Four Practitioners Died Due to Persecution

Mr. Lai Changming, 71, was a practitioner from Laijiawan Village, Kongbang Town, Hubei Province. He used to suffer from various diseases before he started his Falun Gong practice in 1996. His illnesses all disappeared not long after. Police officers arrested him in October 2000 while he was on his way to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. They sent him to Kongbang to be tortured. Local police detained him for over 40 days at Xinzhou Detention Centre and forced him to go to the Liuji Brainwashing Centre at a cost of over 3000 yuan¹. After he returned home, local policemen and other perpetrators frequently came to his home to harass and threaten him, keeping him from his practice of Falun Gong. He died in 2005.

Ms. Wang Zhihua, 73, was a practitioner from Qiaojiaying Village, Huanggaizhang Town, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. After she began to practise Falun Gong in 1997, her heart disease and arthritis disappeared. Since the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20th, 1999, policemen and local government officials came to search and ransack her house numerous times, frequently threatening and verbally abusing her. In November 2004, head of the 610 Office², Political and Legal Committee Secretary, Village Secretary, and Village Head all came and searched Ms. Wang's home and took away her Dafa books. These people often came to her home, threatening and harassing her, which caused her to go into a daze and later become seriously ill. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the Zhangjiakou City Hospital. She died half a year later at home on August 21st, 2005.

Ms. Wang Shumei, 62, was a Dafa practitioner from Huhai, Inner Mongolia. In 2004, she was harassed and threatened by the local police for telling the facts of Falun Dafa to people, and she was forced to go to a brainwashing centre. She was diagnosed with cancer in October 2004 and died soon after.

Ms. Guan Yufeng, 64, was a practitioner from Xinbing County, Fushun City, Liaoning Province. She started practising Falun Gong in 1996, and all of her illnesses soon disappeared. After the persecution began in July 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. Near the end of 2003, several policemen from the Xinbing Police Station suddenly came to her home in a van and searched and ransacked her home and removed Dafa books. They also took Ms. Guan to the police station. Her two sons hurried to the police station as soon as they heard the news an hour later, but the police told them that they would have to pay 5000 yuan to get their mother released. Ms. Guan refused to let her sons do this and continued to explain the facts of Falun Dafa to the officers, but her efforts were in vain. The police refused to release her. Not willing to see their mother confined in the police station around Chinese New Year time, they finally agreed to pay 1000 yuan for her release. As her two sons didn't practise Falun Gong, they were forced to sign her release paper and write a so-called "guarantee statement³." In order not to be harassed again by the police after the Chinese New Year, as it is quite often the case, Ms. Guan left home for over a month. During this time, her old physical problems returned. In the end, she was diagnosed with severe diabetes and related diseases. She died on May 20th, 2005.

Note

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

2. "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.

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.ca/mh/articles/2005/12/8/116084.html