FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 19, 2002 [ http://www.faluninfo.net/
]
12 Falun Gong Deaths in 14 Days
Various torture methods are adopted to coerce Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs.
Regional police are instructed that any deaths due to abuse in custody are to be counted as suicide.
[ Read more... ] |
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NEW YORK, September 19, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information Center) -- Ms. Xiaoyun Fu from Wuhan City was
tortured to death last month by Chinese police.
According to reliable sources in China, since Communist Party head Jiang Zemin
launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Fu had been kidnapped and taken away to
brainwashing classes and detention centers several times, and had been incarcerated in a mental
hospital for one month. Ms. Fu had protested her detentions with hunger strikes.
On one occasion, sources say she was tied up and beaten for 47 days before being
sent to a labor camp. Shortly after her release from the labor camp in July 2002, she was kidnapped
again by Chinese officials and taken to the Jianghan District brainwashing class, where she
conducted another hunger strike. Sources say her captors continued to torture her until it became
apparent she would die.
Authorities sent her home on August 6, 2002. She died the same day.
Sources say Jianghan District brainwashing class is currently torturing numerous
Falun Gong practitioners. They are also forced to watch government propaganda shows.
Extensive Torture Common Cause of Death Amongst Falun Gong Practitioners
Reports from China indicate that Falun Gong practitioners who are arrested and
imprisoned are routinely tortured in an attempt to force them to give up their belief. The following
are recent cases of death by torture that have been confirmed by the Falun Dafa Information Center:
A clothes manufacturing company employee, Xiao Chengrui, was
arrested twice from 2001-2002. On January 2nd, 2002, Xiao went to a local hotel to talk to people
about Falun Gong and was arrested by the police for the second and last time. He was jailed,
tortured severely until he was emaciated, and injected with an unknown drug that hastened the
deterioration of his health. In early June of 2002, the detention center staff realized that Xiao
was dying, and about two days later they sent him home. His family members did their best to save
his life; however, he died on the morning of July 17, 2002. Seven months of detention life took a
healthy man's life.
Chen Yanying traveled to Beijing to peacefully appeal and was
illegally detained. From October 1999, she was detained for 6 months and went on a hunger strike.
She was released 8 days later. The following October, she was arrested again and detained for more
than 2 months, only being released after a 9-day hunger strike. Several months later she was sent to
a labor camp and tortured relentlessly to give up her belief in Falun Gong. She became very thin
from extensive hunger strikes, and after one year of persecution, her health had deteriorated close
to the edge of death. The labor camp police were afraid of taking responsibility for her condition
and notified her family members to take her home. She was dead four hours after she reached her
home.
Bai Xiuhua, was dismissed from her job because she practiced Falun
Gong. She had been arrested 3 times. To avoid further persecution, she became homeless, but was
arrested on July 8th, 2002. She began a hunger strike on the same day in protest. Her abdomen was
severely injured from physical abuse at the hands of the police to the extent that she was unable to
relieve herself, and she died on August 28th.
Dou Hejun was kidnapped in Zhengzhou City at the end of 2000. He
was detained at Wei County Detention Center among other places. He died as a result of persecution
several months later.
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Liu Zhi was detained and tortured three times before her death. Her body was cremated against her
family's wishes, and her ashes were not returned. |
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In August 2001 the Cangzhou City Public Security Bureau illegally arrested Wei Chaozong
from his residence. They whipped him with leather belt and slapped him in the face. The next day, he
was sent to Cangzhou City No.1 Labor Camp. Wei protested the illegal detention by starting a hunger
strike. The policemen used all kinds of instruments to torture him. When they got tired, they would
order 5 or 6 prisoners to beat him. At the same time they would say: "Beat him. If he dies, he's
killed himself." Since Wei continued his hunger strike, the policemen tied him to an iron bed.
They threatened him, and kept tightening the belt on his body until his right arm became much longer
than his left one. The belt cut into his flesh and he lost consciousness. After the torture, his
right arm became one cun (Chinese inch) longer his left arm and it couldn't move freely any more.
They tortured him until he looked like a very old man with a hunchback. On April 17, 2002, the
Cangzhou Public Security Bureau arrested Wei and his wife without reason. Wei was transferred to a
different labor camp and still wouldn't cooperate with the policemen and refused to give up his
beliefs. The policemen were furious and put him under watch 24-hours a day. If he moved without
permission, he was slapped in the face. If the policemen were in a bad mood, he was kicked, beaten,
or even hanged. They gave him 1 steamed bun each day to eat. 3 months later, he looked like a
skeleton and was barely breathing. To avoid being responsible for killing him, the labor camp asked
his elder brother to take him home on August 1st. They also forced his brother to write a letter of
repentance for him. Wei couldn't eat or drink when he got home, and died on August 10th, leaving
two young children behind.
Wang Baoxian was illegally given a 3-year labor
"re-education" sentence in 1999 and imprisoned in Nianzishan Railway Labor Camp. He
suffered inhumane treatment and was transferred Fuyu Labor Camp one year later. When seeing a fellow
practitioner being persecuted, he cried out "Stop," and the policemen beat him and added
another half-year to his term. In June 2000, he and a group of practitioners started a hunger
strike, which caused the policemen to beat and curse them. He was transferred to Fuyu Detention
Center and put with a cellmate who was ordered to beat Wang for a reward of a steamed bun to eat. He
was forbidden to drink or use the toilet. By August 2002, Wang was dead.
Falsified Information Used to Conceal Murder
It is common practice for Chinese police and other authorities to falsify
information so as to conceal the death of Falun Gong practitioners who have died from torture.
According to sources in China, one method used is to report that practitioners have
"jumped" or "fallen" from a building or other high places. The reports are
circulated to practitioners' families, society and the media to further damage the reputation of
Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners by associating Falun Gong with acts of desperation or
suicide. The following are recent cases that have been confirmed by the Falun Dafa Information
Center in which information was falsified to conceal the murder of practitioners.
Liu Jiming traveled to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong several
times. She was detained at Qingdao city Dashan Detention Center. After October 2000, to avoid police
harassment, Liu was forced to into homelessness and on August 14, 2002, the city police arrested
her. She was sent to Rehe Road police substation and later to a brainwashing center in Qingdao City
at Dashan Detention Center. However, she was rejected in both places because she didn't pass the
physical examination. The policemen of Rehe Rd. Police Substation put her in an iron cage for
several days to force her to write a guarantee letter giving up Falun Gong. Liu refused and went on
a hunger strike for 8 days. On August 25th, at 10:30 a.m., the Rehe Road Police Substation notified
Liu's family that she had jumped out of a building and killed herself at 2:00 in the morning, more
than 8 hours earlier. Despite being under 24-hour surveillance and weak from her hunger strike, the
police insisted that they were unable to stop Liu from jumping. Under her family members'
insistence, they were allowed to see her body, which was damaged beyond recognition.
Rao Zhuoyuan was kidnapped by the police in the middle of June and
detained in Guangzhou No.1 Labor Camp. Since he refused to give up Falun Gong, he was beaten and
handcuffed to a basketball hoop every day. Later, he "fell" from a 5th floor window for
some unknown reason and broke his neck. The police tried to hide the circumstances surrounding his
"fall" by not allowing his family members to visit. When they were finally allowed to see
him, his vertebra were fractured. He couldn't speak, but was in tears. He passed away in early
August.
Evidence of Death by Torture Concealed by Cremating Remains
Sources in China say the physical torture endured by Falun Gong practitioners
before death is often so severe that authorities purposefully cremate the bodies in order to conceal
incriminating physical evidence. In most cases the families of the murdered practitioners are not
notified of the intent to cremate the remains, or are forced into signing a consent release. The
following cases of forced cremation to conceal torture and abuse have recently been confirmed by the
Falun Dafa Information Center.
Since December 1999, Liu Liyun was kidnapped, detained and sent to
brainwashing classes three times. She was illegally sentenced to 4 years in jail on December 6, 2001
and died seven months later. The prison claimed that Liu died of disease, but informants said that
she was beaten to death by prison employees, and the prison forcibly cremated her body in an attempt
to conceal the truth. The day after her death, four police officers went to Liu's father's home
and told him that his daughter was dead and he would not be allowed to see the body without agreeing
to cremation. Because of his refusal to sign, they held and monitored him for three days. Following
this intense pressure, the police forced the elderly, illiterate man to sign a release form for Liu's
remains. He was taken to a dark room where Liu's body was being kept, and allowed to only see her
head, which was noticeably swollen. After that, Liu's body was immediately removed for cremation.
On the morning of July 19, 2002, Zhi Guixiayang was illegally
arrested, and the next day other practitioners saw her at a local police station. She was very weak
and said that she had been beaten and was suffering from severe internal injuries. By July 25, Zhi
was dying. Zhi's mother was denied visitation, and Zhi was dead two days later. Shortly afterwards
her body was cremated without notifying her parents. The police claimed that that Zhi had died
because of a hunger strike.
Liu Zhi went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong three times after
July 20, 1999 and was imprisoned and tortured each time. Due to many local practitioners being sent
to brainwashing classes, Liu was forced to flee into homelessness. Three months later, she returned
home and half a dozen police officers arrested her. Shortly afterwards, Liu Zhi's family was
notified that she had died while attempting to escape by hanging a clothesline out the window from
the third floor. While escaping, the rope broke and she fell to the ground. She was sent to Jingzhou
City hospital and died due to ineffective emergency care. The director of the detention center said
that she had kidney disease and had damaged her kidney in her fall. Liu Zhi's husband said that she
never had kidney disease and requested to see the case report, or photos of the case location, or
his wife's dead body. All requests were refused and Liu's family members were forced to sign a
document stating that they approved of the cremation of her body and that there would be no funeral.
Liu's family was also threatened that if they insisted on investigating the cause of Liu's death,
her body would be desecrated. Liu's husband refused to sign for the cremation, and on August 27th he
was notified that his wife's body would be cremated in five minutes. The cremation was forcefully
carried out without her family members' permission or presence, and her ashes were not returned to
her family members.
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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 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 480 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.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTRE- Contacts: Gail
Rachlin 917-501-4441, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, Levi Browde 914-720-0963, or Feng Yuan
917-941-1097. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com,
Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/
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