LONDON (EFGIC) – Reports of the deaths of fourteen Falun Gong practitioners have recently been confirmed. Many of these cases repeat a chilling pattern: physical and psychological torture inflicted by corrupt police, followed by “release” of the practitioners from custody just days or even hours before they die from their injuries as the police attempt to shirk responsibility for the deaths.
“The Chinese regime’s current cover-up of the SARS outbreak is sadly an indicator of a much larger problem,” comments European Falun Gong Information Centre spokesman Mr Peter Jauhal. “Since 1999, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the U.S. government and many other reputable sources have documented hundreds of deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in China from torture and other abuse, yet to this day, the Chinese regime maintains that not a single Falun Gong practitioner has died in custody from police torture or abuse.”
Mr. Jauhal concludes, “In fact, information on Falun Gong deaths is considered a ‘state secret’ and extremely difficult to verify, so while the current total of confirmed Falun Gong deaths now stands at 654, the true number is likely many times higher.”
Sources in China have recently confirmed the following deaths of Falun Gong practitioners:
- Mr. Chen Xiangrui, a healthy 20 year old, dies less than 5 hours after his arrest
- Mr. Zhang Changming, 50, badly beaten by police, dies upon arrival at home after “release”
- Ms. Liu Jinling, 37, dies after failing to recover from torture-inflicted wounds
- Ms. Lu Qinghua, 40, a long-time Party official, dies from force-feeding during a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention
- Mr. Yuan Shengqian, 46, dies after release from brutal internment in a forced labour camp
- Mr. Zhao Yingqi, 59, is beaten to death by “610 Office” thugs in Tangshan
- Mrs. Zhao Shuhong, 29, dies while escaping police staking out her home in Harbin
- Ms. Liu Yuqing, 40, dies from the brutalities she suffered at the hands of police
- Ms. Xue Xia, 33, beaten to the edge of death in a forced labour camp, then dies shortly after “release”
- Ms. Han Chunyuan, drugged, beaten, tortured, and dies in police custody in Jilin Province
- Mr. Fu Zhiyu, and an unidentified Falun Gong practitioner tortured to death in Fuyu County Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province
- Mr. Li Xiuren dies less than 10 days after his release from brutal beatings during detention
- Mr. Wei Shujiang from Taiping, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, dies in police custody
Police Raid Home, Man Dies Less Than Five Hours Later
Mr. Chen Xiangrui was raided by police from Hengyang Public Security Bureau in his home on March 11th, 2003 at approximately 9:00pm. He was interrogated and tortured to death by 2:00am, less than five hours from the time of his arrest. The following day police kidnapped Chen’s parents, sister and brother-in-law and took them to Jingyuan Hotel in Hengyang City, in an attempt to force them to sign a release authorizing Chen’s cremation. Refusing to cooperate, all four family members were held for two days while two truckloads of armed police escorted Chen’s body to a crematorium. The perpetrators in this case held 3 days of non-stop meetings to corroborate their statements in this case. The result: A public statement claiming that Chen had died jumping from the fifth floor of the City Public Security Building at 8:45 am on March 12th.
Perpetrators: State Security Detachment of Hengyang City, Captain Lei Zhenzhong
Man Tortured to the Brink of Death, Then Released as Police Attempt to Shirk Responsibility
In early March 2003, political instructor Yang Chunming and Yang Wenbin, a police officer in the intensive training brigade of the Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province, relentlessly tortured Mr. Zhang Changming, 50,until he was unconscious. Zhang’s head was beaten out of shape and badly swollen. He was taken to a hospital for emergency treatment, but doctors refused to treat him because he was on the verge of death. To avoid responsibility, the police took Zhang home, where he died as soon as he was taken inside.
Zhang was the ninth Falun Gong practitioner that we know of to be tortured to death in the Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp, which has been allocated a large amount of funding since it began to detain Falun Gong practitioners, including significant increases in guard salaries. Bonuses of 10,000 to 20,000 Yuan are awarded to camp employees who are able to force a Falun Gong practitioner to give up practicing Falun Gong. In November 2000, eleven male Falun Gong practitioners escaped, so the head of the labour camp was fired. The current camp director pleases his superiors by more actively persecuting Falun Gong, and has directed camp police to use cruel instruments of torture on all steadfast Falun Gong practitioners in attempts to use brutality to fulfill the "brainwashing quota.”
Head of the Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp: 011-86-454-889131
Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp (Office): 011-86-454-889038
Head of the Jiamusi Judicial Department: 011-86-454-8225171
Jiamusi Judicial Department: 011-86-454-8224195
Jiamusi People's Procuratorate
Zhongshan Street, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang
Phone: 011-86-454-8224195
Jiamusi People's Court
114 Baowei Road, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang
Phone: 011-86-454-8224210
The Standing Committee of the Jiamusi People's Congress
118 Baowei Road, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang
Phone: 011-86-454-8224036
59 Year-Old Man Beaten to Death under Reign of Terror by Local “610 Office”
In October 2002, local “610 Office” officials raided Fangezhuang Mine employee Zhao Yingqi’s home and sentenced him to 3 years in Hehuakeng Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City. He was beaten to death on December 31st after going on hunger strike to protest the brainwashing and torture he was forced to endure.
Perpetrator: Gu Laicun, telephone 0315-3067521, Kailuan Fangezhuang Mine “610 Office” chief and Party Committee Secretary has ordered surveillance and curfew for all Falun Gong practitioners in the area to keep them from leaving their homes. Anyone caught breaking the curfew is detained at will, for at least one month. Chief Gu has threatened to kill a man who escaped. Gu has also invented several instruments to torture Falun Gong practitioners.
Police Take Shifts Torturing Woman for Seven Straight Days
Ms. Liu Jinling was arrested on December 19th, 2000 for holding up a banner of appeal in Tiananmen Square and taken to a nearby police substation. Liu protested by going on a hunger strike and police responded by violently beating her chest and face, stripping her down to her underwear and handcuffing her to a tree outdoors in the winter cold. Liu was dragged inside and outside every 30 minutes, socks stuffed in her mouth and cigarette smoke blown in her face, to endure more torture and interrogation. Guards took shifts torturing Liu until she was extremely weak. After seven days of abuse and torture, representatives from Harbin’s Taiping District Police Station took Liu back to her hometown. Liu’s health never recovered, and she died an untimely death in May 2002.
Force Feeding Torture Kills Woman
On January 3rd 2000, Mrs. Lu Qinghua and her husband were arrested at the Beijing Appeal Office and taken to Dehui City Detention Centre after appealing for Falun Gong. Mrs. Lu had long served the Party as a Deputy of the Dehui City People's Congress. To protest their illegal detention, Lu went on a hunger strike and on March 7th, guards began to force feed her and other practitioners in the detention centre. Five male criminal inmates held Lu’s arms and legs, while a sixth gripped her head and a doctor forced a plastic feeding tube down her throat. Afterwards Lu was in a great deal of pain and was coughing and having difficulty breathing. The following day her condition was reported to the warden, but no action was taken and her state worsened. A second report was made, and she was sent to the hospital, though it was too late and she died that same night.
A Farmer is Publicly Humiliated, Then Tortured to the Brink of Death
Mr. Yuan Shengqian, 46, was abducted and subjected to periods of brainwashing by local officials in the county government hall several times for practicing Falun Gong. On December 28, 2000, Yuan went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested and sent back to his hometown, where he was beaten unconscious by local "610 Office" officials. After regaining consciousness, he was forced to wear a derogatory sandwich-board-type sign and parade through local streets (a degrading form of public humiliation made popular during China’s “Great Cultural Revolution”). Yuan was then transferred to a detention centre in Pengzhou City, where he was held for one month and sentenced to one and a half years in Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Mianyang City. He was continually subjected to various forms of persecution and inhuman torture that led to severe internal injuries. Fearing responsibility for his condition, camp officials released Yuan, but his health continued its decline until he passed away on April 27th, 2002.
20 Police Surround Practitioners’ Home in 7-hour Standoff
At 9am on March 5th, 2003 more than 20 police kidnapped Falun Gong practitioner Du Qingjun on his way to work and surrounded his house while his 29 year-old wife Mrs. Zhao Shuhong and her friend Lei Mei were inside. Police cars and fire engines surrounded the building in which they lived, and broke in after a 7-hour standoff, forcing both women inside to jump out of the building to escape. Zhao was killed from the jump and Lei was seriously injured.
Police Station of Songpu Town: 0451-8070014
Politics and Security Department, Daowei Police Sub-bureau: 0451-8387435
Yang Shouyi, Director of the Politics and Security Department, Dongli Police Sub-bureau:
0451-2104829 ext. 2316
0451-2127521 ext. 2316
0451-2137902 ext. 2316
Woman Persecuted for 2½ Years Dies at Age 40
Ms. Liu Yuqing was arrested in Beijing on October 25th, 1999 after appealing for Falun Gong on Tiananmen Square, and detained in Fushun Rehabilitation Centre for 45 days, and then monitored at work until February 2000. On December 31st, 2000, Liu returned to Tiananmen Square to unfold a banner saying, “Falun Dafa is Good.” She was arrested and beaten for 7 days, released only after going on a hunger strike. On February 15th, she was abducted from her work in a steel factory, taken to the local police station and sent to Fushun Detention Centre where she was held for 15 days. She was transferred to Fushun Labour Camp and suffered severe persecution including beatings, various other forms of torture and sleep deprivation. Her internal organs were so badly damaged that within a month she was very weak and had blood in her urine and a fever. Liu’s family members took her home for recovery, but police continued to persecute her. At 8pm on February 9th, more than 10 police from Wanghua district of the Guchengzi police and another group led by Yu Shoujun of the Yanwu police, broke into Liu’s home and ransacked it. On April 13th, 2002, Liu Yuqing died at the age of 40. The circumstances of her death are being investigated.
Practitioners Die after Receiving Injections of Unknown Drugs in Forced Labour Camp
Ms. Xue Xia was persecuted to death on February 21st, 2003. Xue was sentenced to 3 years of forced labour for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on January 1st, 2000 and imprisoned in Shijiazhuang Labour Camp in Hebei Province, where she was beaten and drugged. The drugs caused adverse physical reactions including allergies, loose bowels, vomiting and loss of consciousness. Fearing the seriousness of her condition, labour camp officials sent her to Xingtai City People’s Hospital for medical treatment. The doctor diagnosed Xue with “brain atrophy,” and charged her family members 10,000 Yuan for medical expenses (the average salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan a month). After being taken home, she began to slowly recover, but police continued to harass her on politically sensitive days and national holidays. On September 27th 2002, two clerks from the Meishi Street Committee led 5 guards from Shijiazhuang Labour Camp to Xue and her mother, arresting them both. Xue was sent for medical treatment after collapsing, and by January 4th 2003 she had already become completely immobile. She died on February 21st, 2003.
Healthy Woman Dies after Forced Labour, Torture and Forced Drug Treatments in Mental Hospital
Eyewitness accounts from Falun Gong practitioners in Siping City, Jilin Province indicate that Falun Gong practitioners Han Chunyuan, her father, Han Deshan, and her elder sister suffered many kinds of persecution including illegal detention, forced labour and imprisonment. Chunyan was imprisoned in Changchun Heizuizi Female Forced Labour Camp and where she endured cruel torture for an extended period of time for refusing to give up Falun Gong. She had also been imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital, where she was injected with narcotics to weaken her will and her health. Shortly after being illegally sentenced to four years in prison in July 2002, her fellow practitioners received reports of her death. Only now have practitioners in China found a channel to report this case to those overseas.
Notorious Labour Camps Relentlessly Persecute Practitioners
Fu Zhiyu and a second unidentified Falun Gong practitioner were persecuted to death on February 2nd in Fuyu County Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province. Qiqihar City Tiefeng Police Substation arrested Fu Zhiyu in July 2001, and sentenced him to 3 years of forced labour.
Fuyu Labour Camp is notorious for its methods of torture, which include guards frequently beating Falun Gong practitioners, preventing them from sleeping and forcing them to stand for long periods of time. During October 2001, every Falun Gong practitioner in the camp was beaten, some so badly that they had to be sent to the hospital. In the 40 days following the widespread beatings, information was blockaded and practitioners’ family members were denied visitation. After the crimes were revealed over the Internet, the labour camp began to secretly persecute Falun Gong practitioners again, using criminal inmates to kick them if they were unable to endure extended periods of corporal and other punishments. One practitioner’s ribs were kicked so hard they were broken. Money sent to practitioners’ from their family members is taken by criminal inmates, and many of the practitioners hair—even those in their 20’s—has turned white. To date, 4 practitioners are known to have been persecuted to death in the area of Qiqihar City.
Police Substation: 452-2425062
Fuyu Labour Camp: 452-3123712 452-3123571 452-2739098 452-2473543
610 office: 452-2425788 452-2787964
Qiqihar City Government: (0452)2407099
Qiqihar City Public Security Bureau: (0452)2486112
Qiqihar City Judicial Bureau: (0452)2473340
Heilongjiang Province Qiqihar City Middle Court: (0452)2553304
Practitioner Dies Several Days after Being Beaten by Police
Mr. Li Xiuren, a resident of Huangjia Village, Hebei Province was visiting a fellow Falun Gong practitioner’s home on December 23rd, 2001. Villagers Zhu Fengli and Zhu Gen reported them to the police, in exchange for a reward for turning them in. Gaocheng police arrested the practitioners. They were given no food and deprived of sleep, and beaten if they did not cooperate while being interrogated. Police took all of their money and on December 24th, 2001 at 9:00pm, they were taken to Gaocheng City Detention Centre. Li was detained in cell No.1 and subjected to severe torture until his release. He died 10 days later.
Gaocheng City Detention Centre: 8042439
Zengcun Police Substation: 8079036
Zengucn Town Governement: 8079003, Secretary 8079001, Mayor 8079002, Civil Administration Office 8076759
Huangjia Village Resident Committee: 8079019
Political & Legal Committee Secretary Zhai Zhijun,
Village Officials: Sun Sujiang, Zhang Weibing, Li Xinshun
Gaocheng City Public Security Bureau: Chief 8110068,
Deputy Chief 8110066,8110065,8110063,8110058,8110061,8110060
Gaocheng City Mayer: 8045875, Legal Section Office: 8042233 fax8041724
Man Dies in Harbin City Detention Centre
Mr. Wei Shujiang from Taiping Town, Daoli District, Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province died in Daili District Detention Centre on approximately August 30th. The last eyewitness to report seeing him alive was his son, who was allowed to visit him 13 days before he died due to his serious condition. No further details are available.
Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about), is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” It is a practise that was taught in private for thousands of years before being made public in 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture, but it is distinct and separate from other practises such as the religions of Buddhism and Taoism. Since its introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China, and is now practised in over 50 countries.
With government estimates of as many as 100 million practising Falun Gong, China’s President Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practise in July 1999 (report), fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds of more citizens than the Communist Party. Unable to crush the spirit of millions who had experienced improved health and positive life changes from Falun Gong, Jiang’s regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practise while quietly imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practise it.
The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 654 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. Nicolas Schols 32 (0) 479875734
More contacts: http://www.falungonginfo.net/europe.htm
Email: [email protected]
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