(Clearwisdom.net) Practitioner Li Keming is from the Dongxihu District of Wuhan City in Hubei Province. Mr. Li has been arrested and detained over ten times by the local police department. In November 2001, he was sentenced to two years of forced labor and was sent to Hewan Forced Labor Camp. There he was tortured inhumanely. He was forced to become homeless to avoid further persecution after his release.
Mr. Li, 58, suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis before practicing Falun Gong. Later he developed an enlarged lumbar vertebra with ossein proliferation and periodic nerve-related headaches. He wanted to die rather then bear the suffering of these illnesses that no medication could remedy. In 1996, he started practicing Falun Gong and all his diseases disappeared within a few months.
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong. Li Keming went to the provincial government to speak out for Falun Gong and its founder. He told everyone he met how he had benefited from practicing Falun Gong. The government officials listed him as a key target and secretly videotaped his activities. Government authorities identified, arrested, and transferred him to the Dongxihu District Police Department. Later, they transferred him to Xincun Police Station for 24 hours. Then he was released but was watched closely by police at his home. Sometimes as many as six policemen were on duty. They demanded that he report to them if he planned to go out. If he didn't cooperate, the police followed him everywhere.
He was not able to live a normal life due to the police harassment. He was arrested by the Xincun Police Station more than ten times from July 20, 1999, through 2000. He always tried to clarify the truth of Falun Gong to the officers that arrested him.
In December 2000, the deputy head of the Xincun Police Station, Liu Gongping, led three husky fellows to arrest Li Keming and take him to a brainwashing center held at the Communist Party school. All the practitioners detained in the brainwashing center were arrested without any legal procedures. The practitioners went on hunger strikes several times to protest the denying of their rights and freedom. They did not cooperate when the 610 Office demanded that they pay monthly living expenses.
Prior to May 1, 2001, the head of the 610 Office, Lin Zhengxing, ordered that practitioners be given little to eat. Li Keming protested that this was a basic human rights violation, and it was illegal not to provide detainees with enough food. Lin Zhengxing replied, "Yes, it is illegal. So what? You cannot sue me now."
In late June 2001, the 610 Office moved the brainwashing center from the Party school to next door to the Sandian Baihua Elementary School in the Dongxihu District. Although there were only three practitioners detained in the brainwashing center at the time, the 610 Office deployed six police vehicles and several fully-armed policemen to transfer them. In July 2001, Li Keming was released from the brainwashing center.
In September 2001, one of the 610 Office officials, Huang Jiantang, and former deputy head of the public security bureau's first division Zhang Changfa took over 20 agents and surrounded Mr. Li's home. Two policemen jumped over the wall into the yard, ransacked Li's home, and arrested him and his wife, also a practitioner. They were taken to the Public Security Bureau and later transferred to a detention center. There, Zhang Changfa stole Mr. Li's keys and searched his home again. Two brand-name shirts and other personal property belonging to Mr. Li were stolen.
Mr. Li clarified the truth of Falun Gong to the inmates in the detention center. The deputy chief of the detention center, Chen Fuyuan, instigated the inmates to beat him. In November 2001, Li Keming was sentenced to two years of forced labor on falsified charges made up by the district 610 Office and the Public Security Bureau, after 50 days of detention.
While at Hewan Forced Labor Camp, Li Keming wrote his appeal, but he was denied any legal assistance. To resist the persecution, he joined the collective hunger strike with other practitioners. The labor camp police force-fed practitioners inhumanely. The captain of the second team, Gao Junan, intentionally inserted the feeding tube into Li Keming's stomach and took it out right afterwards. He did this countless times for the torturous effect and caused Li's nasal and esophageal passageways to ulcerate badly. He also kept hitting Mr. Li's armpits and waist until he fainted from the severe pain.
A few days later, Li Keming's health deteriorated rapidly. There was unbearable pain behind his eyes. His limbs were cold and he could barely move them. His hair were infested with fleas and had turned white, and his scalp oozed pus. He experienced sharp pain in his head.
Li Keming was locked in solitary confinement in August 2002. Afterwards, he was constantly watched by six inmates. They allowed him little sleep. Sometimes he was allowed to go to bed from 4:15 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. His legs swelled and he could not walk without aid. He was unconscious most of the day. In this physical and mental condition, he was forced to write a guarantee statement, promising to give up the practice of Falun Gong. After he regained consciousness and had a clear mind, he declared to the captain that he had to withdraw the statement that the guards had extorted from him when he was not conscious.
Two years later, Li Keming was released. He found that his wife had been forced into homelessness to avoid persecution. He has no regular income and doesn't want to burden his children, so he works to earn his living in spite of his health.
Mr. Li and his wife are homeless to avoid the persecution. Luo Guangzhan of the Dongxihu District 610 Office and officials from the first division of the local Public Security Bureau frequently go to Li's child's home and Li's relatives homes to harass them about his whereabouts. They also tempt them with "grand rewards" to give him up to the police.
Li Keming has spent less then two years with his family during seven years of continuous persecution.
January 24, 2007
