Ms. Zhang Xiufang from Shenyang City Suffers Second Mental Collapse Due to Repeated Persecution

Ms. Zhang Xiufang's current state is one of crying one moment and laughing the next, and she doesn't recognise previous acquaintances. She has again suffered a mental collapse due to repeated persecution. Family members advised that she was in this condition when she was released from Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang, Liaoning Province on July 1st, 2010. She kept repeating that Zhang Huan and Shen Xiaoyu had beaten her while she was there, but when asked about other matters, she became frightened and shook her head or claimed that she couldn't remember anything else.

Ms. Zhang Xiufang, 55, is a retired employee of a chemical factory in Xinchengzi District, Shenyang City. Before she started practising Falun Gong, she suffered from illnesses including psoriasis, gastric disorder and many other ailments. She had a severe case of psoriasis and her entire body was covered with red and scaly patches. Her family searched everywhere for doctors to cure her but failed to find any. In the spring of 1999, Ms. Zhang started to practise Falun Gong. Within a few months, all of her illnesses disappeared and she became a completely changed person.

In late 2000, Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was seized by the police and subsequently sent to Shenxin Forced Labour Camp, where she was brutally beaten by guards. To protest against the persecution, she held a hunger strike and the guards then brutally force fed her.

In February 2000, Ms. Zhang was sentenced to three years of forced labour. Guards at Longshan Forced Labour Camp brutally beat and used electric batons to shock her, as well as Wang Jingzhe and another practitioner. Ms. Zhang stood in the way to protect other practitioners from being tortured. Division head Tang Yubao then stripped off her clothes, and relentlessly beat her about the head. Several police officers used four electric batons to shock her simultaneously and she ran out of the room. Tang Yubao caught her and pushed her against a radiator, causing a severe wound on her chin that bled profusely and caused her to lose consciousness.

An eye witness said that when she was detained in Longshan Forced Labour Camp, her eyes were bruised, her face swollen, she was not allowed to use the toilet on her own, and she frequently vomited.

The inhuman persecution and hell-like prison life caused Ms. Zhang to suffer a mental collapse. In spite of her condition, the guards continued to lock her in the most secluded room for fear that their crimes would be exposed. She was finally allowed to return home two years later. After returning home, with the help of kind hearted people, she began practising Falun Gong again, and quickly regained her health.

On the morning of September 14th, 2009, while buying vegetables at the local market, she gave a Falun Gong DVD to a vegetable vendor. Out of nowhere, Guo Ennian, the local community party secretary, jumped out and snatched the DVD, saying, "Now I have evidence. I have been following you for several days." He called officers from the Xinchengzi Police Station, who then arrested Ms. Zhang and ransacked her house. The courts in Shenbei New District sentenced her to a year of forced labour. She was sent to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp where she was persecuted, causing her to suffer another mental collapse.

Although Ms. Zhang could not clearly state where and how she was persecuted this time due to her mental condition, this is clear evidence of the abuse she suffered at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp.

Her family is terrified of the Communist regime and refused to let her have any contact with outsiders. They even forbade her from leaving the house.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/7/16/227081.html