Seven More Falun Gong Practitioners Die Tragically at the Hands of Chinese Police

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 11/27/2001
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Man Dead from Beatings and Torture in Labour Camp

NEW YORK, November 27, 2001 (Falun Dafa Information Center) -- Mr. Qiu Ping'an, 54 years old, was a Falun Gong practitioner from the city of Xiangfan in Hubei Province. He died on November 22, 2001 after more than a year of illegal detention, hard labour, and torture.

Mr. Qiu had gone to Beijing to appeal in October 2000, but he was arrested and detained in the Xiangfan City No. 1 Detention Centre. The Public Security Bureau sentenced him, without due legal process, to a year in the Shayang Labour Camp. However, the labour camp rejected him, saying he had very high blood pressure, so the local police instead held him in the Fancheng District Administrative Detention Centre for more than seven months. Later, the "6-10 Office" in Xianfan City transferred him to a brainwashing class at the Xiangfan City Labour Camp, where he was forced to do slave labour.

While in the labour camp, he was made to kneel for long periods of time, kept in solitary confinement, and beaten with a bamboo stick by criminal inmates who were ordered to "punish" him as they pleased in order to break his will. To protest his illegal incarceration, Mr. Qiu went on a hunger strike. Sources say he maintained the hunger strike for a total of about 30 days, during which time he was still forced to do hard labour and endure all manner of abuse. He eventually became paralyzed from the continued torment and brainwashing. To avoid legal responsibility if anything happened to him, the police told his family to take him home on November 8th. Despite all efforts to restore his health, he succumbed to his injuries and passed away at 3AM on November 22, 2001. Mr. Qiu's given name, Pingan, means "Peace" in English.

Police Beat and Push Falun Gong Practitioner Down Four Flights of Stairs

The "6-10 Office," police officers, and public security officials have gone on a rampage in the city of Yantai, Shandong Province against Falun Gong practitioners beginning this month. Mr. Wu Haiyou was chased by six policemen from the Paotai Police Substation who witnesses say beat him viciously and then pushed him down the stairs, rolling him down from the fourth floor all the way to the ground floor. By that point, he had lost consciousness. Five days later, Wu's family was notified to claim his body. An officer in the Yiantai Shipaotai confirmed his death to a reporter. When asked about the cause of death, he replied: "I'm not too sure. When I went there, he was already lying at the bottom of the stairs." Mr. Wu is among the more than a dozen practitioners to have been arrested in Yantai in recent weeks. Shandong Province is by far the most deadly province for Falun Gong practitioners who wish to uphold their beliefs. Almost 20% of the 319 who are known to have died under this brutal persecution have lost their lives in this province. Individual government officials have indicated that the actual death toll is likely to be more than 1,000.

Death of Five Falun Gong Practitioners under Persecution Finally Exposed - Four of them Women from Sichuan Province

Ms. Miao Qun, 28 years old, died after she travelled to Beijing to appeal to the Chinese government for Falun Gong. Ms. Miao went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong this January. She was taken back by local police in Sichuan and detained in the local detention centre. While in custody, she went on a hunger strike to defend her right to practice Falun Gong. Witnesses reveal that the police force-fed her through the nose with a plastic tube. During the process of force-feeding, the police inserted the tube into one of her lungs. She suffocated to death shortly thereafter.

Ms. Wang Yuru and Liu Xianju, female, both in their 60's, went together to Beijing to appeal to the Chinese government. Ms. Wang, 60 years old, was sent back to the Qu county detention centre in late January of this year. On February 4, the police tried to force her to write a promise stating that she would never practise Falun Gong again. She refused, so the police beat her badly, trying to force her to write the promise. She remained resolute, and therefore, was beaten to death. The legal medical examiner ascertained that her death was due to injury to her heart from physical abuse and beating. Her friend, Ms. Liu Xianju was beaten so viciously that her entire lower body was disabled and she lost the ability to control her bladder and take care of herself. Ms. Miao, Ms. Wang, and Ms. Liu were all killed in the Qu county detention centre.

Ms. Zhang Sufang was from Chongqing, the prosperous capital city of Sichuan province. She was detained in Team 3 of the Chongqing Female Labour Camp, where sources say she was handcuffed, verbally abused, beaten, and tortured because she would not renounce her belief in Falun Gong. When it became clear that her condition was critical, she was sent back home. Ms. Zhang died the very next day.

Mr. Tang Tierong from the northern province of Liaoning was illegally held in the Wujiabaozi Labour Camp in the city of Fushun for practicing Falun Gong. Because he refused to renounce his belief, he was beaten for a whole night. He was carried home and died soon after. Further details of this tragic incident have been difficult to obtain as the local police have taken great efforts to block all information.

Note: The "6-10 Office" is the highest authority deployed by President Jiang Zemin and his supporters specifically to persecute Falun Gong. It is a well-organized and independent system spanning from the Central Government to the local governments, and has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches. The "6-10 Office" is headed up by Luo Gan and reports directly to the Politburo.

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