NEWS - Mar. 16, 2007 ���Falun Dafa Information Center [ http://www.faluninfo.net/ ]


NEW YORK, NY -- Family members of torture victim and recently deceased Ms. Cao Aihua (news) are desperately seeking justice, going so far as to guard Cao's corpse (which bears evidence of torture) for three months in a frigid, rented room of a funeral parlor in northwestern China, sources tell the Falun Dafa Information Center. Cao died within two short weeks of imprisonment in the Women's Labor Camp of the Xinjiang Army Corps, passing away on November 13, 2006. China's communist authorities regularly cremate the bodies of torture victims so as to destroy evidence.

Cao was a native of Aksu city, located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. She was arrested three times prior to her death, according to sources close to her in China, with two arrests taking place in Beijing for petitioning authorities regarding the suppression of Falun Gong and a third, and final, in the summer of 2006 after she wrote notes on PRC monetary currency enjoining people to leave the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In all three instances her actions were met with extrajudicial sentencing to labor camps. During the third period of confinement, Cao was held variously in police custody in Aksu city and Allar city as well as, ultimately, the Women's Labor Camp of the Xinjiang Army Corps, located in Wujiaqu city (near Urumqi). Sources close to Cao report that police altogether have extorted nearly 300,000 yuan (roughly USD$39,000) from immediate family and relatives.

Efforts by family members seeking to hold Cao's killers accountable have met with resistance and denial at multiple levels of China's bureaucracy. Family have repeatedly petitioned the Wujiaqu City People's Congress, the relevant Procuratorate, the CCP Political and Judiciary Committee, the Labor Camp Bureau, as well as the Prison Bureau. Family were furthermore told by the director of the Wujiaqu City Procuratorate, a man surnamed Song, as well as by the Party head of the Women's Labor Camp, that the results of any investigations had nothing to do with the family, and could not be released to private individuals. To date no personnel or parties involved in Cao's murder have been reprimanded in any fashion, sources report.

The Information Center joins the family of Cao Aihua in calling for justice in her wrongful death at the hands of China's communist authorities, and is seeking the help of relevant international bodies and investigators.

"Cao's case speaks directly to the unbearable ordeals countless families go through when seeking justice from the Communist state for an imprisoned, tortured or murdered relative who practices Falun Gong," Information Center spokesperson Levi Browde said Thursday. "It is the Communist state, after all, that ordered the 'eradication' of Falun Gong, and often rewards those who adopt brutal means to carry it out. This is precisely why international pressure is so vital--it is often the only factor that will yield any results for families like Cao's."

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NEWS - Mar. 16, 2007
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net

Background
Founded in 1999, the Falun Dafa Information Center is a New York-based organization that documents the rights violations of adherents of Falun Gong (or "Falun Dafa") taking place in the People's Republic of China. In July of 1999 China's autocratic Communist Party launched an unlawful campaign of arrests, violence, and propaganda with the intent of "eradicating" the apolitical practice; it is believed certain leaders feared the influence of the practice's 100 million adherents. The campaign has since grown in violence and scope, with millions having been detained or sent to forced labor camps. The Center has verified details of over 3,000 deaths and over 63,000 cases of torture in custody (reports / sources). Falun Gong is a traditional-style Buddhist "qigong" practice, with roots in the Chinese heritage of cultivating the mind/body for health and spiritual growth.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 917-757-9780, Levi Browde 646-415-0998, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, or Christina Chai 917-386-5068. Email: contact@faluninfo.net, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/