How Practitioner Mr Rao Zhuoyuan Was Tortured To Death

The Chinese New Year is a time for families to get together, but in China, many Falun Dafa practitioners are illegally detained and can't be with their families. Many practitioners have been tortured to death for their belief in Falun Dafa. Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was one of them. After a lengthy investigation, we learned of his experiences - how a happy family was ruined because of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong, how his daughter lost a caring father, his wife lost a considerate husband, and his parents lost a good son.

Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was born in October 1968. Before his death, he worked for the Guangzhou City Epidemic Prevention Station, where he helped to monitor food safety in the Food Division. In December 1994, Mr. Rao started to practise Falun Gong. Subsequently, his body and mind changed completely. Everything improved. His old disease, rhinitis, was gone. He became a better person. Rao Zhuoyuan was recognized as an advanced worker in his unit, and he was more caring and considerate toward his family members.

When the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan went to the Guangzhou City Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government to appeal for Falun Gong. The Party Secretary of his workplace subsequently persecuted him. On September 7, 1999, Rao Zhuoyuan went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and returned to work on September 14. On the evening of September 16, a policeman named Lin from the Haizhu District New Harbor West Street Police Station, deceived Mr. Rao into going to the police station. Once there, he was abducted and taken to the Detention Centre and was held there for 15 days.

During the period from July 3, 2000 to August 25, 2000, while Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was at work, he was abducted and taken to the Jiangcun Mental Hospital and was held there for 54 days. After he was released from the mental hospital, Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was demoted from his position in food inspection to working in the supply room, where he cleaned bottles and did other odd jobs. His monthly salary was also reduced, first to 700 yuan (2), then to 380 yuan.

On the morning of September 4, 2001, Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was abducted by his workplace and taken to the notorious Guangzhou Reeducation School. He was forced to attend brainwashing classes and was not released until September 30.

After being released on September 30, Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was forced to become homeless in order to avoid further persecution. Unfortunately, on October 26, agents from the Haizhu District 610 Office found him and he was taken to the Detention Centre. Later, he was transferred to the Huadu City First Labour Camp. During this period, Mr. Rao went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. His weight dropped from 68 Kilograms (about 150 pounds) to 35 Kilograms (about 77 pounds). He was so emaciated that his appearance changed drastically. Even his family members couldn't recognize him. His little daughter was afraid of him and hid behind other people's backs. For a long time, she couldn't believe this person was her father.

Since Mr. Rao was so thin, he couldn't even be given intravenous (IV) feeding at the Labour Camp's medical office. In August 2001, he was sent to hospital. The doctors forced his family to sign a "guarantee statement" (3), and Mr. Rao was taken home under the terms of medical parole.

On January 19, 2002, while Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was recovering at home, the persecution of his wife Ms. Lin Qian began. The Haizhu District 610 Office instigated the abduction of Ms. Lin by her workplace at the Guangdong Province Oral Hospital. The head of the hospital's Political Security Section deceived Ms. Lin into going to an office on the sixth floor of the hospital building. In the office, four policemen were waiting for her. Still wearing her white hospital gown, Ms. Lin was taken to a police station, then she was sent to the brainwashing centre. Her husband had just come home after being brutally tortured, and now she was taken away from her family!

In June 2002 Police abducted Rao Zhuoyuan again and took him to the Huadu City Chini Forced Labour Camp.

After Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was abducted again, his family members strongly requested to visit him, but the authorities rejected their requests. When Mr. Rao was released from the Sifa Hospital several months earlier, he weighed only 35 Kilograms (about 77 pounds.) Mr. Rao was 1.7 meters (about 5'6") tall, and 35-Kilograms was dangerously thin for him. Because of Falun Dafa's miraculous power, however, he made a speedy recovery, but the persecution was relentless.

Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan's mother was very worried. Her son had just begun to recover, and then he was abducted again. On June 28, 2002, she went from Guangzhou City to the Chini Labour Camp to visit him, but the policemen at the labour camp lied to her and told her that her son had gone somewhere else to study. Heartbroken, Mr. Rao's mother went back to Guangzhou City.

The truth was, on June 26, Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was sent to hospital.His family was kept in the dark about his condition until July 1. On the afternoon of July 1, 2002, the authorities notified Ms. Lin Qian's work unit that her husband was in hospital. Nobody told Ms. Lin about her husband's condition before they went to the hospital.

Officer He Guichao said that he knew exactly what had happened. According to him, Mr. Rao had jumped from the seventh or eighth step in a flight of stairs, and then stood up and ran into the wall. This caused his fifth cervical vertebra to be fractured. Based on the CT image held by the director of the orthopedics department, a piece of broken bone was stuck in the fifth cervical vertebra. From a medical perspective, after Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan fell from the stairs, his fifth cervical vertebra sustained a compound fracture, which would logically lead to a general paralysis from the neck down. How then was he able to stand up and hit the wall? It is impossible. What policeman He Guichao described contradicts medical knowledge and common sense.

According to doctors, nurses and two inmates from the First Labour Camp who were taking care of Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan, when he was sent to the People's Hospital, he was conscious and could still talk, but the hospital and labour camp didn't notify his family right away. Only after he went into a coma did they bring his wife to the hospital.

When Ms. Lin Qian saw her husband, he couldn't speak, but tears kept running out of his eyes. His right ear and three quarters of his neck were swollen and filled with extravagated blood. His hands and feet showed signs of being rubbed and hit with a heavy object. There was a hematoma (a blood-filled swelling) on the top of his head (It was found out later that he had two hematomas on his head.) Since his head and neck had to be immobilized, Ms. Lin couldn't move his head to examine him. It wasn't until the end of July that she found there was another hematoma on the back of his head. When she questioned the doctor and asked to see his medical records, the doctor in-charge became very nervous. He couldn't answer her questions and refused to show her the medical records. The hospital also refused to allow Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan's family members to take care of him. The doctor in-charge said that Mr. Rao's condition was improving, and that there was no infection. However, tragedy struck again.

At around 8 p.m. on August 5, 2002, the director of the Huadu People's Hospital notified the Haizhu District 610 Office of Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan's death. The 610 Office then notified his family. Mr. Rao was only 34 years old when he died. Without his family's approval, the Huadu People's Hospital sent his body to the Huadu City Funeral Home. One week later, Yu Qiang, a member of the Haizhu District 610 Office, along with the director of Huadu City People's Hospital, members of Mr. Rao's former work unit (Guangzhou City Epidemic Prevention Station), and several other people held a discussion and decided to cremate Mr. Rao's body.

After Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan's death, policewoman Wen Chunlan from the Haizhu District 610 Office went to his wife's work unit to put pressure on her, and to slander her and prejudice officials there against her.

In China, the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners is still going on. Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan's family members are still living in terror and oppression. His elder brother, Mr. Rao Chaoyuan, is still being detained at the Number 3 Workshop, 4th Division, in the Sihui City Prison in Guangdong Province, and one of his legs is broken (as reported by Clearwisdom.net.)

In Guangdong Province, many practitioners are still illegally detained at various brainwashing centres (so-called law/reeducation schools), forced labour camps and prisons.

Kind-hearted people, we need your help to stop this persecution!

Note:

(1) "The 610 office" is 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) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

(3) "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/2/12/95345.html