Yu Qunfang - 喻群芳
(Minghui.org) Ms. Yu Qunfang, 63, from the Jiangbei District of Chongqing, died at around 2 p.m. on July 9, 2014. She had been illegally arrested many times and was sentenced three times to forced labor camps. She became emaciated due to torture and abuse, weighing only around 55 pounds when she died.
Ms. Yu was arrested on June 30, 2000. She was detained for 15 days at a detention center, held at a brainwashing center for 20 days, and later sentenced to one year of forced labor. At the Maojiashan Women's Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Yu's hands were bound behind her back and she was hung up for 20 days. Guards Ai and Xu put dirty socks in her mouth and sealed her mouth with tape. She was also beaten, forced to stand and squat for long periods each day, and not allowed to take a shower. Her sentence was extended by six months because she refused to renounce her belief.
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Torture re-enactment: Hung up with hands bound behind the back
In 2002, officers from the Yubei Police Department arrested Ms. Yu again for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp. During her detention, she was forced to attend brainwashing sessions, was put in solitary confinement, and restricted from using the toilet. She was also forced to do hard labor for over 10 hours a day, causing her fingers to become deformed. She was still monitored by the authorities after she was released, severely disrupting her normal life.
Ms. Yu was reported to the authorities in the afternoon of July 8, 2008 while talking to people about Falun Gong. She was arrested by officers from the Qijiang Police Department and the Domestic Security Division. Later, she was sentenced to two years of forced labor in the Shabao Women's Forced Labor Camp. She was tortured again by being hung up by her arms, bound behind her back.
Detainees at the labor camp were forced to pack large amounts of candies under unsanitary conditions. They weren't allowed to wash their hands after using the toilet. All of the candies were earmarked for supermarkets.
Ms. Yu was given a daily work quota of packing around 71 pounds of candy. To meet the quota, she had to work from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day. Younger practitioners had to pack 77 to 99 pounds. Their sentences would be extended if they couldn't meet the assigned quota. Practitioners were only allowed to use the toilet twice a day, in the morning and afternoon. Because Ms. Yu couldn't complete the work quota, her sentence was extended and she was further tortured by being forced to stand facing a wall for a long time, and was also forced stand in the baking sun for hours without drinking any water.
Every evening, practitioners were pressured to write the three statements, stating that they would renounce their belief. If they refused, they wouldn't be allowed to go to bed and had to remain standing through the night. The guards ordered inmates to make practitioners write “thought reports,” in which they stated their thoughts about Falun Gong. If practitioners wouldn't or couldn't write, the inmates would write a thought report for them and then force them to put their fingerprint on it.
Practitioners were monitored around the clock by the other inmates. They would be beaten by inmates if they talked to each other or even gestured to each other. Under the oppressive environment and poor living conditions, Ms. Yu's weight had dropped by half by the time she was released.
Harassment Continues after Release
Ms. Yu was reported and arrested for the third time on June 28, 2012 when she clarified the facts to a disabled person. Unfortunately, this person was a plainclothes officer who was pretending to be disabled. However, the local detention center refused to take her as she failed the physical exam.
During Ms. Yu's detention, the local authorities forced her husband to divorce her, threatening he would lose his job if he didn't. Ms. Yu had nowhere to live after the divorce, so she went to her youngest daughter's home. Officers from the Dashiba Police Station went to her youngest daughter's home to harass her.
The police also went to Ms. Yu's elder daughter's company to harass her. They demanded to know her mother's whereabouts and her sister's home address, in an attempt to arrest Ms. Yu.
Persecuted Since the Onset of the Persecution
Ms. Yu was a retired worker from the Chang'an No. 1 Automobile Company. She began practicing Falun Gong in 1995 and benefited tremendously. She was paralyzed over half of her body and she was blind in one eye. But after practicing Falun Gong for a time, her illnesses disappeared and she recovered her sight.
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated the persecution in 1999, Ms. Yu became a target of the Dashiba police and the local residential committee because she refused to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Yu went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in 1999 and was arrested. She was later held at the Jiangbei District Detention Center for 37 days.
