Ethnic Korean, Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Extended Torture in Chinese Labor Camp
36-year-old Ms. Zhengshu Cui, an ethnic Korean living in northeast China, suffered severe torture while illegally imprisoned for her beliefs. Ms. Cui later died from her injuries.
EW YORK (FDI) – 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” (about) 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.
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)
