Eyewitness' Account of the Death of Zhang Yali and Two Other Falun Dafa Practitioners

Dear Editors of Minghui/Clearwisdom Website:

Greetings.

My name is Fan Jinping. On February 14, 2001, the "610 Office" (1) in Nanyang City, Henan Province sent me to Shibalihe Women' Forced Labour Camp in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. I would like to tell you about the death of three practitioners, Ms. Zhang Yali, Ms. Zhang Baoju, and Ms. Guan Ge.

I was detained in the Second Group with three particular others in Shibalihe Women's Forced' Labour Camp. Zhang Baoju and Guan Ge were transferred from the Third Group to the Second Group in October of 2002, while Zhang Yali was transferred from the Fourth Group in February of 2003. Since then we were detained in the same Group. At that time, the persecution in the labour camp had reached its peak. The police used brutal and inhumane methods to torture practitioners. Head of the labour camp, Wu Hongru, had meetings with other policemen and decided to torture all the firm practitioners until we wrote repentance letters to give up practising Falun Dafa. Otherwise, they would not allow any of us to leave the labour camp. All of a sudden, our terms in the labour camp were extended indefinitely.

On April 22, 2003, they set up a special Group in the labour camp to implement forced "reform." They started from the Third Group, where most practitioners were detained. The other Groups had relatively fewer practitioners. In the Second Group we learned that none of the twelve practitioners in the Third Group could bear the inhumane torture and gave in. We thought that the police must have used extremely cruel methods. We had discussions together to see how to oppose such a persecution. Our conclusion was that we would not write anything to the police even if it meant that we had to die.

Because we couldn't get together to talk under the surveillance, we sought opportunities to discuss the issue. Zhang Baoju said, "We cannot just watch our fellow practitioners be tortured and forced to renounce their belief''. We should give up our fear of death." We saw practitioners in the Third Group being tortured every day, tortured to such an extent that they did not look like human beings any more.

At that time, Zhang Baoju, Zhang Yali, and Guan Ge all wrote their wills and carried them wherever they went. Zhang Yali wrote two copies and gave one to practitioner Bai E. It declared, "This is not suicide. We do this under the circumstance where the evildoers rampantly persecute practitioners. As real practitioners, we all know that Teacher states clearly in Chapter Seven of "Zhuan Falun" [the main text of Falun Dafa] about the issue of killing. In order to oppose and protest the torture of practitioners, and in order for them to be released from the labour camp, we are willing to give up our young lives." (2)

Zhang Baoju said to us, "Those of you who can get out of the labour camp alive, please tell people that we didn't commit suicide." Bai E and I told her, "Don't worry. As long as we can get out of the labour camp alive, we will for sure tell people that you didn't commit suicide." The three of them hanged themselves at around 8 o'clock in the evening of June 4, 2003 in a room that had not been used for a long time.

Their death really had a shocking effect on the evildoers. On the night of June 4, they gave their lives for the truth. On June 5, the "Reform Group" was dissolved. Several days later, Wu Hongru, head of the labour camp, did not show up in the camp any more. The police in the labour camp were not as rampantly vicious as they had been. They did not treat practitioners as brutally as before.

Note: Shibalihe Women Forced' Labour Camp announced in the Zhengzhou Evening Post that they had committed suicide.

Written by practitioner Fan Jinping from China on June 25, 2004

Notes:

(1) "610 Office" ¨C An agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

(2) The Falun Dafa principles forbid killing, including suicide. It is clearly stated in the principles that killing can create huge karma (which is opposite to the direction of cultivation practice), and that one's soul will be in a deplorable condition after committing suicide. To give up one's flesh body deliberately is committing suicide. As long as one takes such an action, one will face the serious problem of breaking the law of forbidding killing.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/6/26/77975.html