Memorial Service Held for Murdered Ms Zhao Chunying in Jixi City, with Police Stationed Everywhere

On the morning of July 18th 2005, a memorial service for deceased Falun Dafa practitioner Ms Zhao Chunying was held at the Jixi City Funeral Home.

Zhao Chunying was 56 years old. She lived in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province. Because she told people about the goodness of Falun Dafa, she was arrested and sent to Jixi City Second Detention Centre on April 27th 2003. On May 10th 2003, her family was informed about her death. When they went to see the body, they saw that it was covered with bruises and wounds.

Zhao Chunying started to practise Falun Gong in 1998. Before she started practising, she suffered from thighbone necrosis and vertigo. As a result, she walked with a limp. However, she became a completely healthy woman after she took up the practice of Falun Gong. She walked lightly and benefited tremendously both physically and mentally. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Zhao Chunying appealed to the government, calling for an end to the persecution. She was arrested and sent to Wanjia Labour Camp in Harbin, where she was put through mental and physical torment. After she was released, she used the Internet to expose the torture that she experienced in the labour camp. For this, she was taken away from home by four policemen in April 2003. On April 17th 2003, she was sent to Jixi City Second Detention Centre. On May 10th 2003, her family was informed of her death.

Her body was placed in the Jixi Funeral Home. Her family was shocked when they saw her body. There were countless wounds and bruises all over her and her eyes were slightly open. Her face was blue and purple, a big cut was found on the back of her head and two of her ribs were broken. Her family decided to take some pictures of the body for future use in case they wanted to file a lawsuit against relevant parties. Seeing this, the morgue guard tried to stop them from taking pictures, citing the order from the police that no photos were allowed. Her family demanded their rights and they were finally allowed to take several pictures. The legal medical expert examined the body, but under pressure from the police, he claimed that the death was due to an illness.

In the two years that followed, her family kept appealing to the government, hoping to find justice for Zhao Chunying. However, all the relevant departments followed the so-called policy of "not accepting, hearing or handling any Falun Gong related case." In the end, Zhao's family had no choice but to accept the fabricated conclusion that Zhao Chunying's death was due to the delay of medical treatment and that Jixi City Second Detention Centre was "indirectly" responsible for the death. Together with the Jixi City Procuratorate, the detention centre paid Zhao's family fifty-five thousand yuan¹ as compensation.

While her family was appealing, Zhao Chunying's body was stored in the funeral home. On the surface, the Jixi City Second Detention Centre paid all the expenses when in fact the public security bureau in Jixi City provided funding.

At the memorial service, the public security bureau stationed a large number of plainclothes policemen inside and around the funeral home. Some patrolled inside the hall, while others stayed in cars. The police even disguised themselves as funeral home workers. Several minutes after the service began, even before some of the relatives and friends had entered the hall, the plainclothes policemen hastily took Zhao Chunying's body away to be cremated. The Zhao family and relatives were extremely upset by this.

That day, there were about a hundred of Falun Dafa practitioners from all parts of Jixi City who came to the funeral home to bid farewell to Zhao Chunying.

Note:

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/7/24/106895.html