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Persecution of Practitioners in City of Shouguang, Shandong Province

February 17, 2001 |  

Since Masanjia Labor Camp started to apply physical torture, hallucinatory drugs and deceptive methods to "transform" Falun Dafa practitioners, government authorities in the Weifang region of Shandong Province and all the surrounding counties and cities have followed Masanjia's practice. The government of Shouguang City has been holding so-called "reform-through-education classes" for practitioners in an attempt to force them to give up their Falun Dafa practice using carrot-and-stick tactics. They do not allow practitioners to visit their homes. They have put all practitioners under surveillance, and physically and mentally abuse and torture them, which constitutes a severe violation of these practitioners' human right and personal freedom. Moreover, the police feed the practitioners with rumors, slander and defamatory statements about Falun Dafa to create doubts in them. Police put on a "humane" face after administering a beating, and tell the practitioners that it is all for practitioners' good, while accusing the practitioners of not being considerate of others. They also punish practitioners' family members and relatives for being related to them, which is an open violation of Chinese law and total disregard of human decency.

Since 2000, the Public Security Bureau of Shouguang City and other cities and townships nearby have coerced the practitioners to attend the "reform-through-education class," where they detained over 1,000 practitioners indefinitely, beat one practitioner to death, sentenced 10 to jail terms or to labor camps, and delivered 15 to mental hospitals. They also imposed large fines on over 3000 practitioners and fired them from their official positions. Almost every practitioner has received brutal beatings from the police, and other government and party officials. Not only have the practitioners lost their basic rights and personal freedom, their families and relatives are also subject to punishment in order to deter practitioners' further practice and activities. Furthermore, the authorities from the city require the neighbors of the practitioners to sign a guarantee that the practitioners will not continue practicing Falun Gong.

The authorities have adopted numerous means of torture against the practitioners, including beating with rubber batons or bamboo sticks, lashing them with belts, inflicting electric shocks with electric batons, stepping on beer bottles and rolling the bottles on their shingles. Practitioners have been stabbed with bamboo toothpicks, burned with fire and cigarettes, denied food, drink and sleep for several days, forced to stand on the icy ground with bare feet or out in the summer sun all day; they have been stuffed into gunnysacks and been beaten and kicked. The government officials from Shouguang Township spare no effort to persecute the practitioners. They arrest and detain practitioners, search their houses and confiscate their property. The persecutors impose on the practitioners heavy fines, and they use the fines to issue themselves bonuses, take tours, or eat and drink at restaurants. Ma Jintao, the secretary of the township party committee, along with two other officials, sexually torture and humiliate female practitioners. The township often assembles several hooligans and allows them to drive a big truck around the town to arrest practitioners and search their homes.

The township government officials savagely beat Han Lianfeng, a female practitioner, because she went to Beijing to appeal in June. They threw her on the floor, stepped on her and pulled her hair so that she could not get up. Then, they put a wine bottle on her shingles, stepped on the bottle to roll it along the shingles. They also applied electric shocks with a baton until she passed out. Her buttock was swollen with a blister of 20 cm in diameter resulting from the beating.

Liu Fengxiang, also a female practitioner, was arrested by a group of hooligans hired by the township government. They ordered her to curse Dafa and Master Li and she refused. The hooligans then beat her with batons. They cuffed her and kicked her until she fainted. Her head, hands and waist suffered numerous injuries. One of her kidneys was dislocated.

The practitioners from Gucheng Township had cuts and bruises all over their bodies. Some passed out several times during the beatings. The police have searched their homes and confiscated their property and money. Many families have lost almost all of their possessions. Practitioners' family members and relatives have to pool money to bail them out for fear that they might be killed by the severe beatings.

Zhao Xiushun and Li Kongfa, along with other 20 practitioners from Gucheng, biked to Beijing to appeal to the government and tell the truth about Falun Dafa. They were intercepted by police in Haixing Township near Tianjin City before reaching Beijing. All the practitioners, including practitioners over 70 years old and teenagers, were sent back to Gucheng where they were detained for 50 days and tortured by the local police. The Gucheng police conned over 7000 yuan, (Chinese dollars, the monthly salary of an averaged worker in cities of China is about 500 yuan) from the families of Li Hongze, Guo Changting and Li Kongfa. Wang Junwen, Secretary of the township Communist Party committee, undertook the questioning himself, trying to find out where the practitioners hid their money and saving account books. Some families were fined 30,000 yuan (about US$3,700), some more than 70,000 yuan. The town officials used the money for their bonuses and to reimburse themselves for their tour expenses.

Jitai Township has invented all sorts of means to torture Dafa practitioners: they connect telephone cords to practitioners and crank the old style telephones to generate the electricity to shock practitioners.

Luocheng, Dongfu and other townships are also extremely vicious in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners.

We, on behalf of all the practitioners, warn all the Falun Dafa persecutors that your violence, or deceptions, are destroying the conscience and benevolent nature of the people, and making China into a morally corrupt country. The evil can never defeat the good, which is the unchangeable law of the universe.

The criminals of Shouguang City who beat Li Huixi to death are:

Wang Shenpeng, the Head of the Hou Township, and

Wang Baoguang, the Director of Police Precinct.

(Reported by Falun Dafa practitioners in China on January 23, 2001)