crimes being exposed, the guards have refused to let Ms. Sun's daughter visit her, despite Ms. Sun's desperate condition.

Heizuizi Women's Forced Labour Camp: 86-431-85384312, x8001
Ma Liting, female, Director of Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp: 86-431-85384312, x8002
First Ward of Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp: 86-431-85384312, x6106
Yan Lifeng, First Warden of Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp: 86-431-87931582

Earlier report: "Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Sun Shuxiang from Changchun City Tortured to Near Death Many Times" (http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200708/41025.html).

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/11/2/211704.html