Three Practitioners from Neimenggu Province, Hebei Province, and Liaoning Province Died because of the Persecution of Falun Dafa

1. Ms. Wang Shuying was 51 years old. She was from the Manzhouli City, Neimenggu Province. She started to practise Dafa in 1996. In November 2000, police searched her home and found some materials exposing the persecution. They "illegally detained¹" her at a detention centre for one year. Ms. Wang got sick because of long-term detention and persecution. In April 2001 and August 2002, she was sent to a brainwashing centre and went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. The brainwashing centre then force-fed her. Her husband was also detained for six months simply because his wife was a Falun Dafa practitioner. Later on, police stopped by her home several times and harassed her. Ms. Wang Shuying died on January 22nd, 2006.

2. Ms. Wang Guanying was from Dingzhou City of Hebei Province. She used to have bronchitis, heart diseases, high blood pressure, insomnia, and many other illnesses. She started to practise Falun Dafa in 1996. Soon after that, she became healthy, and she was able to work again. Her family was very happy about her improvements. On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution of Falun Gong. Ms. Wang wrote a letter to appeal to higher authorities to explain the true situation of Falun Gong. The Dingzhou police arrested her because of this. They illegally detained her for 50 days at the Dingzhou Detention Centre in late September, 2000. Policeman Lu Shujun from the Criminal Branch beat her and forced her to sit on the tiger bench². He didn't let her sleep, and he would wake her up immediately the second she closed her eyes. She wasn't able to get any sleep for 50 days, which caused her high blood pressure to come back. Ms. Wang fainted away several times. She had bruises all over her face. Policewoman Lu was very vicious. She beat and cursed Wang and tried to force her to write the so-called "guarantee letter³" to give up practising Dafa. The police refused to let her family visit her. In order to get her out, her family catered to the police and invited them to dinners, spending over 30,000 yuan⁴ before she was released to get medical treatment.

After Ms. Wang was released, the police didn't allow her to go anywhere. Because they took away her identity card, she had to report to the police station every time she went out, even to visit her relatives and friends. She had to pay 10 yuan to pick up her identity card every time before she could go out. Otherwise, the police would arrest her. The police often came to her home to harass her. On the national holidays or any holidays, the police would search her home and threaten her. They didn't allow her to practise the Falun Gong exercises. They stopped by any time they liked, which made her very nervous. She couldn't go to sleep and she got anxious every time she heard a police car siren. She was even afraid of people knocking at her door. She had to take pills to sleep. The authorities continued to persecute her relentlessly. Ms. Wang suffered a lot both physically and mentally. She died from taking too many sleeping pills.

3. Ms. Li Jing was 79 years old. A retired elementary school teacher, she had taught at the Huanren County Elementary School in Liaoning Province. She had many illnesses before she started to practise Falun Dafa in 1998. After she became a Dafa practitioner, she became healthy. In April 2000, she went to Beijing to appeal to higher authorities to end the persecution. The police detained her for a month. In 2003, they illegally arrested her when she was distributing materials leaflets exposing the persecution in her area. She was detained for two weeks. Later on, the police repeatedly stopped by her home to harass her and threaten her. She suffered a lot both physically and mentally. She died on January 24th, 2006.

Note

1. Illegally arrested: Contrary to what former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who initiated the persecution, and the Chinese Communist Party would like the world to believe, practising Falun Gong is NOT illegal in China. Although the Public Security Department issued an unconstitutional set of restraints on the practice at the onset of the persecution in 1999, no laws have been passed by the only legislative body in China, the People's Congress, banning Falun Gong or granting the police the authority to arrest Falun Gong practitioners for practising the exercises or distributing flyers. For a more complete discussion of the illegality of the persecution of Falun Gong, please refer to the article "The Ban on Falun Gong—A Dictator's Whim, Not the Rule of Law". (Variation: "illegally sentenced")

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

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.

4. "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/2006/3/5/122097.html