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Ms. Zhengshu Cui, an ethnic Korean living in northeastern China,
died on August 12, 2003, from extended torture and abuse sustained while imprisoned
for her beliefs in a forced-labor camp.
Ms.
Cui, 36 years old and mother of one, lived in Chuanying District, Jilin City.
Ms. Cui was a graduate of the Baicheng Finance and Trade Training School, and
a Falun Gong practitioner.
In
March 2002, officials from the Jilin City “6-10 Office” and Chuanying District
Police Department arrested her because of her practice. Ms. Cui was illegally
sentenced to three years of forced labor, and sent to No. 4 Division in the
Heizuizi Female Labor Camp in Changchun City.
According
to reports from China, guards at the labor camp brutally tortured Ms. Cui because
she refused to renounce Falun Gong and she persisted in her practice. On one
occasion, these reports say, she was only allowed 22 hours of sleep during a
33-day period.
Due
to extended torture in the prison camp, in April 2003, Ms. Cui’s condition had
deteriorated to the point where she had difficulty eating and could not take
care of herself, the reports say. Afraid that she may die in the labor camp,
the guards released her on April 18, 2003.
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Despite
efforts by Ms. Cui’s family to restore her health, she never recovered and died
on August 12, 2003.
In
the last four years, thousands of testimonies from Chinese residents report
wide-spread, arbitrary arrest in China of anyone believed to practice Falun
Gong – part of a national-wide campaign ordered by former Chinese leader, Jiang
Zemin, to “defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially, destroy them
physically.” According to the U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report 2003,
“Mere belief in [Falun Gong] … has been sufficient grounds for practitioners
to receive punishments ranging from loss of employment to imprisonment, and
in many cases to suffer torture and death.”
Ms.
Cui is survived by her husband and young son.
Partial name list and contact information of labor camp guards responsible for
Ms. Cui’s death
Heizuizi
Female Labor Camp in Changchun City: main switchboard: 86-431-5384312
No. 4 division: 86-431-5384312 ext. 6104
Head of the labor camp, Fan Youlan, 86-431-7697329 (home)
Lian Guangri, head of the administrative section, 86-431-7919799 (home)
Liu Hu: 86-431-2713609 (home)
Zhang Lilan: 86-431-5675939 (home)
Guan Wei, No. 4 Division: 86-431-5705043 (home)
Zhang Guimei, No. 4 Division: 86-431-7965537 (home)
Li Xiaohua, No. 4 Division: 86-431-5682402 (home)
Posting date: 28/Aug/2003
Original article date: 26/Aug/2003
Category: News from China
