Ms. Kong Fanrong Tortured to Death in 2003, Her Family Still Suffering Persecution

Ms. Kong Fanrong, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Shulan City, Jilin Province, and her family have been suffering persecution from since 1999. On May 11th 2003, Kong Fanrong died due to torture she received in detention. Her husband, Bian Hongxiang, was arrested in March 2005. By the time he returned home, he was nearly dead from torture. Their daughter, Bian Lingyun, was arrested at the end of July.

Ms. Kong Fanrong

On January 14th 2003, Kong Fanrong, who was working out of town at the time, was arrested in Changchun City by police. When Huang Huichen took 4,000 yuan (1) from Kong Fanrong, he hid behind a cardboard box and counted the money. (Often when police officers search a practitioner and find money, they keep it. When the police find valuables or cash in a practitioner's home, they frequently come up with excuses to confiscate these possessions and keep the items themselves.)

After Kong Fanrong was brought to the An Qing Police Station, the police yanked her by the hair and slammed her head against a wall. They tortured her by kicking her repeatedly in the lower torso with their heavy boots, stomping on her toes, shoving toothpicks under her fingernails, forcing her to sit on a tiger bench, and poking her eyes with their fingers, all the while cursing her with vile profanities.

Kong Fanrong was transferred to the Shulan City Detention Centre from the An Qing Road Police Station, where the torture continued. She died on May 11th 2003 due to torture by the officers of the An Qing Police Station and the Shulan City Detention Centre.

After receiving the news of her death, her son brought a camera with him to collect photographic evidence of the torture his mother had been subjected to. Looking at her body, he couldn't believe what he saw. There were bruises all over his mother's body, and too many wounds to count. He could barely recognise her. When he took a picture of his mother, several police officers came in and snatched his camera, saying, "If these pictures are publicised, you will be condemned as a political criminal and find yourself in a worse position than your mother was in."

The government not only failed to investigate the murder, but forced Kong Fanrong's family to sign papers authorising the cremation of the body in order to eliminate the evidence of the crime. The superintendent of the Nancheng Police Station in Shulan City and Li Jiazhe, the Assistant Section Chief of the Political and Security Section at the station, spoke to Kong Fanrong's son alone and asked him, "Do you want some money?"

He said, "I won't take a penny. I want to expose the murderer who killed my mother, and I want him to pay for it with his life."

As they often do when faced with this situation, the police employed the method of holding someone hostage in order to compel the family to authorise cremation. The police arrested more than ten practitioners and told them, "We will release you today if Kong Fanrong is cremated today. We will release you tomorrow if she is cremated tomorrow. If she isn't cremated within ten days, we will never release you."

On May 19th the leaders from the Shulan 610 Office (2) and the police station came calling on the three remaining members of Kong Fanrong's immediate family and tried to coerce them into signing the paperwork for the cremation. They said, "We will cremate her today whether you sign the paper or not. If you refuse to sign, we will arrest you all and order the cremation ourselves." The three held each other in their arms and cried.

Even their lawyer told them, "There is no one to appeal to. Vice Premier Li Lanqing has control of this case." In this way, the authorities got their way and disposed of the evidence of their crimes.

In 2004 a practitioner surnamed Cao was arrested. The police force-fed him with hot pepper juice and mustard oil while interrogating him as to the whereabouts of other practitioners. Mr. Cao said nothing. The police roared at him, "You'd better talk! Didn't we kill Kong Fanrong even though she was very steadfast? Didn't she die for nothing? If you don't talk, you'll share Kong Fanrong's fate!"

On March 3rd 2005, nine police officers arrested Kong Fanrong's husband, Bian Hongxiang, at the Changchun Store and was tortured until his life hung by a thread. When the police realised that he was on the brink of death, they sent for his daughter to take him home. While Mr. Bian was recovering, the perpetrators continued to go to the family's home to harass them.

On the afternoon of July 21st after 4 o'clock, Yan Jianhua, superintendent of the Huan Cheng Police Station in Shulan City, raided the home with several officers and took away Kong Fanrong's daughter, Bian Lingyun. Her 8-year-old child was terrified and crying loudly. Bian Lingyun's 93-year-old grandmother (who can't take care of herself and is reliant on Bian Lingyun) was also terrified and trembling, and couldn't say a word. A formerly happy family has been violently persecuted, resulting in the death of one member and separation of the rest.

Since 1999, there have been 11 practitioners who have died from persecution in Shulan City. The experiences of Kong Fanrong's family clearly illustrates the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party.

Note:

(1) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

(2) "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/8/2/107551.html