to Escape Responsibility for Their Crimes
LONDON (EFGIC) – The details of four more Falun Gong deaths have been confirmed by sources in China. All four of these practitioners were sentenced to forced labour camps in attempts to have them renounce their practice of Falun Gong. In each case, the practitioners refused to recant their beliefs. As a result, they were brutally tortured to the edge of death. Three of them were released to die quietly at home as officials attempted to shirk responsibility for the deaths they have caused.
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- Ms. Liu Yuhong, a high school teacher in her thirties, from Heilongjiang Province
- Ms. Tan Yingchun, a 46-year-old biology teacher from Xining City, Qinghia Province
- Mr. Ding Feng, a 29-year-old man from Chengdu City, Sichuan Province
- Mr. Chen Yongzhe, tortured brutally in Jilin Province after asking guards to have mercy for others they were torturing
School Teacher Ms. Liu Yuhong Dies as a Result of Police Persecution
Ms. Liu Yuhong, a schoolteacher in her thirties at Nanshan No.2 High School in Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province, endured relentless persecution in her workplace. She refused school officials’ repeated attempts to force her to give up her belief in Falun Gong, so the officials removed her from her job.
On the evening of April 16, 2002, Gongnong Police searched Ms. Liu Yuhong’s home in a mass roundup of Falun Gong practitioners. Three practitioners, Ms. Liu Yuhong, her older brother Mr. Liu Zhenchang, and Zhang Hua were all taken away. A week later, Ms. Liu Yuhong’s sister Liu Yixia was also picked up as the mass arrest campaign continued.
Liu Zhenchang was sentenced to ten years in prison. The others were sent to forced-labour camps. Ms. Liu Yuhong immediately began a hunger strike in protest. When given a medical examination due to her declining health, it was determined that she had a heart condition. Fearing her death, the labour camp authorities released Ms. Liu Yuhong in May 2002.
The police continued to harass Ms.Liu and her family, and she passed away from the heart condition developed while in the forced-labour camp on August 20, 2002.
Persecution at Qinghai Province’s Women’s Labour Camp Kills Ms. Tan Yingchun
Ms. Tan Yingchun (46) was a biology teacher at Kunlun Middle School in Xining City, Qinghai Province. In 2000, she was arrested and served a year in the Duoba Women’s Labour Camp, in Qinghai Province.
In the spring of 2001, Ms. Tan Yingchun traveled to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. She was arrested and held in a Tianjin City detention centre, where she endured harsh treatment. In attempts to coerce her to reveal her name, Liu Yingchun was stripped naked and tied to a metal bed (also known as a “death bed”) while police heaped ice onto her body and left it there to melt.
After months in custody in Tianjin, Ms. Tan Yingchun was sentenced to three years of forced labour in the Xiashilipu Women’s Labour Camp in her hometown of Xining City, Qinghai Province.
She was locked up in a cell with over 30 collabourators (so-called “reformed” practitioners) in attempts to brainwash her and force her to renounce her practice of Falun Gong. She staunchly refused to be brainwashed, so her captors began to torture her brutally. In December 2002, Ms. Tan Yingchun died as a result.
In order to cover up their crimes, the police claimed that Ms. Tan Yingchun had committed suicide, and they fabricated a series of lies to back up their story. They also attempted to force other practitioners being held captive in the labour camp to sing to Ms. Tan’s dead corpse, however, the practitioners firmly refused. To deceive the public, the Kunlun Middle School (where Ms. Tan had been employed) held a funeral for Ms. Tan, claiming that she had died from natural causes.
Intense Torture Leads to a Young Man’s Death
Mr. Ding Feng (29) from Wujin Town, Chengdu City, went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in November of 2001. For his peaceful appeal, Mr. Ding Feng was sentenced to two years of forced labour in Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Mianyang City.
Seeing Ding Feng’s health deteriorate from the torture inflicted on him, camp officials released him for medical reasons. Fortunately Mr. Feng’s health recovered, however in December 2002, Xinjin County policeman Zhang Lin sought Mr. Ding Feng out. To avoid arrest, Mr. Feng was forced to flee his home.
In January 2003, Mr. Ding Feng was again arrested and sent back to Xinhua Forced Labour Camp. The police again tortured Ding Feng to the edge of death. Realizing the rapid deterioration of Ding Feng’s health that they had caused, the police released him in February 2003. Ding Feng died two days later in his home.
Police in Huanxiling Labour Camp in Jilin Province Murder Practitioner Chen Yongzhe
Sources in China confirm that Mr. Chen Yongzhe’s incarceration at Jilin Province’s Huanxiling Forced Labour Camp began March 8, 2001 with the guards stealing all blankets from the bed, leaving him with only bare wooden boards to sleep on in the late winter chill.
On April 27, 2001, Captain Xu Xuequan, and guards Wang, Cui, and Pan began to torture the practitioners in the camp. Cries were heard echoing from the torture room. The guards began to torture Mr. Chen Yongzhe that evening. As a result, Mr. Yongzhe’s face was black and blue, his mouth and chin badly swollen. He could not even wash his face. He had endured two and a half hours of torture.
Two days later, Chen Yongzhe went to ask the guards in the torture room to stop torturing practitioners. The guards became enraged and tied Mr. Yongzhe to the bed. Five guards tortured Chen Yongzhe, each with an electric baton, for three hours. Chen Yongzhe’s body was burned in many places, his neck covered in blisters. Chen Yongzhe’s health took a serious turn for the worse at this point.
On June 12, 2001 the guards at Huanxiling Labour Camp took Chen Yongzhe for a medical examination. Cheng Yongzhe was found to have a serious case of pulmonary tuberculosis. Seeing that Mr. Yongzhe was near death, they released him for “medical treatment”.
Chen Yongzhe never recovered from the mistreatment he received in the camp. He died in his home on May 14th 2002. He was 34 years old.
The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 610 deaths (reports / sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll is well over 1,600, while expert sources estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps, typically without trial.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE EUROPEAN FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE
Peter Jauhal 44 (0) 7739 172 452
Email: [email protected]
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