In Memory of Beijing Practitioner Mr. Li Jingsheng

(Clearwisdom.net) Several days ago I heard that Beijing Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Li Jingsheng had been persecuted to death. I knew Mr. Li for only a short time but want to share what I know about this case.

Mr. Li Jingsheng was in his late thirties. In June 2001 police arrested him and on September 21, 2001, sent him to Division 5 of the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp. This labor camp is located in Beijing Daxing and is notorious for cruelly persecuting practitioners. Several times Mr. Li was illegally confined in a "special training center" and subjected to cruel torture.

In June of 2002, Mr. Li was transferred to an ordinary division in the labor camp, Division 1. He was one of four practitioners detained here. Not too long after he arrived, he decided to go on a hunger strike to protest his illegal detention. Several days later he was transferred to the training camp, where he endured further severe persecution. After several months of torture, Li was sent back to the first division.

In November 2002, the day before the Chinese Communist Party held their Sixteenth National Congress, the Tuanhe Labor Camp distributed a new style of blue labor uniform in winter cloth and forbade prisoners from wearing the red labor uniform. Li Jingsheng and three other practitioners from the same division refused to wear the new labor uniforms, so they were all sent to the training camp for further persecution.

In November 2002, one practitioner did the Falun Gong exercises in the labor camp. Another inmate, who had been designated as an assistant and assigned to monitor the practitioners, stood right beside him but did not stop him or report him to the guards. After the division leader found out, he tied the practitioner to a bed and threatened the assistant inmate for neglecting his duty. The next day, after Mr. Li Jingsheng had heard about this, he walked alone down the passageway where he and his assistant inmate monitor were staying. He left his "assistant" in the hallway and went to the head division office. In front of the division officer, he started to do the exercises. Later he was also tied up on a bed, but the inmate assigned to monitor him did not receive any punishment. This incident showed Mr. Li's noble character. Even in the face of adversity he still considered others first in all respects. That was also why he always got along well with his inmate monitor. His fellow practitioners in Division 1 and labor camp officers praised Mr. Li Jingsheng's conduct.

When Mr. Li Jingsheng and other practitioners were tied up in their beds, another practitioner wrote an appeal requesting that this illegal persecution stop immediately. But when guard Wang Hua gave the letter to the head of the labor camp, there was no response at all. At that time, Sun Jinliang was the deputy head of Division 1, and Wang Hua was the guard who tortured Falun Dafa practitioners brutally. Both of these people were later found guilty of selling drugs inside the division and were temporarily suspended from their jobs.

Mr. Li Jingsheng held another hunger strike, and several days later he was sent to the special training center. When he got to there, he was told that his sentence had been increased by another 10 months. Li Jingsheng would have to suffer from the brutal persecution until the end of October 2003, when he was to be released.

A guard at Tuanhe, a man named Tian Yu in his twenties, exposed just how the guards persecuted Mr. Li.. During Li Jingsheng's hunger strike, they force-fed him at first on a regular schedule. Then, in an effort to confuse him, they would do it at times that he did not expect. When Mr. Li thought it was time to be force-fed, they did not do it. Their intention was to increase the pressure on him mentally, so they repeated this routine several times in order to confuse him and to break down his will. The ultimate purpose was to convince him to renounce his righteous belief in Falun Dafa. Eventually they forced Mr. Li to compromise. Before he was released, he had been forced to sign the three statements. However, on September 6, 2004, he announced a "solemn declaration" on the Minghui website to retract those statements made under severe duress.

Mr. Li Jingsheng suffered from a congenital disease before he started practicing Falun Dafa. He soon regained his healthy body and mind through his cultivation practice. After the relentless, brutal torture he endured in Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, his body started to break down and he became extremely weak. Mr. Li Jingsheng was always very enthusiastic in helping other practitioners. When they needed clothes or other daily necessities, he generously helped them because he regarded other practitioners' problems as his own. In the meantime, his conduct also helped to reduce the pressure and the persecution imposed upon other practitioners.

March 29, 2005

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