72-Year-Old Lady Practitioner from Beipiao City Tragically Tortured to Death (Photo)

Ms. Sun Xueyan, who was 72 years old,lived a peaceful and law-abiding life in Beipiao City, Liaoning Province. Because Ms. Sun distributed Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials, she had been detained several times by the Beipiao Detention Centre and Guanshan Police Station in Beipiao City. At one time, she was denied sleep for six consecutive days. In November 2002, Sun Xueyan was once again imprisoned in the Beipiao Detention Centre. She went on hunger strike to protest the persecution. Later, her health was in desperate condition and she was set free. However it too late to save her. After she returned home, her fever did not subside, and she passed away on January 23, 2003.

Ms. Sun Xueyan obtained Falun Dafa in 1995 and since then, all of her illnesses were cured and she became healthy and energetic. Unfortunately, the Jiang regime started persecuting Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Millions of people in China who followed Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance faced the inhuman persecution, and even this 72-year-old lady could not escape from it.

On June 7, 2000, Ms. Sun heard that a couple had been set free from a labour camp and then went to visit them. Seven or eight police officers suddenly broke into the couple's home and abducted the three of them, without good reason, at the same time. In the evening, Ms. Sun was released, but the couple was sentenced to one year of forced labour and sent back to the labour camp again.

On the morning of January 30, 2002, Ms. Sun went out to distribute Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials. She was abducted by three vicious people who were waiting to seize Dafa practitioners. They dragged and pushed her and sent her to the police station. The director of the police station, wearing leather shoes, violently kicked her seven times. As a result, Ms. Sun's legs were covered with bruises. Afterwards, the director splashed a mug of cold tea on her, and immediately, the chief of the local "610" Office [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.] threw a mug of cold water on her. Her face and body were soaking wet. Because Sun Xueyan did not tell the police her name, the police officers forcibly put her on the street and compelled her to stand at the intersection, in the winter, with the cold wind chilling her to the bone. By the side of Ms. Sun, the police officers put a big placard reading, "Person who pasted Falun Gong posters" and encouraged passersby to identify her. They also brought in some TV reporters to videotape her and broadcast this footage many times. Local newspapers also published news of her arrest. The police ransacked her home and took away many Dafa truth-clarifying materials and some equipment worth 20,000 - 30,000 Yuan [In China, an average urban worker's monthly salary is about 500 Yuan]. In the evening, Ms. Sun was sent to the Public Security Bureau and interrogated. The police officers asked her whether she would still practise Falun Gong. She replied that she would practise Falun Gong to the end of her life. She did not say anything other than that. The police continuously interrogated her for six days and six nights without allowing her to sleep. They tried to coerce her to disclose the source of those materials and the equipment. They made her sit on a sofa day and night and took turns watching her. During the night, four policemen took turns watching her. Whenever she closed her eyes, they would wake her up and did not allow her to shut her eyes 24 hours a day. She was not given any food or water. On the sixth day, Ms. Sun was sent to another office and interrogated again. The vicious police did not get the information they wanted, so in the end, they detained Ms. Sun in the detention centre.

On the afternoon of the eighth day of Ms. Sun's hunger strike, the police feared being held accountable if she died in the detention centre, and then told her family to take her home. After Ms. Sun returned home, she learned that on the day when she was abducted, her daughter-in-law and granddaughter had gone to the police station to visit her and were interrogated for quite a while. They were asked where the materials and equipment came from. Ms. Sun's daughter-in-law said that she did not know. The police officers then slammed the table with anger and forcibly asked Ms. Sun's 13-year-old granddaughter: "If you don't tell me, your grandma will not be released and your mother will not go home before the New Year. How could you live by yourself?" The girl was so scared that she cried loudly. Only three days after Sun Xueyan returned home, when she had still not recovered and was lying in bed unable to rise, at 1:30 a.m., four police officers forcefully knocked on her door, waking up Ms. Sun's neighbours. They broke into Ms. Sun's home and searched everywhere for a long time. Just after the Chinese Lunar New Year, a police van showed up every day outside her apartment to watch her for two weeks. After the plain-clothes police withdrew, police officers from the local police station went to the market to find Ms. Sun's daughter-in-law, who ran her business there and asked: "Where did your mother-in-law go last night?" Ms. Sun's daughter-in-law said: "She is not even able to rise from bed, where could she go?" Later, the police officers went to her home, saw her lying in bed and then searched her pillow. They did not find any Dafa books and left. Since then, the police often went to Sun Xueyan's home to harass her. They held handcuffs in their hands, and each time they went to her home, they ransacked it. They kept harassing her this way and finally stopped coming after a month.

At around 5 p.m. on July 17, 2002, four or five policemen once again broke into Sun Xueyan's home, forcibly pushed her into a police van and sent her to the detention centre. Ms. Sun went on hunger strike to oppose the persecution. During her hunger strike, she passed out. Later, she ate something, but her health became worse. Her fever would not go away and her condition became serious. The police reported this to their superiors but received the reply that during the 16th Party Congress, practitioners could not be released. Only after November 18 could practitioners be set free. On November 13, Ms. Sun became critically ill. Only at this point did the Mayor of Beipiao City agree to release her.

After her family members took her home, Sun Xueyan continued to run a fever and was unable to eat and unable to relieve herself on her own. On January 23, 2003, Sun Xueyan passed away. In this way, Jiang's tyranny took away the life of an elderly lady in her seventies. People who live in China are being persecuted simply because they believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and want to be good people. Their families are torn apart and their most fundament right to freedom of belief and the right to live are taken away. We hope all people with a sense of justice will take action and work together to stop this persecution in China.

Corresponding phone numbers:

Beipiao Detention Centre: Phone: (86)- 421-5822401
Guanshan Police Station: Phone: (86)- 421-5881978

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/3/26/47187.html