In Memory of Fellow Practitioner Mr. Zhang Jianxun

Mr. Zhang Jianxun was a 64-year-old resident of Houliuying Village, Hebei Province. He was a retired employee from the county Civil Affairs Bureau. After he started to practise Falun Gong, he became very healthy and was very energetic. Having benefitted from Falun Gong, he told everyone he met how Falun Gong helped him.

On February 4, 2001, Mr. Zhang was arrested again and forced to go through brainwashing. He was jailed at the Shijiazhuang City Labour Camp, Mr. Zhang was forced to keep his head down when walking; otherwise he would receive brutal beatings. Every day he had to get up at 6:00 o'clock in the morning and then was forced to squat facing the wall. He was also forced to work nearly 20 hours a day. Several days later, he could no longer endure the hard labour. He often stumbled and he could not easily get up. Seeing he could no longer work, the police then transferred him to a different unit. In the new unit, because he refused to write the guarantee letter, the police did not allow him to sleep and tortured him around the clock. By the third day in the new unit, he suddenly lost his memory and could not speak. The doctors diagnosed that he had suffered a stroke. A healthy 64-year-old man was tortured to such an extent in just one month. He could no longer take care of himself.

In order to shirk responsibility, the labour camp authorities informed his family to pick him up, releasing him on medical parole. At the same time, they also extorted 240 Yuan from his family. After he returned home, his family found that his fingernails had come off due to the torture. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he never recovered his ability to speak. He wasn't able to tell his family, fellow practitioners or the world's people how he was tortured in the labour camp. On June 13, 2002, he passed away in the hospital despite emergency treatment.

(1) Yuan is the unit of currency in China, where the average monthly salary of an urban worker is 500 Yuan.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/4/8/71916.html