Ms. Zhang Yuhua Tortured in Forced Labour Camp

Name: Zhang Yuhua
Gender: Female
Age: 50
Address: Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province
Occupation: Head of Russian-Language Department at Nanjing Normal University
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jiangsu Province Women's Forced Labour Camp

City: Jurong
Province: Jiangsu
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, fired from workplace, home ransacked, detention, denial of toilet use.

Ms. Zhang Yuhua was the head of the Russian-Language Department at Nanjing Normal University. Police officers arrested her in April 2009 and she was sentenced to one and a half years in Jiangsu Women's Forced Labour Camp (also known as Jiangsu Judong Women's Forced Labour Camp). She was tortured in many ways and had her term extended because she refused to renounce her belief in Falun Gong. She was released a few months ago.

Ms. Zhang began practising in 1997. When the persecution started on July 20th, 1999, she appealed to the Jiangsu provincial government, and was detained. At the time, she was the only well-known person in the educational field in Jiangsu who was persecuted. Officials at Nanjing Normal University were pressured by higher authorities to fire her.

In the summer of 2001, Ms. Zhang was arrested at her home by the Nanjing police. They confiscated her printer, photocopier, Falun Gong books and other personal belongings. She managed to escape from the police station, but was arrested again within a few months, and taken to Jiangsu Women's Forced Labour Camp. She was held there for one year.

Ms. Zhang was arrested by undercover police in July 2002 and was held at the Nanjing Detention Centre. She was sentenced to four years in Nanjing Women's Prison, where she was held in the fifth section. Guards shocked her with electric batons, did not allow her to sleep for long periods of time, forbade her from washing herself, put her in solitary confinement, and used many other torture methods on her. In the summer she had to stand in the blazing sun, and often fainted. In the winter she had to stand in the cold, suffering from hypothermia, frostbite and lost consciousness from the cold as well.

In April 2009, Ms. Zhang rented an apartment in the Qixia District of Nanjing and asked five practitioners to help her move. They were Mr. Ma Zhenyu, 56, an engineer; Mr. Xia Jianguo, in his sixties; Ms. Sun Wenlan, 45, an employee at the Tangshan Institute of Health; Ms. Ge Feng, 56; and Ms. Fan Huaizhen, 58, head nurse at the Tangshan Institute of Health. Officers from Yaohuamen Police Station in Qixia District had tapped Mr. Ma's mobile phone, and arrived in two police vans at Ms. Zhang's apartment to arrested all of them.

Mr. Xia, Ms. Sun, Ms. Ge and Ms. Fan were taken to the Nanguang Hotel in Qinhuai District on May 1st, 2009, for brainwashing sessions, which were held by the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). Ms. Zhang was taken to Jiangsu Women's Forced Labour Camp for another year and a half. The whereabouts of Mr. Ma are not known.

Within three months at the camp Ms. Zhang's health had deteriorated. Whenever she refused to cooperate with the guards, they ordered four inmates to drag her outside. They gave her little food and made her stand for long periods of time.

At the end of 2009, Ms. Zhang was transferred to the seventh team at the labour camp, which is notorious for torturing practitioners.

Tang Guofang was head of the Re-Education Through Labour Bureau in Jiangsu. During the second part of 2009, he directly participated in brainwashing the practitioners. Whenever anyone refused to comply with his demands, Tang extended the term of their sentence.

Jiangsu Women's Forced Labour Camp: 511-87706301, 87706336, 87201159, 87707100
Qixia District 610 Office: 25-85561176
Qixia District Political and Judiciary Committee: 025-85562145
Qixia District Yaohua Street Commission: 025-85568385

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/1/5/-234551.html