Older Practitioner Ms. Liu Shurong Dies after Being Tortured in the Harbin City Drug Rehabilitation Forced Labour Camp

Name: Liu Shurong
Gender: Female
Age: In her fifties
Address: Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Death: July 1st, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Before April 5th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Harbin City Drug Rehabilitation Forced Labour Camp located in Daowai District
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung by handcuffed wrists, force-feedings, physical restraint, interrogation, detention, other tortures
Key Persecutors: Camp Director Zhao; Legal Office officers Yang Li, Liang Xuemei (female,), Liu Ming); Warden Liu Wei (female), Lu Peihong (female); Guard Chen Xiangyi (female)

Ms. Liu Shurong died on July 1st, 2010 as a result of torture by guards in the Harbin City Drug Rehabilitation Forced Labour Camp. Details are yet to be investigated.

Ms. Liu went held a one-week hunger strike during the 2010 New Year holiday season. She was very firm in her belief, and was tortured until she was very weak. She refused to co-operate with the guards, persisted in doing the Falun Gong exercises, and was tied up in the lotus position for a long time in the Third Ward. The police deprived her of sleep for seven days, and her sentence was extended four days.

Torture Conducted in July at the Camp

Ms. Liu Yanhua from Yichun City was tortured on the afternoon of July 1st, 2010, with the "big hang up"¹ for 15 days. She was tortured with the "iron chair"² in a dark small cell. Guards tried to force her to write a guarantee statement promising to quit the practice.

At the same time, Ms. Yu Xiaohua was tortured on the "iron chair " for five days. Ms. Liu Hui from Jiamusi City was tortured with the "big hang up" for six days. Ms. Men Yinqiu was tortured with the "big hang up" for three days. Ms. Wang Qiuxia was also tortured by the "big hang up", and the guards said they wouldn't let her down until she wrote a guarantee statement. Ms. Bai Lizhu was locked in a small cell³ because refused to wear a uniform.

Note

1. Big hang up - There are two forms of this torture: (a) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (b) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are pulled in the opposite directions. One feels extremely painful as the body is pulled. See illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/11/17/54624.html.

2. The iron chair is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time. See illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html.

3. Small cell - The detainee is individually locked up in a very small cell. The guards handcuff the practitioners on their back in a fixed position, and the practitioners can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served during the daytime to detainees locked up in the small cell. During the night rats run around. The stench in the small cell is so bad that breathing is difficult.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/9/6/229270.html