August 5, 2003

Chengdu resident Ms. Guo Lirong was fired from the Qianfeng Water Heater Factory due to pressure from government officials because she practices Falun Gong. After she was fired, police illegally detained her several times, and finally sentenced her to a forced labor camp because she refused to give up her beliefs. There, Ms. Guo carried out a month-long hunger strike in protest and was eventually released, but later, she was sent to Xinjiang's Urumqi Women's Labor Camp to be persecuted again, and her current situation is very serious.

On December 12, 2002, several policemen and other officials who did not show their ID's stormed into Ms. Guo's home and forcibly arrested her in front of her family. They provided neither the lawful warrants required for the arrest nor any information on her whereabouts since then. It wasn't until April of 2003 that Ms. Guo's family received a written letter from her stating that she was being held at Urumqi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Xinjiang Province. In May of 2003, her family received another letter from Ms. Guo that explained her situation in greater detail. She wrote, "In the beginning of the month [the letter was written in January], the 610 office* told me that they would send me back home if I ate some food. However, later they lied and said neither my factory's police department nor my family wanted to come and pick me up, so they sent me to the Urumqi Women's Forced Labor Camp. My physical health is very poor right now."

After receiving her second letter, Ms. Guo's mother's hypertension recurred because she was so worried about her daughter's safety. When her father went to the Fuqing Road Police Station to get written permission to visit her at the labor camp (which is required by law), the police officers said that they hadn't received official notice that Ms. Guo had been sentenced there, and asked him to provide them with proof. Her father explained that ever since she had been taken from home on December 12, 2002, the family hadn't been told where Ms. Guo was. All they had were those two recent letters that she had written to them. The police told him that they could not give him permission based on this, and asked the Sichuan Province Labor Committee if they had received official notice of Ms. Guo's detention. The Labor Committee responded that they hadn't either, and suggested that Ms. Guo's family go to the Xinjiang Province Labor Committee. Finally, the Xinjiang Province Labor Committee confirmed that Mrs. Guo had been sentenced to three years at the Urumqi Women's Labor Camp because she practices Falun Gong. However, as of now, Ms. Guo's family has still been unable to establish connection with her, not even a single phone call.

The telephone number of Chengdu Fuqing Road Police Station which Ms. Guo Lirong's residence was): 86-28-83245724

The Security Division of the Chengdu Qianfeng Water Heater Factory: 86-28-83365635

Chenghua Police Department: 86-28-83261024, 86-28-86406411

The hot line number of Chengdu Mayor: 86-28-86636113, 86-28-86637596

Chengdu Police Department: the center of command: 86-28-86407212; the department of politics: 86-28-86407223

Xinjiang Province Police Department: 86-991-5586094

Urumqi Women's Forced Labor Camp: 86-991-7760317 (the Confine Section)

Address: #22 Donggebi Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang

*The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political or judicial systems.