Forty-Two Additional Persecution-Related Deaths Confirmed in October 2004

Non-governmental channels and information published on Clearharmony have confirmed that another 42 Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of the persecution in China. As of October 31st, 2004, the confirmed death toll of practitioners has reached 1,101 since July 20th, 1999, when Jiang Zemin's political group began its blatant persecution of Falun Gong.

The fact that an additional 42 practitioners have died as a result of the persecution was confirmed in October. Thirty of them died in 2004, four in October alone.

These 42 confirmed cases of practitioners being persecuted to death represent 19 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities: 6 cases in Jilin Province; 5 cases in Hebei Province; 4 cases in Heilongjiang Province; 3 cases in Liaoning Province; 3 cases in Sichuan Province; 3 cases in Hubei Province; 3 cases in Chongqing; 2 cases in Tianjin; 2 cases in Shaanxi Province; 2 cases in Henan Province; and one death happened in each of the following locations: Beijing, Anhui Province, Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province, Gansu Province, Shanxi Province, Ningxia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

These 42 lethal persecution incidents have one thing in common: the practitioners were subjected to both physical and mental torture. These practitioners suffered various forms of merciless beatings, other forms of torture, "reforming" brainwashing, and financial extortion. They were sent to detention centres, forced labour camps, prisons, mental hospitals, and brainwashing classes. They experienced outrages at local police stations and the "610 Office's" cruel persecution that conspired to compel them to give up their belief in "Zhen-Shan-Ren."

Many persecution cases were particularly brutal. For instance, practitioner Mr. Zhou Qingtian from Xi'an City in Shaanxi Province had metal needles embedded in all ten fingers, which seriously damaged his fingers. Practitioner Mr. Cui Fengqi, from a gas factory with the Tangshan Iron and Steel Company, was abducted many times and paraded in the streets for public display. The police burned Tonghua City railroad employee Mr. Song Wenhua from Jilin Province with a lit cigarette and cruelly beat him after stripping him naked. Practitioner Mr. Ma Jijun from Changji City, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, was not only abducted and forced into a brainwashing class by the local "610 Office" perpetrators, but was also sent to a mental hospital where damaging treatment caused oedema in his entire body. He was in torment until he died.

Twenty-four women in these 42 lethal persecution cases accounted for 57% of the total; 23 people were over 50 years old and accounted for 55%. Thirty people died as a result of the persecution in 2004, and four died in late October 2004. The oldest was 68-year-old Ms. Mo Jiaying from Guilin, Guangxi Province; the youngest was 31-year-old high school teacher Mr. Xiao Guobing from the Baihe Forestry Bureau, Antu County, Jilin Province.

After escaping from the forced labour camp, Chen Lijun lost her life as a consequence of the persecution

40-year-old practitioner Ms. Chen Lijun from Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, was detained twice at the Shibalihe Forced Labour Camp in Zhengzhou City. During her detention at the forced labour camp Ms. Chen suffered from all kinds of torture, including "Tying the Ropes" (1). The prison guards and criminals punched her chest, abdomen and private parts. They stuffed human excrement, feminine napkins and dirty rags into her mouth. On many occasions, team leaders Zhou Xiaohong and Ren Yuanfang incited drug addicts to torture Ms. Chen Lijun.

Ms. Chen Lijun, who died on September 29th, 2004 as a result of the persecution

During her second term of detention at the forced labour camp, three drug addicts demanded that Ms. Chen meet with them in a room on the second floor of a building at the Shibalihe Forced Labour Camp. They slapped Ms. Chen's face and punched and kicked her chest and back. As a result Ms. Chen developed a high fever that lasted for a month. Ms. Chen asked to see a doctor. The check-up showed that she had tuberculosis. Team leader Ren Yuanfang forced Ms. Chen Lijun to go to her home as well as to another practitioner's home. The prison guards extorted several thousand yuan for medical expenses from each of the two families. On September 7nd, 2004, Ms. Chen Lijun managed to escape from the hospital.

After Ms. Chen Lijun's escape, the Shibalihe Forced Labour Camp and other related personnel immediately began to quietly search for her. They wanted to recapture her since they were very much afraid that their evil deeds would be exposed. Because Ms. Chen's relatives were intimidated, they dared not take her in. She had to go to the homes of practitioners who had known her in the past.

Ms. Chen Lijun used to be 1.65 meters (about 5 ft 4 in) tall with a fair complexion. After her escape from the forced labour camp, her complexion was waxy yellow, her eyes were sunk deep into their sockets, and she suffered from a distended abdomen. She was skin and bones, her arms thinner than even a child's. She needed support just to walk. She was extremely weak and her memory was very poor. She seemed to be in a stupor and was in constant fear. Whenever she saw strangers she would become uneasy. Ms. Chen Lijun was afraid that she might be taken back to the camp, so she dared not remain in any one practitioner's home for too long and dared not publish the suffering she had experienced at the forced labour camp on the Internet. She feared even worse persecution and greater suffering. Ms. Chen died around 4 pm on September 29th, 2004

After she passed away the Zhongyuan Police Substation of Zhengzhou City, the former "610 Office," and the Shibalihe Forced Labour Camp attempted to escape responsibility for Chen's death. They would not admit to the practitioners who had taken care of her or who had contact with her that they had anything to do with her death. These perpetrators of the persecution also maintained surveillance on some of the practitioners who were aware of the incident.

Li Chunwen suffered and died from brutal persecution

Mr. Li Chunwen, sixty-one years of age, was from Wujiazhuang Village, Xiulin Town, Jingyang County, Hebei Province. He suffered years of cruel and inhuman persecution because of his steadfast belief in Falun Dafa and died on June 10th, 2004.

After July 20th, 1999, Mr. Li and a few other practitioners were arrested, interrogated, threatened, and detained. Later on the police released them, but only after they paid an illegal fine of 200 yuan. On February 9th, 2000, Li Chunwen was arrested again by Xiulin Town Police Station, because he refused to give up practising Falun Gong. When it was extremely cold in winter, they handcuffed him in a cold room or outside, with just one thin layer of clothing.

Li Chunwen still refused to give up practising Falun Gong despite this brutal persecution. Ten days later, the policemen secretly drove him to an abandoned office at The Sixth Pottery Factory to persecute him more cruelly.

The policemen stood around Li Chunwen. The officer on the left was holding a stick to beat him, while the one on the right was holding an electric baton to shock him. The two officers at the back and front were holding a thin rope that was tied around him and pulled him in opposite directions, forcing Li Chunwen to kneel down. Then these two policemen trampled his calves with their full force (Note: This torture method is called "Pulling on Strings.") Six young men were torturing one older man. They placed a thin rope under his arms, and while two of them used all their strength to pull him up, the other two stood on his calves. Such pulling upward while pressing down caused the thin rope to quickly cut into the flesh under his arms, causing instant bleeding. Li Chunwen had difficulty breathing and was sweating heavily after five minutes of the first round of being "strung." He stopped breathing after ten minutes. The policemen released him when they saw that he was about to die and forced him to drink some water. If he refused to drink, they would use the police batons to beat him and the electric baton to shock him. Then they tortured him again for a second and third round, until the policemen became too exhausted to continue.

After this torture, Li Chunwen's body was covered with blood and his mouth was bleeding because he had bitten his lips from the pain. His legs were so weak that he could not stand. When one policeman saw this, he said, "How cruel they are (referring to the head and deputy head)! They have no human feelings!"

While the policemen were torturing practitioners, they extorted money from them. The biggest amount was up to 10,000 yuan and the smallest amount was 1,000 yuan. If the practitioners paid the money, the policemen would release them. Otherwise, the police would continue to detain them in the confinement room. Such inhuman persecution lasted until February 23rd. The policemen sent Li Chunwen and others to Xiantai for forced brainwashing. At Xiantai, Li Zhongyong, deputy chief of the county police department, was in charge. The court, the Judicial Bureau, and each town police station sent one person to monitor the practitioners. The practitioners were forced to do heavy manual work from morning to late at night. The Xuilin Town authorities then took them home and detained them in metal cages for twenty days. The metal cages were normally used for detaining violent prisoners. There was urine and excrement in the cages. There was no place to sleep and the practitioners were not fed properly. The authorities forced the practitioners' family members to pay a 3,000-yuan fine before they would release them. After being tortured like this for fifty-one days, Li Chunwen, once healthy and strong, turned thin and sallow and was extremely weak.

After Li Chunwen returned home, the county police department, the town government, and the local police station came to his home to harass him once every few days at all times of the day and night. It was the continuous abductions and abuse that severely damaged the health of Li Chunwen and his wife.

The relentless and cruel torture so severely damaged Li Chuwen's health that he became pitifully weak and thin and would fall down frequently. He could not breathe properly, and his internal organs were constantly in pain. He could not eat, drink or sleep properly. In this condition, he lived until June 10th, 2004. On that day, Li Chunwen fell down unconscious and died.

Qin Jinxiu began a new life after practising Dafa, yet she was persecuted to a tragic death for telling the truth

Practitioner Ms. Qin Jinxiu died in her home on February 23rd, 2004, after undergoing torture multiple times.

Ms. Qin Jinxiu was 60 years old, a retired employee of the Fifteenth Middle School of Wuhan City's Steel Company. She lived at 65-10, 6th Street, Baiyushan, Qingshan District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province.

Ms. Qin Jinxiu, passed away at home on February 23rd, 2004

In the second half of 1998, Qin Jinxiu was on the verge of death due to diabetes. Family members carried her on their backs to the Baiyushan group practise site to learn the Falun Gong exercises. In less than two months, her diabetes was cured. The persecution started soon after, but she never wavered in her steadfast faith in Falun Dafa despite the fact that she had only just begun practising. She distributed truth-clarification materials in the Baishan region when the police were monitoring her, and she was arrested.

On March 1st, 2000, Qin Jinxiu went to Beijing to validate the Fa and was detained by police in Beijing. She was sent back to Wuhan after being detained in Beijing for several days. The "610 Office" detained her in the Qingshan Police Station and detention centre, where she was tortured in many ways. She was released after 29 days and thereafter monitored closely by the Neighbourhood Office workers. She was forced to report to the Neighbourhood Office every morning and lost her personal freedom.

Over the past five years of the persecution, police, neighbourhood officers of Baiyushan Street, and security guards often came to her house to ransack her place, harass her, and arrest her. In January 2003, she was reported while passing out truth-clarifying materials and was arrested at her house. Police locked her in a cage designed for torture.

In the cold of winter, the police forced her to stand inside a metal cage barefoot and did not allow her to eat, drink, sleep or sit. They did not even allow her to use the toilet. Four people (from the police station or "610 Office") took turns interrogating her 24 hours a day.

Ms. Qin clarified the truth about Falun Gong to all of them and saw through their plot to identify practitioners using fingerprints on the truth-clarification materials. From standing for a long time inside the metal cage barefoot, her body was swollen, and her legs and hands could not function normally. The police were afraid that she might lose her life, so they sent her home. She could not take care of herself when she returned home, and she had become extremely emaciated. She died at home on February 23, 2004

"We also won't release him as long as he is still alive." Song Wenhua dies from torture and neglect

Practitioner Mr. Song Wenhua, 56, was a resident of Tonghua City, Jilin Province. Mr. Song Wenhua was an employee of the Tonghua City railroad transportation system. In October 2004, Song Wenhua was tortured to death at Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City, Jilin Province.

In 2003, when Song Wenhua was clarifying the truth about Falun Gong in Hulutao Township, Tonghua County (a suburb of Tonghua City), employees of the town government arrested him. He was sentenced to two years of forced labour. Mr. Song was sent to Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp. According to a reliable source, his health started to deteriorate in March 2004. Three or four medical examinations revealed that Mr. Song had come down with tuberculosis and some other diseases. More seriously, fluid had accumulated in his body, filling 80% of one lung.

This was a life-threatening condition, and Mr. Song could die any minute. Li Fei, a medical doctor who works for the labour camp, said, "If Song dies, the labour camp will not assume responsibility." Song Wenhua's family members asked the labour camp to release him for medical treatment. The labour camp refused, stating that they lacked authority to release him. The family members then petitioned those with the purported authority. They said it was the labour camp's problem. The authorities passed the buck back and forth.

Eventually, the forced labour camp authorities told the family members that visitations were not permitted. He was not even given nutritious food. Some official from the labour camp bellowed, "We don't take care of the old and sick. We also won't release him as long as he is still alive. If he is dying, we will carry him outside the labour camp's gate at the last minute so he can die outside. Then his death will not be counted as 'tortured to death by the labour camp.'" Although Son Wenhua suffered from life threatening diseases, resulting in extreme weakness, he was denied medical care, medication and nutritious food. In addition, those in charge still forced him to do hard physical labour daily.

For more than 10 days, Song Wenhua was feverish, with a temperature above 39 degrees C (102.2 F). He was unable to take any sustenance for about five days. His eyesight became blurred and his hearing deteriorated. The forced labour camp personnel did not report Mr. Song's situation to their supervisors, so he did not receive the necessary medical treatment in time.

By the time his family members were allowed to visit him, Mr. Song was unable to take care of himself, and he had become emaciated. On October 8th, 2004, after about 18 months of torture, the labour camp released him. By that time, his condition was irreversible. No medical treatment could save his life. On the ninth day after Song Wenhua returned home (October 17th, 2004), he died having suffered great injustice.