Ms. Liu Wanqiu Emaciated and Mentally Affected as a Result of Torture, Brainwashing Centre Officials Refuse to Release Her

Ms. Liu Wanqiu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was taken to a brainwashing centre after her sentence in a forced labour camp expired. It was the third time she had been arrested and taken to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre. At present, she is in an extremely debilitated state due to the brutal mistreatment she was subjected to in custody.

Ms. Liu Wanqiu, over 50 years old, worked at the Lanzhou Chemical Company. In the middle of September 2003, when she was returning to Lanzhou by train, she was reading Falun Gong books and explaining the truth about Falun Gong to other passengers. The police arrested her and took her to the brainwashing centre.

In the brainwashing centre, she was handcuffed and locked in a confined cell many times. The first time was for a month, and her wrists were severely damaged by the handcuffs. She was later locked up many more times, savagely beaten, and severely abused on a daily basis. Her face was once beaten so severely that she was disfigured. Another time, the guards forced her into a wet, dark, and stuffy basement, where they hung her up with chains.

At the end of 2005, Ms. Liu was again arrested while she was handing out leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong and again taken to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre. At that time it was the dead of winter, and she was wearing only a thin woollen sweater and trousers. The guards hung her upside-down to the door frame in a confined cell. They took the handcuffs off only when she had to eat or go to the toilet. She was otherwise chained and left hanging 24 hours a day, for up to two weeks at a time. Only when her legs began to fester and start to suppurate did the guards let her down. Not a day later they took her to the Heping Woman's Forced Labour Camp in Yuzhong, Lanzhou City, and made her do forced labour.

During her time at the labour camp, she was monitored by one or two detainees that kept an eye on her every move. Every day she was forced to do hard labour--failure to produce would lead to beatings and abuse. In order to reach their objective of forced "transformation¹" of practitioners, the camp guards savagely beat her with truncheons until her face was disfigured. They also encouraged ordinary prisoners to hang her with chains and beat and abuse her. After her sentence in the labour camp was complete, because she still had not been "transformed," they again took her to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre.

After being persecuted physically and mentally again and again, Ms. Liu is now emaciated, and her mind is damaged. Despite this, Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre officials still will not release her.

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/11/26/190476.html