Older Practitioner Ms. Chen Xiufen Died Seven Years Ago after Being Tortured

Name: Chen Xiufen
Gender: Female
Age: 61
Address: Chaoyang New Village, Building 20, Room 203, Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province
Occupation: Retiree of Kunshan City Waste and Used Material Recycling Company
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: The 2nd Brainwashing Section operated by Kunshan "610 Office" and Domestic Security Division
City: Kunshan
Province: Jiangsu
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, torture, physical restraint, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use

Ms. Chen Xiufen, 61, was retired from the Kunshan City Waste and Used Materials Recycling Company. She died seven years ago after being tortured with brutal beatings, thumbcuffs, and other methods.

On June 20th, 2000, Ms. Chen and several other practitioners from Kunshan City went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong. After arriving in Beijing, they learned that the practitioners who went to the State Department Office for Letters and Appeals, an office that accepted appeals from citizens around the country, were being immediately arrested. Ms. Chen and the other practitioners went to Tiananmen Square. As soon as they opened banners and shouted "Falun Gong is good," officers surrounded them, and beat and shocked them with electric batons. They were then pushed into a police car and detained at the Tiananmen Square Police Station. So many practitioners were arrested at Tiananmen Square that day that the police station was full. Several hours later, they were transferred to the Pinggu County Detention Centre in Beijing.

That night, officers interrogated the Kunshan City practitioners. They had had no food since their arrest. In addition, they were handcuffed and shackled. They refused to give their names. The officers punched them as if they were hitting a punching bag and they yelled at them with foul language. When the officers got exhausted from punching and yelling, they ordered inmates to continue. As a result of the brutal beatings, the practitioners had black and blue faces, their heads and faces were swollen, they could not open their eyes, their noses and mouths were bleeding, and their teeth were loose. The handcuffs and shackles cut into their bodies. At last, the officers figured out that they were from Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province. The Kunshan City police were informed and took over.

The practitioners were transferred to the Kunshan Detention Centre. The head of the Kunshan City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) was Guan Zhuxing, The head of the Domestic Security Division was Li Donglin. The Kunshan City police used many types of torture to interrogate the practitioners.

Ms. Chen was subjected to the thumbcuff torture technique during her one-month detention at the Kunshan Detention Centre. To intensify her suffering, the police pushed her tightly against some metal poles, stretched her arms around the poles and then put a thumbcuff on her thumbs. Ms. Chen was short and the thumbcuff barely reached both her thumbs.

She could not move. Her thumbs slowly changed colour, from red to blue then purple, and lastly they turned black. Her arms went numb and she was in severe pain.

Victims from the detention centre reported that the torturers did not care if the practitioners had their basic survival needs met, such as use of a toilet, food or sleep. A person might be tied up for many days without a break.

Ms. Chen was released from the thumbcuff only after her blood pressure surged and the officers began to wonder if she was going to die.

Ms. Chen was arrested again in July 2002. Four officers dragged her along the ground from her home down some stairs, and she was detained in the brainwashing centre where the Kunshan 610 Office and Domestic Security Division held their second brainwashing session. She was detained for one month.

The repeated mental and physical tortures severely damaged her health. Ms. Chen died around 9:00 p.m. on June 23rd, 2003, in the Kunshan City Chinese Traditional Medicine Hospital.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/7/21/227268.html