Additional Information on the Murder of Mr. Xi Zhimin At the Xinhua Forced Labour Camp

Mr. Xi Zhimin, 55, was a resident in Suining City, Sichuan Province. He was horrifically murdered in July 2003 at Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Mianyang.

He was arrested by police of the Suining "610 Office"* at 9 p.m. January 9, 2002. The police broke two of his ribs that night at the public security office. He was then kept for six months in Wujiawan Detention Centre and Lingquan City Detention Centre. He lost a lot of weight due to the torture he received, growing very thin. In May, he was sent to Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Mianyang and was kept in the No. 3 Team for one year.

In late June of 2003, Xi Zhimin was transferred to the No. 2 Team. On July 13, he called his home telling his wife and children that he was in good health and they shouldn't worry about him, and that he would probably be released in October. On July 19, his children were on their way home after traveling to Shenzhen City. During a train stop, they called their father at the labour camp, telling him that his nephew would go to the camp to visit him at the end of July. He was very happy on the phone talking with his son, to whom he explained the requirements and procedures that they needed to follow in order to visit him.

At 9 a.m. on July 25, his family received a phone call from the labour camp telling them to go to there immediately; they lied that Xi Zhimin committed suicide at 1 a.m. on July 24. His wife, children and other family members departed at 4 p.m. and arrived at the labour camp at 7:20 the same evening.

In order to cover up their crime, the police hypocritically sent the seven family members to an expensive hotel and restaurant, and closely "accompanied" them around the clock. At 9 that evening, police from the labour camp, labour camp subdivision and judicial bureau began a negotiation with the family members.

The police falsely stated that Xi Zhimin did not speak to anyone in the past few days, had kept his eyes half closed and had been mumbling; he was sent to a mental hospital on July 23 with a diagnosis of an acute psychiatric disorder.

On the morning of July 26, the police led the whole family to the morgue. When the family members witnessed the horror scene of the body, they were all filled with deep sorrow. His wife and son nearly passed out from the sight. They saw the body was naked, and covered with countless dirty palm-sized markings. There was a half-rounded dark, bloody marks from his neck to the ears that was caused by being tied with a rope, and a palm-sized gauze bandage on his head.

His family members questioned the cause of the injuries on his body. The police said, "He went insane, and the wound on his head was sustained on July 23 when he bumped his head while in bed. We were concerned about him and gave him three stitches."

His family members questioned the cause of the blood marks on his body. The police said that when old people die they all have this type of mark and it was a normal phenomenon.

Then his family asked, "How do you explain the bloody mark on his neck?" The police replied, "He was a mental patient so we tied his hands to the bed with gauze. When the nurse wasn't paying any attention to him, he removed the gauze from his hands, walked to a toilet and hanged himself with the gauze. The toilet was 5 feet high so he hanged himself in a sitting position." The evil person also said that the nurse patrolled every 10 minutes. When she discovered Xi Zhimin missing, she immediately checked the toilet and found him on a stool and his body still warm. The nurses held him up and performed artificial respiration.

The family said, "The nurse was a young female, how could she hold a man up?" The police could not answer. After a while, he said, "Oh, there were two other patients in his room who offered the assistance."

When the family sought to verify the fact by asking the two patients who shared the room, the two patients disappeared.

The family wanted to check the records of Xi Zhimin, but the police refused. The police said that the body needed to be cremated immediately. The family did not agree and wanted to wait until everything was resolved. The police said that it was the labour camp's rule. They forcibly cremated the body. In order to keep it hidden from the public, fearing the scandal if the persecution against Dafa practitioners were to be exposed and an autopsy was conducted, the labour camp forced the family to write a pledge in the labour camp. They were not allowed to say that he had committed suicide, but had died of a disease; and they were not to let any Falun Gong practitioners attend the funeral and were not to mention the death to others.

(Note: The above came from an oral description from the family on the morning of August 13. This article was revised August 14 by a fellow practitioner. The government wanted to block the family members of Xi Zhimin from speaking out. Besides covering the travel, hotel and meal expenses, they provided the family with an additional 4,000 Yuan. There were two practitioners among the seven family members who visited other fellow practitioners to expose the persecution.)

*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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/8/30/56531.html