Ms. Du Chunxiang Suffering Severe Illness Symptoms in Harbin Women's Prison

Name: Du Chunxiang
Gender: Female
Age: 54
Address: Babaishang, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Housewife
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 27th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Harbin Women’s Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Brainwashing, imprisonment, torture, physical restraint

Ms. Du Chunxiang from Daqing, Heilongjiang Province has been sentenced to prison twice for practising Falun Gong. During her first imprisonment between 2002 and 2006, she contracted serious pulmonary tuberculosis and high blood pressure. In her latest imprisonment, from 2009 to present, the administration at Harbin Women's Prison ignored her illnesses which led to her coughing up blood and losing the ability to take care of herself.

Ms. Du is a 54-year-old housewife from Babaishang, Daqing. Her husband works at the Well Drilling Research Institution of Daqing Oil Management Bureau. She appealed for the right to practise Falun Gong in Beijing many times. For that, she was repeatedly subjected to detention and brainwashing.

Ms. Du was arrested in the Zhangtiejiang area on May 28th, 2002. The Honggang District People's Procuratorate issued an arrest warrant on July 5th, and she was sentenced to five years in prison on November 14th, 2002. As a result of mistreatment in prison, she contracted infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic gastritis, and anaemia, but she was not released until 2006.

On October 27th, 2009, Ms. Du was arrested at home by officers from the Daqing Police Department. They detained her at the Daqing Detention Centre. Ms. Du soon started coughing up blood, but her health condition was ignored. She was imprisoned in the Harbin Women's Prison a month later.

Ms. Du was first held in the eleventh section, also called the “brainwashing section,” which specializes in “transforming” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] Falun Gong practitioners. On December 30th, she was taken to the prison's patient section, the tenth section. Her group leader told her that during the admission the chief acknowledged that she had an infectious disease and asked others to wear face masks. They then searched her belongings and seized all her stationary and documents, including court documents and family letters.

Without an X-ray exam, the prison administrators declared that her illness was “no longer infectious” after two months, then transferred her back to the eleventh section, saying she had declined medical treatment.

Ms. Du had suffered breathing difficulties since she was taken back to the eleventh section on February 25th, 2010. The guards forced her to sit on a small bench 12 to 14 hours per day. As a result, her buttocks developed rotting wounds. Under long term mental pressure and physical suffering, her health deteriorated and it became very difficult for her to take care of herself.

The guards finally took her for an X-ray exam on May 27th. The doctor prescribed 3 days of intravenous injections on June 8th. She became motionless one night and was taken to the hospital. Her blood pressure was high, at 110/170 mmhg. The guards didn't allow her to be admitted to the hospital, and said that her temperature was not high. They finally allowed her be admitted to the hospital on the morning of July 29th because she started to cough up blood. Her coughing up blood lasted more than two weeks and she developed pulmonary adhesion.

Ms. Du is still imprisoned. Neither she nor her family knows the X-ray exam results.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/2/21/236596.html