(Minghui.org) Ms. Li Yushu, Ms. Hu Aiyun, Ms. Li Peixian and other Falun Gong practitioners detained in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison have been resisting the brutal persecution there by means of a hunger strike. Li Yushu has been on a hunger strike for many years. She has been tortured repeatedly with punitive forced-feeding.

Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison is located at Xuefu Road 507, Nangang District, Harbin City. It is considered a hell on earth. For more than a decade, the prison guards have used criminal inmates to directly persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They have committed heinous crimes against practitioners, which have resulted in the death or disability of a number of practitioners.

1. Li Yushu employs hunger strike for many years, endures repeated forced-feeding

Ms. Li Yushu, a 62-year-old Falun Gong practitioner, was a former secretary of the Education Commission for the Amu'er Forest Bureau in Daxing'anling Mountain. She started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. Many of her health problems disappeared, and she enjoyed excellent physical and mental health. After the persecution of Falun Gong began, Ms. Li was persecuted by the Communist authorities. In May 2002, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Jiagedaqi. In January 2003, Ms. Li was detained in Heilongjiang Women's Prison Group Training Ward. In March, she was sent to the No. 1 Division. She is currently detained in Ward 10, a ward for sick prisoners. Ms. Li began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The following are details of some of the persecution that Li Yushu has endured.

In 2006, Li Yushu was held in a small isolation cell on the fourth floor, the so-called "strict control" room. Because she did the Falun Gong exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts, she was beaten by prisoners Wang Xinhua and Yuan Anfen. They dragged her from the bed to the floor, and pushed her head against the heating pipes. They also punched and kicked her. Once when Li Yushu did the Falun Gong exercises, Yuan Anfen stepped on her face. When they force-fed Li Yushu, the feeding tube was covered with blood. They intentionally added garlic during the forced-feeding, causing Ms. Li severe pain. Later, Xiang Guifen replaced Wang Xinhua as collaborator. She cursed at Li Yushu and added even more garlic to the feeding tube. They said that this was ordered by Director Zhao Yingling. The inmates who agree to persecute Dafa practitioners are granted privileges by the guards and can come and go freely in the prison.

Torture illustration: Brutal forced-feeding

On February 16, 2011, the collaborators yanked Li Yushu from the bed to the floor. When the prison deputy head, Bao Rui, and others entered Ward 10, they dragged Li Yushu to the corridor. Li Yushu shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" While searching Yushu's bed, Bao Rui fiercely yelled, "Seal her mouth!" Under her instigation, several 30-year-old male guards from the anti-riot division also arrived. They punched and kicked Li Yushu. One stepped on her body, and wrapped duct tape around her mouth several times. He also twisted Li Yushu's hands behind her back. Bao Rui viciously said, "Take off her clothes!" Several people came up and cut off her shirt and trousers with scissors. All of her clothing, including winter and summer clothes, outwear and underwear, were forcibly taken away by. Her bed was a shambles and her luggage was opened and searched.

Torture re-enactment: Sealing the mouth with tape

On the afternoon of February 28, section head of Ward 10, Zhao Huihua beat Li Yushu. After that, she directed Wang Shanshan, a 28-year-old criminal in Ward 11, to slap Li Yushu, stuff her mouth with a towel, and then duct-tape her mouth. But Li Yushu still managed to shout "Faun Dafa is good." Li Yingli and Xing Guohui punched Li Yushu in the mouth like crazy. Wang Shanshan also threatened her at the same time. Her mouth was bruised and became swollen.

On March 3, prison head Bai Yingxian came to “visit” Li Yushu. Upon her direction, the number of criminals who closely monitored Li Yushu increased from two to four. The criminals assigned to monitor Ms. Li were Li Yubo, Xing Guohui, Wang Shuxian and Bai Yuming. Yang Qiuxiang told Bai Yingxian to force Ms. Li to wear a prison uniform [Note: Because Falun Gong practitioners are innocent of any crime and have broken no laws, some practitioners protest their illegal incarceration by refusing to wear the prison uniform]. Then, Gao Fuyan arrived and started tying Li Yushu down with straps. She said that she had permission from prison head Bai Yingxian. Li Yushu was very thin after several years of torture, so in order to cause her more pain, Gao Fuyan made several new holes in the straps to get them tighter. The straps were so tight that Li Yushu's hands and feet turned purple and it required a lot of effort to untie them later.

On April 16, division head Zhao Xiaofan arrived with criminal Gao Fuyan to tie Li Yushu up. Gao was very brutal. She took the opportunity to brutally beat Li Yushu every time she tried to force her into a prison uniform. Sometimes she used her elbow to hit Li Yushu or grabbed Ms. Li's legs and smashed them against the bed. Ms. Li could barely walk, and the injuries to her legs took over a month to recover. Sometimes Gao grabbed Li Yushu by the hair and shoved her into the bars. Sometimes she took her by the legs, forced her head down, tied her legs to the bed and then bound her while pulling her hair. Her brutal actions sometimes even shocked her fellow inmates.

In mid-July 2012, section head of Ward 10 Zhao Huihua, captain Dai Ying and other guards instigated prisoner Zhang Fangjing and another dozen prisoners to persecute Falun Gong practitioner Li Peixian and Li Yushu who had each been on a hunger strike for a long time. They force-fed them, searched their personal belongings, and shaved their heads. They punched and kicked them. They printed “Prisoner” on all their clothes, as well as their bed sheets and blankets. To resist the persecution Li Peixian and Li Yushu refuse to wear clothes marked with “Prisoner,” so they had to go to the washroom and toilet wearing nothing but underpants. The prisoners ridiculed and jeered at them. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has reached an extreme at Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison.

2. Hu Aiyun brutally force-fed after staging a hunger strike

Ms. Hu Aiyun lives in Caojia, Xingfu Township, Xiangfang District, Harbin City. On June 21, 2003 she was illegally arrested by the First Division of the Harbin Police Department. On May 12, 2004 she was sent to the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison.

On August 12, 2004, Hu Aiyun started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Nurse Shang Xiaomei, an inmate imprisoned for medical crimes, tortured Ms. Hu while she was being force-fed. She purposefully used a lot of force to insert the feeding tube and then removed it roughly to make Hu Aiyun's nose bleed. She used the same tube for every practitioner without ever cleaning it.

Torture illustration: Brutal forced-feeding

In September 2006, Ms. Hu was sent to the 11^th Division of the prison, which was set up specifically to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

On July 11, 2007, Hu Aiyun began a hunger strike to protest the persecution and requested that she be released. Collaborator Sheng Qiaomei force-fed her with a strong solution of salt water on the fifth day, making her severely dehydrated, regardless of the warning from nurse Zheng Dongmei who was in charge of forced-feeding. Ms. Hu suffered dizziness, diarrhea and vomiting.

Hu Aiyun held another hunger strike on March 8, 2008 and requested her release. Inmate Li Yanping tortured her during the forced-feeding. Her body was covered with scars even four years later. Inmate Zhang Xiuyuan grabbed Hu Aiyun by the neck and poked her fingers into Hu Aiyun eye sockets.

On October 21, 2008, He Yingjie forced-fed Hu Aiyun with hot water. She used a disposable tube that had been used on other practitioners over ninety times without disinfection. She just dipped it into water, and leftover food was still on the tube. Then she used it on the next practitioner.

3. Li Peixian stages hunger strike to protest illegal detention

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Peixian, 50 years old, is detained in Ward 10. She was released on medical parole several months ago after she was diagnosed with an oversized tumor, plus she was on a hunger strike to resist the persecution. Not long ago she was arrested again and sent back to the prison. She is detained in Ward 10, and has been on a hunger strike since then.

Prior to this last arrest, Ms. Li Peixian was arrested with her daughter, Li Yaoguang, by a dozen officers, including Liu Gang and Liu Shouyi from the Tiefeng Police Station and Liu Zhidong from the Guangrong Police Station, when the two women talked to people about Falun Gong in the Guangrong Fourth District on January 6, 2010. They were illegally sentenced to five years in prison by the Tiefeng Court and sent to the Harbin Women’s Prison in October 2010.

Ms. Li then went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. However, the guards tortured her brutally and often force-fed her even though she had been diagnosed with symptoms of uterine fibroids while she was held in the Qiqihar Detention Center. Because of the ruthless torture, she ended up in the prison hospital, where it was discovered that she had three tumors. The prison officials refused to release her for medical treatment until her condition became critical.

After Ms. Li returned home, she was as thin as a rail. Despite her fragile condition, the police arrested her again and sent her to prison again within six months. It was learned that the perpetrators had planned her arrest for a long time. One man admitted that they had followed Ms. Li for many days.

Ms. Li Peixian is detained in Ward 10 and has begun a hunger strike again.

It is our sincere hope that the righteous people of the world will take note of the innocent Falun Gong practitioners detained in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison, and help rescue them from this hell on earth. We call for the complete disintegration of the 610 Office and for an end to this thirteen-year persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.