56-Year-Old Ms. Hu Suhua Dies in Custody in the Hohhot City Police Department

Name: Hu Suhua
Gender: Female
Age: 56
Address: Hongshan District, Chifeng City, Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: Around March 4th, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 3rd, 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention: Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province
City: Hohhot
Province: Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use

Ms. Hu Suhua used to have many sicknesses, which made her miserable. All of her diseases were cured after she started practising Falun Gong. After the persecution began in 1999, she was arrested multiple times and sent to forced labour camps twice. Her husband divorced her under huge pressure. She had to leave her hometown to live in Hohhot City in order to avoid being arrested. Before her death, she was followed by the police, and her rental home was ransacked. She died in custody in the Hohhot City Police Department around March 4th, 2010.

In 2000, Ms. Hu was arrested, sent to Tumuji Forced Labour Camp, and later transferred to Hohhot City Women's Forced Labour Camp. She absolutely refused to give up her faith. She was handcuffed to a bedstead for 25 days in a position made that made it impossible for her to stand up, sit down, or lie down. The other prisoners had to help her use the chamber pot since she was unable to open the handcuffs. Her feet and legs were severely swollen. In May 2001, she refused to write an article criticising Falun Gong, so the guards handcuffed her to the bedstead again for 38 days and starved her. Seeing that she still refused to write the article, the guards added four bricks to the bed frame, raising her further off the ground, which increased the pain.

On July 2nd, 2001, the camp held a big meeting to slander Falun Gong. Ms. Liu Zhenyu, 25, went to the podium to clarify the truth about Falun Gong, so the guards handcuffed her to a metal bed frame and shocked her with an electric baton and punched, and kicked her. Many of the other detained practitioners stood up to reason with the guards, but they were all brutally beaten, including Ms. Hu Suhua. From the afternoon until the evening, the warden, guards and drug-addicted prisoners cruelly beat more than a dozen practitioners, shocked them with electric batons, kicked them, and whipped them with leather belts. The guards were too exhausted to continue, but they still encouraged prisoners to beat the practitioners, promising to "reward" them with reduced terms. The guards began the cruel beatings again the next afternoon. Ms. Hu passed out three times. She was covered with bloody sores and bruises.

On November 7th, 2001, Ms. Hu and more than a dozen practitioners went on hunger strike to protest, but they were brutally beaten and force-fed highly concentrated salt water. The guards and prisoners handcuffed Ms. Hu in a cell without heat for two weeks. They opened the window and took off her clothes so she would freeze. They sealed the door and window facing the hallway, so no one would see her. The handcuffed both of her hands behind her to the metal window frame, and only the tips of her toes touched the floor. They did not let her use the toilet.

In November 2005, domestic security agents from the Hongshan District Police Department ransacked Ms. Hu's home and took all of her belongings, including a refrigerator, TV, furniture, cooking ware, and clothes and more than 5000 yuan¹ cash. They also took her friends' personal belongings that were stored in her home as well as her child's belongings. Her child was in college out of town and suddenly lost connection with his mother. He was starving and had to live on a schoolmate's charity.

At around 11 p.m. on June 3rd, 2006, Guo Yuming, Domestic Security Division chief of Chifeng City Police Department, arrested eight practitioners, including Ms. Hu. They drove six to seven vehicles and hid for three days in the Balipuxiaoqiao Neighbourhood in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province. They climbed over the wall and violently beat practitioners. They tried to cover up their illegal acts by shouting, "Stop! Thieves!" Ms. Hu immediately called out the truth, "We are Falun Gong practitioners, not thieves!" The officers beat her cruelly and pulled one of her arms behind her and the other over the top of her shoulder, then tied her hands together behind her back with wire. When they dragged her into the vehicle, both of her shoes fell off.

After being detained for 15 days, she was taken to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. She was released the second day and had to leave home to avoid being arrested. She recently died in custody in the Hohhot City Police Department.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/3/29/220611.html