July 3, 2001

Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside the Chinese embassy and consulates across Canada on Tuesday to protest the alleged torture deaths of 15 women at a labour camp in China's Heilongjiang province last month.

The group said in a release that news of the "spate of violence" at the Wanjia labour camp in Harbin City leaked out despite the fact guards and other staff were detained after the incident.

They were forced to surrender cell phones and pagers, and telephone lines to the camp were cut, the group said.

Camp officials apparently attributed the incident to a mass suicide. The incident is believed to have occurred on or around June 20.

"People don't know exactly what happened," said Grace Wollensak, an Ottawa-based practitioner who came to Canada from China 11 years ago. "But at least one body was seen by her family and they saw the wounds and bruises all over her body. In other cases, the families only received the ashes. They didn't let them see the bodies."

[...]

Posting date: 7/5/2001
Original article date: 7/3/2001
Category: News & Media Reports

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_____Related Articles_____ Urgent Appeal from Canada: SOS, Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China [7/5/2001] Falun Gong Condemns Massacre in China [7/5/2001] Ottawa Citizen: China says Falun Gong stage mass suicide but [group] alleges torture killings [7/5/2001] CNN: Falun Gong denies mass suicide [Excerpt] [7/5/2001] Reuters: Falun Gong Denies Mass Suicide at Prison Camp [Excerpt] [7/5/2001] Washington Post: Falun Gong Members Die in Chinese Camp [Excerpt] [7/5/2001] ABC: Calls for end to China's Falun Gong re-education camps [7/5/2001] Media Reports: Over 10 Falun Gong Practitioners Died at the Wanjia Labor Camp [7/4/2001] 15 FALUN GONG WOMEN TORTURED TO DEATH AT WANJIA LABOR CAMP [7/4/2001] Media Advisory: 15 Women Massacred in a Chinese Labor Camp for Practicing Falun Gong [7/3/2001]