Mr. Li Chuanwen Dies of Torture Suffered in Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp

Mr. Li Chuanwen, 54, lived in Hekou City, Jilin Province. He was a temporary employee of the Meihe Coal Mine. He had also run a business of renting out motorized pedicabs. He began practising Falun Dafa in 1996. Learning about "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" purified his mind and guided his behaviour. He was an honest person and treated others with kindness. He often left a deep impression on people because of his exceptional behaviour.

After Jiang's regime began the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Li Chuanwen was deeply saddened when he heard the lies and slanderous remarks that were fabricated by the news media. The government propaganda machinery unfortunately controlled the media. He couldn't carry the burden of people not knowing the truth. He felt the need to tell people the truth about Falun Gong. In October 1999, he went to Beijing to appeal to the government. Public Security personnel from Hongmei County stationed in Beijing arrested him as soon as he arrived at the Beijing train station. He was sent to the Meihekou City Detention Centre and detained there for fifteen days, and charged with "Going to Beijing to create trouble." While in the detention centre, he was forced to stand still for dozens of hours. If he moved his body or bent his knees, criminal inmates would beat him as instructed by guard Yang Ye.

In January 2001, Li Chuanwen went to the Appeal Bureau of the State Department to appeal. He was arrested before he had a chance to speak and was again sent back to the Meihekou City Detention Centre. When he refused to recite the jail rules, police ordered the criminal prisoners to take off his pants and violently beat his buttocks. The beating broke his skin. He was then forced to sit on a bench, causing the blood to glue his wound and underwear together. It was excruciating painful when he had to take off his underwear in the toilet. Before he was released, the vice director of Hongmei County Public Security, Niu Zhenkui, extorted 600 Yuan (1) from Li, without giving him a receipt.

To prevent Falun Gong practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal, Hongmei County officials used the conference room, previously a room of the county commission office, for detaining practitioners. Li Chuanwen was detained there for one month. Niu Zhenkui sent police to Li's home and confiscated his bank checkbook. After the end of his detention, Niu Zhenkui instructed Li to report to the Public Security Branch Bureau, and ordered him to wash his car, otherwise his bank checkbook would not be returned to him. One police officer hinted to Li that he wanted to borrow money from him. When the police officer couldn't get money from Li, he fabricated an excuse to beat him up.

In October 2000, Hongmei County arrested more than twenty practitioners, including Li Chunawen, to prevent them from going to Beijing to appeal again. The practitioners were imprisoned in a former nursery of the Meihe Coal Mine. Li Chuanwen held a hunger strike to protest the arrest and was severely beaten by Nui Zhenkui. Nui ordered that a bucket of water be placed on Li's head and warned him, "If you spill any water, you'll be punished severely." On March 23, 2001, public security personnel, on orders from Niu, broke into Li's dormitory room for unmarried workers at the Meihe Coal Mine. They confiscated his belongings and took him to the public security branch bureau. Lui fabricated the charges, "Exciting the public to create trouble." They sent him to the Meihe Detention Centre for the third time. He was forced to make toothpicks. Criminal inmates beat him cruelly because he didn't meet the quota. His back was injured, and walking became difficult for him. In April of 2001, Li was sentenced to one year of hard labour and sent to the Tonghua Forced Labour Camp. At Tonghua, Li suffered from beatings with electric batons, forced labor, and torture, as well as extortion, other physical penalties, and verbal insults by criminal prisoners. Li was released in March 2002 and returned to Hongmei. He gradually recovered after practising Falun Gong exercises for a period of time, and went to work for the Liuyechu Coal Mine.

At midnight on June 18, 2002, when Li was about to go to bed, Meng Xiangmin, Director of the Hongmei County Public Security Branch Bureau, led police to break into Li Chuanwen's dormitory. They confiscated his belongings and took him to the Public Security Branch Office. For the fourth time he was sent to the Meihe Detention Centre. After being tortured for two months, he was sentenced to two years of hard labour. In September 2002, he was sent to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp, Changchun City, Jilin Province.

Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp is the centre for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in Jilin Province. The goal of the camp's personnel is to force practitioners to give up their cultivation of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. To outsiders, the camp claimed: "The Public Security Bureau is responsible for arrests. We only take care of prisoners. You'll need to deal with the Public Security Bureau for any complaints about injustice." But inside the camp, authorities force criminal prisoners to control practitioners. Each criminal prisoner was assigned to oversee one practitioner. The camp encourages criminal prisoners to torture practitioners both physical and mentally, and rewards them with reductions of their prison terms. These prisoners committed crimes such as stealing, robbing, cheating, or fighting. They became the "guest of honour" if they participated in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. But practitioners who follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance are treated unfairly and held in slavery. To please the camp personnel, prisoners use every possible means to make life difficult for practitioners. Practitioners are not allowed enough time to use the toilet, and are kicked and beaten if they take too much time. Because of the rotten scabies on his buttock, Li Chuanwen couldn't sit. Yet he was forced to sit on a bench for longer than ten hours at a time. His daily living conditions were under prisoners' strict control. Not a day went by without him being insulted and beaten.

By the second half of 2003, Li Chuanwen could no longer keep going under this abuse. He suffered from severe malnutrition and had completely lost his appetite. During the New Year of 2004, with money provided by friends and practitioners, he had a physical examination. The doctor who had examined him told the camp," This person needs to be released right away."

But, the warden of the labour camp, Wang Yanwei, insisted that Li Chuanwen write the "Three Statements" (2) before he would be released. By this time, Li needed two people to help him to go to the dining hall. He would sit there breathing heavily while others finished their meals. On March 10, the camp secretly prepared paperwork to "release him for seven days because of illness." They took him to the infirmary the next day saying that a doctor would check him over. They instead injected him with something and took him to the Hongmei Public Security Branch Office. He looked very pale and coughed constantly. Not only did he not have a place to go, he was also unable to take care of himself. Police took him to the home of a practitioner, Zhang Chunyan that afternoon. On March 12, he was taken to the home of another practitioner, Gai Yongguang. On the night of March 18, several practitioners took him to Aimin Hospital in Meihekou for emergency rescue. Li Chuanwen passed away at 6:12 p.m. on March 19. His friends and practitioners dressed him and took him to the hospital morgue. In the morning on March 20, Li was cremated, as arranged by the Hongmei Public Security.

(1) Yuan - Chinese currency. The average monthly income of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

(2) "Three Statements" - Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the "610 Office," the three statements consist of a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practise Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/5/27/75696.html