Ms. Liu Shuling, 55, Dies in Harbin Women's Forced Labour Camp

Name: Liu Shuling
Gender: Female
Age: 55
Address: Wuqi Township, Hongwei Town, Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Small business owner
Date of Death: July 3rd, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 28rd, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Harbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, torture

At around 3:00 p.m. on July 3rd, 2010, Ms. Liu Shuling died in the Harbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp. Her family rushed to the camp, driving overnight to get there. Her body had been placed in the Xihuayuan Funeral Home in Nangang District, Harbin City. They questioned Director Yang and several guards: "How come she was fine at home, but died in your custody? You must explain the cause." The camp administration answered with hesitation, "She died suddenly due to coronary artery heart disease, and passed out in the toilet."

Ms. Liu's family requested to view the monitoring video, but the authorities said that no recorder had been set up. Her family asked again, "Why is there a ring of congested blood around her neck?" One of the doctors said that it was a natural manifestation in a dead body (livor mortis).

All who were detained in the camp knew that none of the detainees were allowed to use the toilet, but instead had to use the chamber pot with a limited time of only five minutes per person. How could Ms. Liu have passed out in the toilet then?

Falun Gong practitioners are brutally persecuted at the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp. The means of persecution are cruel and intense, including being subjected to brainwashing attempts by collaborators¹, being forced to write weekly journals and to watch materials that slander Falun Gong. Practitioners are frequently locked in solitary confinement and deprived of family visitation for long periods. They are subjected to torture in the authorities' attempts to force them to renounce Falun Gong, and practitioners with health problems such as heart disease or high blood pressure, or who are even paralysed, are also detained, although it is against the law. In addition, practitioners are forced to do hard labour.

On July 28th, 2008, right before the Beijing Olympics, Ms. Liu Shuling was arrested after being reported by an employee from the 853 Farm in Baoqing County, Heilongjiang Province. The police detained her in Harbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp, and tortured her countless times due to her refusal to renounce Falun Gong. She vomited blood on January 1st, 2009 as result of the torture. Ms. Liu went on a protest hunger strike for 22 days, and her life was in danger. Fourth Warden Liang Xuemei and Niu Xiaoyun had to take her to a hospital. Her family was refused visitation rights, and her husband and uncle stood in the snow for two hours, but still were not allowed to see Ms. Liu.

At around 1:30 p.m. on July 1st, 2010, terrible screaming came from one of the solitary confinement cells on the fourth floor, which caused all of the detained practitioners to walk out of their cells downstairs from the third and fourth wards, as they wondered what happened. A large group of male guards ran to the practitioners and forcibly locked them up, including Ms. Liu Shuling and Ms. Liu Yanhua, in cells that do not have monitoring video recorders. No one knows what kinds of torture was used on them. In order to prevent information from leaking out, even the guards were not allowed to talk to each other during that period. Those prisoners that were used to monitor Falun Gong practitioners were detained separately, and the prison authorities did not allow them to go back to their cells for several days.

What is known currently is that Ms. Liu Shuling died, and there is no information about the other practitioners. After her death, the camp instantly held a meeting, and forced everyone to say that Ms. Liu passed out suddenly in the toilet and died because of heart disease. The camp administration said Ms. Liu owed 8,000 yuan² in medical and cremation fees. Her family was angry, and after reasoning with the authorities, the authorities dropped this demand.

Before Ms. Liu started practising Falun Gong, she was ill with rheumatic heart disease, hepatitis, cystitis, a tumour in her uterus, and many other physical problems. She began practising Falun Gong on February 20th, 1998. All of her illnesses disappeared after she had practised Falun Gong for two weeks. After the Chinese Communist regime began its persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Ms. Liu suffered severe trauma to her body and mind. She was twice taken to forced labour camps.

On February 19th, 2000, Ms. Liu went to Beijing to petition for justice for Falun Gong. The police at Qianmen, Beijing arrested her. She was detained for two nights at the Qitaihe Liaison Office and was illegally fined more than 500 yuan by staff at the Qitaihe Liaison Office, including Xu Longzhen and a woman with the surname of Sun. At the same time, Wang Jianfu threatened and intimidated Ms. Liu's family and extorted 2,000 yuan from them. Her family believed that by paying this bribe, Ms. Liu would be released. However, after being taken back by Chen Lu and Wang Yucheng, who were Political and Judiciary Committee members from Beijing, Ms. Liu was taken to the Qitaihe Detention Centre and detained for more than three months.

Around June 2000, Ms. Liu went to Beijing a second time to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. She was arrested at the Jiamusi train station. Chen Lu, Bai Yuzhu and two other police officers took her to the Qitaihe Detention Centre. She was released after holding a hunger strike for more than ten days. Twelve days after Ms. Liu returned home, more than 30 people broke into her house at midnight, including Bai Yuzhu, Wang Jianfu, and police officers Dong Jifu, Chen Lu, Dong Tienan and Yang Xiguang. They arrested her again and took her to the Qitaihe Detention Centre. On July 24th, 2000, Ms. Liu was sentenced to one year of forced labour. She returned home on May 9th, 2001.

On July 1st, 2001, Chen Lu, Yang Xiguang, Dong Jifu, Dong Tienan, and ten others arrested Ms. Liu again and detained her at the Qitaihe Second Detention Centre for 13 days. She was then taken to the Harbin Women's Forced Labour Camp. Her health had deteriorated due to being tortured, and the labour camp refused to take Ms. Liu, so she was taken back to the Qitaihe Second Detention Centre. Four days later, she began a hunger strike. On the fourth day of the hunger strike, Ms. Liu was brutally force-fed. She was released after her health deteriorated severely from the abuse and she started showing symptoms of illness. After she was taken back home, the authorities still continued to harass Ms. Liu, following and interrogating her, and her Falun Gong books were confiscated.

Earlier report: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/3/4/95039.html

Note

1. "Collaborators": former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

2. "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/2010/7/9/226700.html