Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Practitioner Ms. Zuo Shuchun in Baimalong Labor Camp, Hunan Province

Written by a Practitioner from Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net)

The following is an account of the circumstances surrounding practitioner Ms. Zuo Shuchun's death, as I witnessed during my detention in Baimalong Labor Camp, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province.

At the end of February 2001, all the illegally detained practitioners in the labor camp were divided into three groups. Zuo Shuchun, myself and another fifteen steadfast practitioners were illegally detained in a separate building. In order to prevent us from doing exercises and with an intention to brainwash us, the police transferred people from another labor camp to supervise us, and these people were called the "squeezing control" squad. Every practitioner was partnered with a member of the "squeezing control" squad. From day one, they used different methods to monitor us. The police and the squad would randomly come and stop us from doing our exercises and interrupt our Fa study, so we could not even move our lips.

On the second day, if the practitioners were still persisting in reciting Teacher's teachings, they would handcuff all practitioners in series: one practitioner's one hand would be handcuff to another practitioner's hand and the other hand would be handcuffed to another practitioner's hand such that everyone was handcuffed together, then both the ends were attached to a steel bar high up on our bunk beds. This caused everyone a lot of discomfort. If some shorter people stood on a small stool and the people at the far end pushed the beds a little bit closer, then the physical pain was reduced a little bit. When the police found out what we did they immediately took away the small stools. We were handcuffed all day long until dinnertime, except for a very short lunch break. Sometimes we were handcuffed all night.

These kinds of tortures never ended, and because Zuo Shuchun is not a tall person, she suffered even more. Over time the handcuffs deeply cut into her hands, and later her flesh became rotten and swollen. But she was very brave and did not give in to the police.

Towards the end of February we saw that the police and the "squeezing control" squad were eating a lot of baked bread that was the main food of the detainees. We realized that the second group of practitioners was on hunger strike, so seventeen of us decided to join them.

In the first half of March we started our hunger strike to protest the torture. The police still persisted in handcuffing practitioners that recited the Fa even while they were hunger striking. After being on hunger strike for five to six days, I almost could not sit up. I started to recite Fa and felt more energized. These kinds of experiences are not easily understood by anyone who hasn't experienced them.

On the seventh day of the hunger strike, guards started to force-feed us. Zuo Shuchun was the first person who was called out by the police, but she never came back. We asked the guards about her, but they tried to avoid talking about it and then we knew something bad had happened to her. The next day the guards pretended everything was fine and told us that she was in the hospital and would be back soon. Later we found out that she was tortured to death during the force-feeding.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/10/21/87076.html

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