Additional Information Regarding the Death of Fifty-Five Year-Old Ms. Liu Shuling

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 28, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Htharbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, hung by handcuffs, torture

Ms. Liu Shuling, 55, died in the Harbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp at around 3:00 p.m. on July 3rd, 2010. There was a ring of dried blood around her neck. According to sources inside China, at around the time of her death, about a dozen Falun Gong practitioners were physically tortured in different ways, including being hanged by handcuffs, being forced to sit on metal chairs, etc. in attempts to "transform"[forcibly renounce Falun Gong] them. Ms. Liu refused to be "transformed" and was tortured to death.

According to an eyewitness, the following is an partial explanation of what happened on July 1st-3rd.

We woke up to screams and cries at around 4:00 a.m. on July 1st. We left our our cells to figure out where the sounds were coming from. The screams were coming from a fourth floor cell which was across the hallway from the guards' duty room. There were no monitoring video recorders in this cell and it had always been a place where guards tortured Falun Gong practitioners.

A number of male guards arrived on the fourth floor at around 8:30 a.m. to look inside the room through a glass window. We didn't pay much attention to what they were doing until we heard screams and someone shout, "Falun Gong is great!" Other Falun Gong practitioners came out of their cells to see what was going on. Zhao Jiakun, Yang Mingjun, Liu Ming, and Liu Wei ordered the male guards to tape the mouths of the practitioners to prevent them from calling out, "Falun Gong is great!" They also taped the practitioners' arms and legs and took about 17 practitioners to the fifth floor.

The fifth floor was for teenage inmates only. The guards ordered some of the inmates to monitor the practitioners. The practitioners were tied to the upper bunks of the bunk beds in the individual cells. They were also forced to sit on metal chairs for long periods of time. The practitioners were searched and their cells were ransacked. They were not allowed to go to the cafeteria for dinner, and ate in their cells.

The practitioners taken away from the First Section of the Third Ward included Liu Yanhua, Gao Yumin, Xie Wei, Cheng Li, and others. Ms. Liu Shuling was also with them, but she never came back.

The guards on duty on July 1st were Liu Wei, Xing Yu, Shi Lihui, Chen Kanyan, Zhang Wei, Liu Tingting, and others. They participated in the persecution and gave the orders to torture the practitioners between June 30th and July 3rd.

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. She was detained in the Harbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp, where she was tortured by guards countless times because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. Her mouth was taped shut and her arms were tied. She was forced to sit on the ground for more than ten days after her arrest on January 1st, 2009. She vomited blood as a result of the torture she received. To protest the persecution, Ms. Liu went on a hunger strike for 22 days. She constantly vomited blood and her life was in danger. Fourth Warden Liang Xuemei, and Niu Xiaoyun, took her to a hospital. Her family was not allowed to see her. Her husband and uncle stood in the snow for two hours for a chance to visit Me. Liu, but were refused.

Ms. Liu Shuling died at around 3:00 p.m. on July 3rd. There is no information about the other practitioners. After her death, the camp immediately held a meeting, where everyone was ordered to say that Ms. Liu passed out suddenly in the toilet and died due to heart disease. In order to prevent information from leaking out, even the guards were not allowed to talk to each other during that time. The prisoners who 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. Ms. Liu's family requested to view the monitoring video, but the authorities said that a recorder had not been set up. Everyone detained in the camp knew that inmates were not allowed to use the toilet. Inmates used a chamber pot and were allowed a limited time of only five minutes per person. Therefore, Ms. Liu could not have passed out in the toilet.

Falun Gong practitioners are brutally persecuted at the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp. About 120 people are being held in this labour camp, with 80 of them being Falun Gong practitioners, and 30 being teenaged inmates. The means of persecution are cruel and intense. They are being subjected to brainwashing, forced to write weekly journals, and to watch videos that slander Falun Gong. Practitioners are frequently locked in solitary confinement and deprived of family visitation for long periods. Authorities attempt to force practitioners to renounce Falun Gong by subjecting them to torture. Practitioners with health problems such as heart disease or high blood pressure, or even those who are paralyzed, are also detained even though this policy violates the law. In addition, practitioners are forced to do hard labour making tooth picks all day. Each person has their own quota and he/she is not allowed to sleep if the quota isn't fulfilled.

Harbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp: 86-451-82413103, 86-451-82424093, 86-451-82447079
Chen Guiqing, deputy director of Harbin Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Forced Labour Camp: 86-451-82424046, 86-451-82412172, 86-451-82424014

Earlier report: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/7/12/118532.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/9/17/229740.html