Du Yanrong, 58, Persecuted at Gansu Women's Forced Labour Camp

Name: Du Yanrong
Gender: Female
Age: 58
Address: Lanzhou City, Gansu Province
Occupation: Retiree
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 21st, 2010
Most recent place of detention: Gansu Women's Forced Labour Camp
City:Yuzhong County, Lanzhou City
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, forced labour reform, denied visitation.

Falun Gong practitioner Du Yanrong has been detained for almost six months. She was tortured and as a result became mentally disturbed at Gansu Women's Forced Labour Camp.

Ms Du's family eventually were allowed to see her in mid-October 2010, after going through many hurdles. She was severely emaciated and her hair had turned grey. She kept shaking, was not able to stand still, and appeared traumatised. During the twenty-minute visit, she just murmured and babbled.

Ms. Du is a retiree of the Gansu Military Cadre's Institute. Wang Fang, a plainclothes police officer from Yanchanglu Police Station, reported her when she was telling people the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong in Wuquanshan Park on May 28th. Police from the Domestic Security Division arrested her and sent her to Yanchanglu Police Station. She was then held at Tiaoshuping Detention Centre for 15 days before Wang Fang sent her to Gansu Women's Forced Labour Camp. But the forced labour camp refused to take Ms Du and another Falun Gong practitioner, He Jianhua. Wang and other female officers tried to persuade the officials at the forced labour camp to take them. Medical examinations showed that both of them had high blood pressure, heart problems, and they almost had no haemoglobin in their blood. The forced labour camp thus refused to take them, and Wang sent them home.

While Ms. Du was talking to people about Falun Gong and distributing materials in the evening on June 21st, Yanchanglu Police Station officers arrested her again. They took her belongings and sent her to Taoshuping Forced Labour Camp in Chengguan District, Lanzhou City. Sixteen days later, her family members came to pick her up but were told to come again in the afternoon. In the afternoon her family members were told that she had been sentenced to one year of forced labour and was detained at Gansu Women's Forced Labour Camp.

On the third day of her detention, Ms Du's eighty-year-old father-in-law went to the municipal domestic security division to demand her release, but was told it was not under their jurisdiction. They suggested that he go to the Chengguan District Domestic Security Division, so the father-in-law went there and begged them to release his daughter-in-law. The receptionist there said that they could not to release her once she was detained.

In August, Ms. Du's family (her father-in-law, her husband, and her son) went to see her, and she looked very thin. Ms. Du actually called home once on August 20th to ask if everything as okay at home. The father-in-law asked who it was and the woman replied that she was Du Yanrong. Then the handset was taken from the caller and another voice asked, "How are you? Is everything okay at home?" The father-in-law then asked who it was and the reply was, "It's Team Leader Lan."

The father-in-law was very concerned about Ms. Du and went to the forced labour camp to see her the next day. But the guards there refused to let him see her, and told him that he was not allowed to see her if she had not been "transformed" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. He was very disappointed and had to leave. The day after he went back again and talked to the officials at the forced labour camp for a long time, but was still not allowed to see her. Police at the front desk said that no visitors were allowed on Sunday and asked him to come on Monday. He returned on Monday and was still not allowed to see her. The guard on duty said that because the father-in-law was not a direct family member, he was not allowed to visit.

In September, Ms Du's brother came to see her from Beijing. Her son had to talk to the guards for a long time before they eventually allowed him to see her.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/10/21/231271.html