Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group

During December 2001, because Ms. Cui Qiuju refused to renounce Falun Gong, guards at the Shibalihe Forced Labor Camp often beat her, to the point where she began spitting blood. She was later sent to a hospital where they discovered that she was suffering from kidney necrosis. All her internal organs had been injured to a certain degree by the beatings. The labor camp informed Ms. Cui’s family members to take her back home. Three months later, after Ms. Cui had recovered somewhat, she was arrested again. Ms. Cui went on a hunger strike to protest such arbitrary detention. On the third day of her hunger strike, she was brought to the office building of the labor camp, where the guards used the torture method “Tying the Ropes[1]” to cruelly torture her. She was also tortured with electric shocks and rubber batons. Ms. Cui had purple bruises all over her body and her arms could not move. She was deprived of sleep and outside communication for 3-4 days.

[1] “Tying the Ropes”: The police tie her up with a thin rope, circle the rope around her neck, and tie her hands behind her back. Then the police would use all the force they could muster to tighten the rope. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around her body, and makes it more and more difficult for her to breathe. The pain is so intense that she sometimes loses control of her bladder. There are instances when the rope was tightened enough to break one’s arm.