Mayor, Air Force Officer, and Party Faithful Among Recent Torture Deaths in China
(3/11/2002áá14:15)
NEW
YORK, March 11, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information
Center) -- Over the last few weeks, the deaths of
a town Mayor, an Air Force Officer, and two
instructors from a Communist Party school have
been confirmed. All were tortured to death for
practicing Falun Gong.
Two
Instructors at a College for Party-Faithful
Tortured to Death
Two
female instructors from the Zuojia Cadre School in
Jiutai City, Jilin Province were arrested in
February 2002 after a reward was offered by the
head of the village of Nanye for the capture of
anyone distributing Falun Gong flyers in the area.
The two women, one in her 30s and another in her
50s, were sent to Jiutai City Detention Center
where they went on hunger strike in protest of
their illegal imprisonment. During their
imprisonment, sources say they were brutally
force-fed, severely beaten, and tortured. Within
two weeks, the younger of the two was dead. The
other died two weeks later. The exact identities
of the two women were not made known.
Mayor
of Small Town Dies Alone After More Than Two Years
of Abuse
Feng
Guoguang, 44, was the mayor of Xiling Town, Hebei
Province. He was first arrested in October 1999
because he practiced Falun Gong and sentenced to
three years at Baoding Forced Labor Camp. After
more than two years of torture and hard labor, Mr.
Feng developed a severe lung ailment in January
2002. Attempting to shirk responsibility for his
possible death, officials hastily transferred him
to No. 252 Hospital of Baoding Liberation Army,
where all visitors were promptly turned away. Mr.
Feng died in the hospital on January 14, 2002.
As
previously
reported by the Falun Dafa Information Center,
Wang Yu, a 49-year-old officer in the Chinese Air
Force also recently died in police custody. He had
been arrested because of his public appeals for
the right to practice Falun Gong.
Regarding
these deaths, Falun Dafa Information Center
spokesperson, Adam Montanaro, noted: "Amidst
the intensifying campaign against Falun Gong,
these four deaths clearly demonstrate precisely
what Jiang Zemin's regime endeavors to hide from
its own people and the world -- that Falun Gong
continues to be widely practiced by a broad
cross-section of people at all levels of Chinese
society, which means the persecution bears down
upon that same broad cross-section of
people." Background Falun
Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice of
meditation and exercises with teachings based on
the universal principle of
"Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." It
is a practice that was taught in private for
thousands of years before being made public in
1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong has roots in
traditional Chinese culture, but it is distinct
and separate from other practices in China, such
as the religions of Buddhism and Taoism. Since its
introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word of
mouth throughout China, and is now practiced in
over 50 countries.
With
government estimates of as many as 100 million
practicing Falun Gong, China's President Jiang
Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999,
fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds
of more citizens than the Communist Party. Unable
to crush the spirit of millions who had
experienced improved health and positive life
changes from Falun Gong, Jiang's regime has
intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public
opinion against the practice while quietly
imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those
who practice it.
The
Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details
of over 375 deaths since the persecution of Falun
Gong in China began in 1999. Government officials
inside China, however, report that the actual
death toll is well over 1,600. Over 100,000 have
been detained, with more than 20,000 being
sentenced to forced labor camps without trial. (3/11/2002áá14:15)
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