68-Year-Old Falun Gong practitioner Qu Yuxiang Dies – Never Recovered from Labour Camp Torture

Name: Qu Yuxiang
Gender: Female
Age: 68
Address: Guiyang City, Guizhou Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: July 10th, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 2001
Most recent place of detention: Zhongba Labour Re-education Centre
City:Guiyang
Province:Guizhou
Persecution Suffered:Detention, home ransacked, brainwashing, forced labour reform, forced labour.

Qu Yuxiang, a family member of an employee of Xiaohe Motor Engine Factory in Guiyang City, died on July 10th. When she was a young child, she had many illnesses. In 1990, she was almost paralysed due to nerve pressure from excessive thickening of bone tissue. She also suffered from Ménière's disease. Since she began practising Falun Gong, all her illnesses disappeared. It was as though she became a new person. She followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and was known to be a good person by all those around her.

After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, she used every opportunity to explain the facts about Falun Gong to the people around her. In the autumn of 2000, when she was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong she was detained and sent to the First Detention Centre of Guiyang City. She was released a month later. During the time of her detention, the 610 Offices (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) of Xiaohe district and the district where her daughter lived collaborated with the local police department to raid her daughter's home. Her daughter was also detained for 15 days.

On March 2nd, 2001, Ms. Qu was tricked into going to the brainwashing programme at the Huaxi Dairy Farm Guesthouse in Xiaohe area. She openly practised the Falun Gong exercises in protest of the lies against Falun Gong spread by Chen Dengliang and others from the Xiaohe Police Station. She was sent to a drug rehabilitation centre to be tortured for 15 days. Soon after she was released, she was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp.

While at the Zhongba labour camp, she was forced to do hard labour. She was watched 24 hours a day by a few inmates who were drug addicts and who collaborated with the police. At first, her family members didn't even know where she were. She continued to practise the Falun Gong exercises to resist the persecution. A few inmates sat on her body to stop her from practising the exercises. Because she refused to give up the practice, her torture continued. In two years, her body was completely wretched. She couldn't eat anything. Her liver was inflamed, and her gallbladder duct was so clogged that she nearly died. In September 2003, she was sent home on medical patrol, about six months before the end of her original term.

While she was in the labour camp, her daughter was also sent to forced labour, and she was later sentenced to four years in prison. Her family members suffered tremendously.

Even after Ms. Qu's release, she continued to be harassed and monitored by the Xiaohe 610 Office. Once, an official came to her house. He said he would send her to a brainwashing class, or else he would starve her to death. The 610 Office even lied and told her that her daughter died in prison in order to destroy her will.

In autumn 2006, her daughter Qu Jing returned home. Due to the persecution, Qu Jing's labour contract was cancelled in 2000. Ms. Qu Yuxiang, who didn't have much income to begin with, also had to support her daughter financially.

Due to the torture endured during her term at the labour camp, Ms. Qu Yuxiang's body and mind suffered great damage. Her physical health never recovered. She died on July 10th.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/7/27/44521.html