Recently Verified: Three Dafa Practitioners in Tianjin Have Been Tortured to Death

It has recently been verified that three Falun Dafa practitioners from Tianjin City were tortured to death: Ms. Lu Shuying in 2004, Mr. Lu Dewang in 2000, and Ms. Zhou Xuezhen in 2002.

Ms. Lu Shuying, over 50 years old, was a Falun Dafa practitioner in the Hongqiao District. She was illegally detained in Tianjin's Banqiao Forced Labour Camp for a long time: even when her terms expired, the labour camp continued to prison her. She refused to write the so-called "Repentance Statement" [1] and was tortured to death in Banqiao Labour Camp in March 2004 after being subjected to one round of torture after another.

Mr. Lu Dewang, a Falun Dafa practitioner in the Beichen District, was over 40 years old. He was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to imprisonment. In prison he was tortured to the brink of death. Fearing he would die on their watch, the prison guards ordered his family to take him home in 2000. Mr. Lu passed away five or six days later.

Ms. Zhou Xuezhen, another practitioner in the Beichen District, was over 50 years old. The police abducted her from her home at the end of 2000 and illegally sent her to the Banqiao Forced Labour Camp. In the labour camp, guards brutally beat her. They frequently ordered prisoners who were prostitutes and drug addicts to brutally beat her. Ms. Zhou had wounds all over her body. Once the guards used a long hook used to stir coals in a boiler to beat her. The hook tore a piece of flesh out of her back. They also tied her up in a pigsty so that the mosquitoes and insects would bite her. They locked her in a solitary cell for months at a time. A few times she was at the verge of death and was taken out of the solitary cell. Although Ms. Zhou was 5 feet 7 inches tall, she was tortured so much that she weighed less than 66 pounds. The guards feared that she would die in the labour camp, so they ordered her family to take her home. Back home she continued to suffer from persecution. Wang Baorong, head of the "610 Office" ordered six local villagers to watch her day and night. Ms. Zhou completely lost her personal freedom and passed away in July 2002. Wang Baorong couldn't escape responsibility for Ms. Zhou's death.

In April 2004, the Minghui website [Chinese version of Clearwisdom] reported that Mr. Wang Zengcheng, a Dafa practitioner in Tianjin, was beaten to death in a labour camp for refusing to "repent" for practising Falun Gong. He was the deputy director of the Hangu District Science and Technology Commission. During his detention in the Qingbowa Forced Labour Camp, the guards in the 7th Brigade shocked him with five to six electric batons simultaneously until he was almost dead. Mr. Wang was tortured to death around December 11, 2003, in the labour camp. Yu Lijing and Er Pang, two "personal cangues," [2] were at the scene when Mr. Wang passed away.

The labour camps in Tianjin City aggressively persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. If a guard successfully forces a practitioner to write the so-called "Repentance Statement" or "Guarantee Statement," the Tianjin government awards him ten to twenty thousand yuan. So the guards are using more and more brutal means of torture on practitioners in order to get bonus money. They even have a "death quota."

[1] The so-called "Repentance Statement": In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

[2] "Personal cangues": Cangue is the name of an instrument of torture. It is now used to indicate the person who was designated to supervise the behavior of practitioners.

[3] The so-called "Guarantee Statement": similar to the so-called "Repentance Statement".

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/28/82792.html