Witness Reveals Mr. Li Rongxian's Death Resulting From Abuse in the Jiutai Forced Labour Camp

October 26, 2003

I witnessed the death of Mr. Li Rongxian in the Jiutai Forced Labour Camp. What happened to him is enough to prove that the camp authorities cruelly abuse Falun Gong practitioners and act with utter disregard for human life.

After being sentenced to two years of forced labour in July 2002, for practising Falun Gong, forty-four-year-old Huadian City resident Mr. Li Rongxian was imprisoned in the "Group 4" ward of Jiutai Forced Labour Camp in Jilin Province. Due to long-term abuse in the forced labour camp, he suffered from advanced stages of pulmonary tuberculosis. Knowing this, in February or March 2003, he asked the camp administrators for medical parole. Escorted by police, he underwent a physical examination at a regular hospital that confirmed his serious illness, which met the requirement for medical parole.

A prisoner in his condition would normally be immediately released for medical treatment, but at that time the Administration Section Chief, Mr. Zheng, told Mr. Li that his release would be entirely contingent upon his writing a statement renouncing Falun Gong. Mr. Li, however, firmly refused to write it. Upon seeing this, staff physician Dr. Liang said, "We'll let you go if you pay 3,000 Yuan." [the average monthly salary for an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan] Li rejected this extortion attempt because he recognised that all detention resulting from the persecution of Falun Gong was unlawful. Several days later, Dr. Liang saw him again and said, "1,000 Yuan will make it a done deal," but Li refused to yield to any kind of persecution. Consequently, Mr. Li was kept in jail. On the morning of May 26, 2003, he was found unconscious after receiving an intravenous infusion. When the medical doctor eventually checked his condition, Li Rongxian had already been dead for a while.

To cover up their crime, the camp authorities sent Li's body to Jiutai City Hospital. When his wife and relatives came to make the funeral arrangements, the camp authorities publicly lied by claiming that Mr. Li had suffered a cardiac arrest and died in Jiutai Hospital. Mrs. Li and his relatives are still unaware of the real cause of his death.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/11/12/60463.html