United States: California Falun Gong Practitioners Peacefully Appeal in front of the Chinese Consulate, Demanding Punishment for the Murderers of Falun Gong Practitioners.

Shortly after the Chinese New Year, we received reports that several fellow practitioners in China died as a result of the brutal persecution. Falun Gong practitioners from San Francisco area held candlelight vigil outside the Chinese Consulate to commemorate fellow practitioners Ms. Gao Shiping and Ms. Li Shuli, who were tortured to death in China. Meanwhile, practitioners called on the Chinese government to stop the killing, and punish the chief perpetrator of the persecution, Jiang Zemin and the murderers.

Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Gao Shiping and Ms. Li Shuli were tortured to death in December, 2003 in Gaoyang Labour Camp, Baoding City, and Hehuakeng Labour Camp, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, respectively. Because Ms. Gao refused to give up her practice of Falun Gong, she was severely tortured both physically and mentally in the labour camp. She passed away on December 19, 2003. Another practitioner from Hebei Province, Ms. Li Shuli had suffered three months of various kinds of tortures including being locked up in a small cell, tortured with "killing rope" and "tightly stretched bed". It was learned that "killing rope" and "tightly stretched bed" are two extremely cruel torture methods. (By applying the "Killing rope", the police first soaked in water a long piece of finger-wide rope, then circled the rope around practitioner's neck, tightly enlaced her arms with force. To increase the pain, the police often removed practitioners' clothes and left them with bare arms or only underwear. Usually, it needed more than 3 persons to apply this torture. The police twined the rope around practitioner's arms to her wrists and then tightened the rope. At this point, they pulled practitioner's hands to her back, and passed the rope end through the part which circled her neck, then two police officers used force to tighten the rope and made a knot. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around the body of the practitioner, and makes it more and more difficult for him to breathe. The pain is so intense that the practitioner sometimes loses control of his bladder. There are instances when the rope was tightened enough to break a practitioner's arm.) (When the tightly stretched bed is applied, the four limbs of the practitioner are stretched out and tied to the four corners of an icy-cold metal bed. The practitioner is unable to move at all. Jail guards would even put bricks under the practitioner's back when he is suffering this torture. Then they beat practitioner's legs or order criminal inmates to trample on practitioners' body or use stick or hands to poke practitioners' both sides of his chest. )

After being tortured by jail guard Wang Yulin and a criminal inmate Huang Yongxin, Ms. Li Shuli's physical and mental health were destroyed, and she died in December 2003.

Seventy-year-old San Jose Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. Zeng said, "Out of his jealousy, Jiang Zemin single-handedly started the persecution against Falun Gong. Over the past four years, more than 870 Falun Gong practitioners were killed in China. From reports we can see that the tortures applied by those jail guards and other murderers are extremely inhuman. They have already lost their human nature. We cannot allow this persecution to continue. We must bring the chief perpetrator Jiang Zemin and those murderers to justice. In the meanwhile, we call on the Chinese government to end the persecution and stop killing Falun Gong practitioners."

Businessman Mr. Lin said, "Because the Chinese Consulate is a representative of the Chinese government in other countries, we come here to commemorate our fellow practitioners who were killed in the persecution. At the same time, we want to let the officials of the Consulate to learn about the facts of the brutal persecution and overseas Chinese people's concerns."

Outside China, more and more people learned about Falun Gong and have come to support Falun Gong. After learning about the facts, some passersby expressed that the murderers are too inhuman. Some said: "You've done very well, we support you!"

Falun Gong practitioners in different countries have sued Jiang. On January 20, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago accepted Falun Gong practitioners appealing document regarding the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. Apart from the U.S., Falun Gong practitioners from Belgium, Spain, Germany, Taiwan and Korea successively filed lawsuits against Jiang and his 610 Office. He doesn’t dare to go abroad anymore. An international organization was also established to investigate the persecution of Falun Gong. All who participated in the persecution of Falun Gong will be investigated. We hope those who are still committing these crimes immediately wake up and stop doing it. We hope that they will realize their wrongdoings and help the kind and peaceful Falun Gong practitioners to make up for their past crimes.