Ms. Du Juan Arrested, Her Child Taken Away from Her

Name: Du Juan
Gender: Female
Age: 56
Address: Suojiafen Community, Haidian District, Beijing
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 6th, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Chaoyang District Detention Centre
City: Beijing
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, torture, interrogation, detention

Ms. Du Juan was arrested by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong on May 6th, 2010. She is being detained at the Chaoyang District Detention Centre. The whereabouts of her mentally disabled child is currently unknown.

After the start of the persecution in July 1999, Ms. Du wrote many letters to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong to the police and the State Department. She also went to appeal to the central authorities for justice for Falun Gong.

She has been repeatedly harassed by the authorities during the politically sensitive dates, and arrested and detained for two days each month, on average. She and her son were at times held in a metal cage without food, drink, or ability to use the restroom, and the child often got fever following detention.

One night in May 2000 after everyone was asleep, Ms. Du was reported for sitting in meditation while she was travelling on a train from Yantai City to Beijing with her son. She and her child were detained at the Beijing Railway Station, inside an outdoor metal cage sitting above a manure pit. They were later transferred to the Beitaipingzhuang Detention Centre and held there for 35 days. The boy was forced to lie on a cold cement floor and developed fever. After that, the boy's physical constitution and mental alertness showed noticeable deterioration.

Ms. Du was sentenced to forced labour in January 2002. Geng Wenxia, a female agent from the Beitaipingzhuang 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in Beijing, and another female official, Li Huiqin, sent her child to a retirement centre in Sujiatuo Township. Officials did not inform the family of the child's whereabouts and only stated that the child was well. Ms. Du's requests to the secretary of the Beitaipingzhuang Neighbourhood Administration Office and Geng Wenxia for her son to be sent to school were rejected. When the child was finally picked up by the family members, he showed signs of severe malnutrition and injuries all over his body and face. He appeared very weak, emaciated, and timid, indicating that he had been abused.

In March 2005, Ms. Du was arrested while distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution in Beitaipingzhuang, Haidian District. She was sentenced to three years in prison, and her son was taken to an orphanage. She was released in June 2008.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/5/28/224462.html