Edmonton Sun (Canada): "We Want to Drive You Insane"

Falun Gong practitioner Wenyu (Winston) Liu says the mental torture he was forced to endure in a Beijing prison was much worse than the daily beatings and electrical shocks.

"The police told me, ‘We want to drive you insane," recalled the 35-year-old University of Calgary PhD student, who spent nearly three years in a Chinese jail for distributing leaflets detailing the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Liu, imprisoned in 2001, was released after reluctantly signing documents denouncing Falun Gong, a quasi-religious movement that was banned in China in 1999.

But his 34-year-old wife, Yue Yao, remains in a women’s prison in Beijing, where she is serving a 12-year sentence.

Liu said he has lost contact with his wife, as prison officials don’t allow him to write or call her.

And Liu, who’s in the process of applying for refugee status, worries that he may never see his wife again.

An Edmonton group of Falun Gong practitioners is urging the Canadian government to get involved and initiate rescue efforts.

Chi Yeh, a 50-something Edmonton accountant, is hopeful the group can raise enough public awareness to effect change.

"All the people should be concerned about it and be aware and lend a hand to help rescue his wife," Yeh said. "When the voice is strong, our government can exert pressure."

Yeh said the group is also concerned that Chinese officials will execute Yao and harvest her vital organs for sale in China’s illicit organ harvesting and transplant tourism industry.

"She could be a target," he added. "Anybody could be a target when they’re in that situation."

Last month, former Edmonton MP David Kilgour told the Sun that an unknown number of wealthy Albertans have traveled to China to buy kidneys and livers harvested from executed devotees of the outlawed Falun Gong movement.

Kilgour said he and immigration lawyer David Matas have gathered overwhelming evidence that Chinese officials are killing Falun Gong practitioners and harvesting their organs for transplant for as much as $70,000 per organ.

Source http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2007/02/25/3665519.html

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