Practitioners Become Blind, Deaf and Mute Following Torture and Beatings in Yueyang Area, Hunan Province

In the four years since July 1999, at least four female Falun Dafa practitioners have been tortured to death in Yueyang area, Hunan Province – tortured to death simply because they believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance."

They are Ms Xiao Guiying, the wife of an employee working at Yueyang city financial bureau; Ms Chen Xingtao from Yanglin Township, Yueyang County; Ms Chen Ouxiang from Pingjiang County; and Hu Yuehui from Yueyang County.

In addition, 14 Falun Dafa practitioners have been illegally sentenced to prison and hundreds others illegally sent to forced labour camps. Yueyang area also ran several forced brainwashing classes to torture Falun Dafa practitioners mentally and extort money and goods.

Several thousand practitioners have been illegally detained (indefinite detention) and still others have been forced to go from place to place to avoid being arrested. Several hundred perpetrators have been involved in the persecution. Now, a list of some of the perpetrators has been made public and the rest will be pursued later, one by one.

Liu Riguang, Head of the Yueyang City "610 Office," ["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] is in charge of persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners in Yueyang City. He is the mastermind behind sending practitioners to forced labour camps and in deciding the sentences to be handed down to practitioners from the Yueyang area.

Zhao Zihu, from Yueyanglou District Political and Security Section, has deliberately broken the law. He was uninhibited in sentencing Falun Dafa practitioners and sent nearly one hundred practitioners to the forced labour camps.

Li Yonghui, Head of the Tuqiao Police Sub-Station, broke into and searched Falun Dafa practitioners' homes and confiscated their properties without warrants. He has also taken things that he illegally confiscated such as pagers, cash and bank saving certificates for his own use.

The Yueyang City No. Two Hospital refused to take in Falun Dafa practitioners who have master's degrees and had been assigned to work there. The hospital just used the opportunity to persecute Dafa practitioners. The hospital also sent perfectly normal staff members to Yueyang City Mental Hospital to be persecuted.

Yueyang City Mental Hospital detained healthy people such as Dafa practitioners Jiang and Xiao against their will. It has undeniable responsibility in the death of female practitioner Xiao Guiying.

Policemen Yu Zhihe and Zhao Wenhua from Junshan District, Yueyang City used an electric iron to burn Falun Dafa practitioners. Then they hanged and beat the Falun Dafa practitioners. They illegally searched a Dafa practitioners' house, extorted money and illegally seized Dafa practitioners' properties. These vicious policemen also illegally sent Dafa practitioners to the forced labour camps.

Li Zongxiao, Head of the Political and Security Section of the City Police Station and formerly the head in charge of persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners, is suffering from skin cancer.

Mr. Chen is the head of the Rongjiawan Detention Centre, Yueyang County and Xie Zehua is the policeman in the Centre. When Chen beat up Dafa practitioners he always used sneak attacks to hit Dafa practitioners really hard. When Dafa practitioners went on hunger strikes, policeman Xie Zehua deliberately inserted the tubes in the wrong position and always added a lot of salt whenever he carried out the forced feeding. Their persecution resulted in a practitioner's weight dropping from 51 kg to 34 kg and the practitioner's face becoming black, blue and swollen.

Zhang Yifei, Head of Luowang judicial department, Yueyanglou District, participated in the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners by illegally searching their homes and confiscating their property. He detained women who were still breast-feeing their babies and arrested and beat up Falun Dafa practitioners without any reason. Zhang also ran forced brainwashing classes, illegally carried out around the clock surveillance, harassed Dafa practitioners and their families as well as illegally sent Falun Dafa practitioners to forced labour camps or illegally handed down sentences.

Zhang Jixiang was the director of the retirement affairs office of Changling Refinery. He said he was very much convinced that Falun Gong would be crushed, so he illegally detained Falun Dafa practitioners. Not long after his retirement he died of cancer.

Two policemen from Yuping Town, Pingjiang County, stripped Falun Dafa practitioners down to their underwear when it was snowing. One policeman punched a Dafa practitioner's temples several times and the practitioner became blind instantly as a result. The pair used to rob the practitioners of their money and valuables and then put them in custody where they extorted more money from them. Practitioner Hu Xuanju, over sixty years old, was tortured to the point that he became deaf and mute.

Dai Wenming and Weng Fangping, policemen from Yuping Town, Pingjiang County, hanged and beat Falun Dafa practitioners, squeezed their necks, confined them in a solitary compartment and starved them. These two vicious policemen also knocked down practitioner Wu Yinkuai's house, robbed his money and extorted tens of thousands of Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.] from his relatives and friends. And finally, they illegally sent Wu to a forced labour camp.

A group of perpetrators from Danquanshui Town, Pingjiang County, with wooden sticks in hand, shouted at a brainwashing class, "You Falun Gong practitioners would not return the same when being hit or insulted. From now on I will teach you to be a bad guy. I will order you to swear." If the practitioners did not follow their orders then they would beat and torture the practitioners in a very cruel way. As result, some practitioners had broken fingers and others became unable to speak. These evil perpetrators would strip off the clothing of Dafa practitioners who were covered all over with cuts and bruises and pour cold water on them in the winter. Then they blew air on them with an electric fan, tied them up with ropes and denounced them at a public meeting and then paraded them through the streets to humiliate them in front of the public. After all that, these practitioners were put into detention centres.

Chinese version available at: http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/9/20/57673.html