The True Face of the Hebei Rape "Special Case Team"

In Zhuozhou City, Hebei Province, policeman He Xuijian of the Dongchenfang Police Department raped two women Falun Gong practitioners who were in police custody. It has been 56 days since the Zhuozhou rapes. Yet this matter still has not been satisfactorily resolved. Subjected to public pressure worldwide, a proper resolution of the case once seemed quite possible.

Rapist He Xuejian was arrested on December 11th, 2005. On December 19th, the "special case team" was established, with the head of the Baoding City Police Department in charge. On December 25th, the head of the Zhuozhou Police Department was removed from office.

Then on January 6th, 2006, Hebei police in Zhongguancun arrested four Zhuozhou practitioners. Additional arrests followed, exposing the true face of the "special case team." The so-called "special case team" was formed, not for the purpose of sincerely getting justice for the victims, but to use prevailing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tactics to get revenge against practitioners who exposed the crime.

Zhuozhou practitioner Li Gang (alias) is in police detention and his life is presently in danger. The rampant revenge of the "special case team" indicates their ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in every sense, leaving no option but to arouse heightened public scrutiny.

According to news published on the Minghui website on January 19th, many policemen arrested "four practitioners who were shopping in Zhongguancun, Beijing. The police took them into custody on the first floor of the Maoyi Building. The arresting officers then covered the practitioners' heads and took them to the 4th floor of the Huadu Hotel in Gaobeidian City. Officials from the Gaobeidian Police Department dispatched several agents from the criminal police unit to interrogate these four practitioners and later returned them to the Zhuozhou Detention Centre."

All of the four practitioners lived in Zhuozhou City. Why did the Hebei police come to Beijing to arrest them? Why didn't they send the practitioners directly back to Zhuozhou instead of to Gaobeidian? The reason is simple. If they had arrested the practitioners in Zhuozhou, it would have been too apparent as an act of revenge and might have aroused too much attention and more protests. This would be more to their disadvantage than to their advantage. Arresting people in another city and then sending them back to Zhuozhou not only deceives people but is also an attempt to intimidate the local practitioners.

Of course, the Zhuozhou City 610 Office¹ and the new head of the police department should be held responsible, because these four Zhuozhou practitioners were already under their surveillance. The officials who arrested the practitioners in Zhongguancun were their people. However, the Beijing-Gaobeidian-Zhuozhou operation has gone far beyond Zhuozhou City. It indicates that only the Baoding City Police Department agents or even the Hebei Province Police Department is able to operate on such a scale. Who is the head of the "special case team?" Isn't it the head of Baoding City Police Department?

Circumstances concerning the rape case are quite clear. The Hebei Province "610 Office" held a meeting on the persecution of Falun Gong in Zhuozhou. The Dongchengfang Town Political and Judiciary Committee head Song Xiaobin and the heads of police stations took this opportunity to fine practitioners without any reason. During this wave of persecution, police officer He Xuejian raped the two women practitioners, an indisputable fact. There are victims, witnesses and physical evidence in this case. Is it so difficult to solve this case? What are the duties of the head of the "special case team?" What does the team deal with if it doesn't handle these matters?

Before the four practitioners were arrested on January 6th, a Standing Committee convention was held in Baoding City. Through the related municipal branches involved, we learned that a unanimous resolution had been passed that "practising Falun Gong at home was allowed." It doesn't mean that those Standing Committee members understand and support Falun Gong. Nowadays there are so many social issues and every leader is afraid to take responsibility. Such a resolution [people allowed to practise at home] comes from the lesson learned from the Dongchengfang rape case. If those practitioners were not unreasonably arrested and taken from home, how could such an arrest constitute a disturbance that would affect "social stability [as the CCP claims]?" However, just after the resolution [allowing practising at home] was publicised, the "special case team" made another arrest.

"Allowing practising at home" is not rare. Such pronouncements are found in many places these days, something seemingly common as far as it appears, but it is far from the simple requirements of Falun Gong. What will happen if the practitioner doesn't practise at home? What if several practitioners gather at a home? How about practitioners posting materials leaflets exposing the persecution? When they arrested the four Zhuozhou practitioners, the practitioners were not in Zhuozhou. It was right after the practitioners bought PC related materials "meant for producing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution." They arrested the practitioners at the busiest place in Beijing, showing their loyalty to those CCP higher authorities who made the policy to persecute Falun Gong

This matter is far from over. After the arrest of the four practitioners on January 6, the head of the Baoding Police Department promised seriously that the case of He Xuejian would be closed on January 12th. We have not seen anything to that effect. What we saw instead is the arrest of six more practitioners in Zhuozhou City on January 12th and 13th, 2006, signalling another wave of revenge.

The rapes happened in Dongchengfang Town, in western Zhuozhou. Many people in that region know of the scandal. It seems that is the reason the officials targeted the location for their revenge arrests in the west of Zhuozhou, in Yihezhuang Township and in Matou Township. Three of the practitioners were quickly released after paying a ransom. Practitioner Zhao Xu from Matou Township was released after paying a 5,000 yuan² "fine." This was similar to Song Xiaobin and others in Dongchengfang Town unreasonably fining practitioners.

The latest acts further prove that the so-called "allowing practising Falun Gong at home" is an unbelievable lie! The head of the "special case team" has already said that he is "handling He Xuejian as a minor offender." This is a crucial point in a dangerous turn of events in the Hebei rape case!

Here we call on people around the world: please, help the Zhuozhou practitioner Li Gang, whose life is in danger due to the persecution!

Please pay attention to the rampant revenge the persecutors are taking in implementing the policy of persecution of Falun Gong to cover up the He Xuejian rape case.

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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/1/22/119207.html