Jiang Zemin,
Li Lanqing,
Luo Gan,
He Zuoxiu,
Chief of Political and Judiciary Committee in Hebei Province Liu Jingguo,
Chief of Political and Judiciary Committee of Qinhuangdao City Zhou Weidong,
Head of Section One in Qinhuangdao Police Department Wang Xianzeng,
Xu Yingbin,
Member of Harbor Branch of Qinhuangdao Police Department Zhao Huidong
The Plaintiffs:
Falun Gong practitioners and their family members in Qinhuangdao City
Honourable International Criminal Court and International Human rights Organisations:
We are Falun Gong practitioners and their family members from Qinhuangdao City, China. We are good citizens who follow the law. We are suffering inhumane persecution solely based on our beliefs in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," the core principles of Falun Gong. We are abducted from home and work, and our homes are ransacked. We are illegally detained, sent to labour camps and sentenced to prison without any legal procedures. While this persecution continues, every day we hear news of Falun Gong practitioners being tortured to death for refusing to give up their beliefs. Falun Gong practitioners have lost their basic human rights and personal safety. As we are unable to take legal action here, we write this letter to you, hoping that the international society will record the cruel torture that Falun Gong practitioners have suffered and urge the Chinese government to stop the persecution.
On June 7 this year, Qinhuangdao 610 Office and police joined forces to capture over 70 Falun Gong practitioners. They extorted confessions through torture and beatings. Almost every Falun Gong practitioner has suffered various degrees of beating and torture. The responsible parties include Zhou Weidong, Wang Xianzeng, Xu Yingbin (Chief of Qinhuangdao Police Department, section one, promoted to his position for his persecution of Falun Gong), the Shanhaiguan City "610" Office, and the local police. In section one of the Qinhuangdao Police Department, Xu Yingbin and Wang Xianzeng are particularly brutal and violent when beating Falun Gong practitioners. The beatings usually take place in the office on the 6th floor. [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 or judicial systems].
On June 13, 2003, police took Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yang Yuzhu, in her 50's, to the 6th floor, where they tried to coerce a confession through torture. Ms. Yang, her two sisters and her two nieces were abducted multiple times for practising Falun Gong. Her nieces Sun Yang and Sun Hong were sent to a labour camp. Her sister, (Sun Yang's mother) suffered two broken arms and lost her sight as a result of beatings. Yang Yuzhu was forced to become homeless, as the police send out an alert that she was a murderer and issued a warrant for her arrest. She was soon arrested again. Not wanting to implicate her fellow practitioners and refusing to provide false evidence, she endured the police's cruel torture. With several hired thugs, Wang and Xu tried to extract a confession from her. Eight people surrounded Ms. Yang, punching and kicking her, and beating her head with batons, leaving a large bloody bump. After the beating, the thugs pressed her onto the ground, crushing her cuffed hand with their heavy boots and dragging her along the ground. Despite such torture, Yang Yuzhu still refused to say anything, and the thugs tightly bound the her arms backward with nylon string, pinched her nose and filled her mouth with water. After several hours of torture, police still did not get what they wanted. Even after seeing this practitioner with injures all over her body, the thugs revealed the extent of their cruelty, threatening, "If you do not tell us what we want, we will torture you to death."
By the morning of June 13th, Yang Yuzhu had multiple fractures all over her body. At present she is in the surgical unit at the People's Hospital in Qinhuangdao City (7th floor). She was determined to have suffered extensive paralysis. This incident roused the indignation of family members and the public. Even policemen encouraged the family members to appeal to higher authorities. Wang and Xu are the ones directly responsible. This is not the first time Section One of Qinhuangdao Police Department has beaten people. Unable to bear the beatings, Zhang Cheng (a non-practitioner), jumped to his death from the sixth floor on May 12 of this year. The policeman responsible was criticised within the police system and the whole province, but with Yang Yuzhu's case, they have covered up the incident. This has happened before in Qinhuangdao City. Last year, Falun Gong practitioner Li Cuiyan became handicapped due to the persecution, and the police department confiscated all of the X-rays of the fractures from the hospital. A Falun Gong practitioner from Shanhaiguan city was tortured to death. The news was blocked and family members were threatened to keep quiet.
Over the past four years, Jiang Zemin's policy toward Falun Gong practitioners: "defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically," has led police from Hebei province and Qinhuangdao City to adopt base means to follow practitioners, opening people's private letters, dismissing practitioners from employment, school, or armed forces, detaining practitioners, sending them to labour camps or mental hospitals, sentencing practitioners to prison, sending them to organised brainwashing sessions, ransacking their homes, imposing large fines, forcing to couples to divorce, etc.
Steadfast practitioners face various torture methods, including being suspended by the arms, beatings, electric shock, and sleep deprivation. If practitioners still won't compromise, they are sent to labour camps. If a practitioner is of questionable health, a large sum of money, collected from the practitioner' work unit, is sent as a bribe for the labour camp staff to ensure the practitioner's acceptance into the camp.
Practitioners are detained for periods ranging from one month to one year. Some were detained in Changli brainwashing programme for as long as two years. A mother and her 3-year old child were detained in the brainwashing programme for almost three years. Policemen extract confessions through torture and interrogation. Some police extorted huge amounts of money from practitioners' families. If practitioners exposed their crimes, they would face harsh retaliation. The police have violated the Chinese Constitution, which gives citizens basic human rights, including freedom of belief and petition. The police have also violated the criminal law and committed serious crimes of torture, extortion, intentional physical harm, and murder.
The Qinhuangdao 610 Office, Section One and its subordinate police agents, Harbor Police Department Office One, Police Substation and the Street Committee strictly followed Jiang's orders, and numerous Dafa practitioners have suffered persecution at their hands. They forced almost everyone to take a stand on the issue of Falun Gong. At first they allowed Falun Gong practitioners to practise at home as long as they did not go to Beijing. Later they said, "Anyone practising Falun Gong will be arrested." They arrested Falun Dafa practitioners from their homes but claimed they had been "disturbing the peace." Many practitioners' families were broken under the persecution. Often, practitioners suffered extended terms at labour camps when they refused to compromise their beliefs. Some were sent to labour camps multiple times, some were forced to become homeless, and some were tortured to death or to disabled.
On politically sensitive days, police broke into Falun Gong practitioners' homes. Now that Jiang Zemin has come to Beidaihe River in Qinhuangdao for the summer, the violence has intensified. Falun Gong practitioners and their family members live under tremendous daily pressure. For the past four years, several hundred practitioners in Qinhuangdao city have been sent to labour camps. Over one thousand practitioners have been detained. Dozens have been sentenced to jail terms and many of them have been tortured to the point of disability or death. We have brought this case to the International Criminal Court, as we have no way to bring suit against them in China. We will supply detailed information on the persecution, and we hope that the international society will heed the human rights issue in China and demand an immediate end to this persecution against Falun Gong, as well as the immediate and unconditional release of all detained Falun Gong practitioners.
After the dictator Jiang Zemin has been sued overseas for crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, the local "610" Office and policemen have retaliated heavily against practitioners.
In view of the fact that Jiang Zemin blatantly disregards the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners, disregards the rule of law, morality and conscience, and keeps escalating the persecution, we ask the International Criminal Court to help bring Jiang Zemin and his followers to justice.
Sincerely,
Falun Gong practitioners and their family members in Qinhuangdao City
2003-7-18
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/7/18/54178.html
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