Falun Dafa Practitioner Mr. Zou Yuantao from Hubei Province, Died as a Result of Persecution

Mr. Zou Yuantao, 34, was an employee at the 609 Institute of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Industrial Ministry in Xiangfan City, Hubei Province. In late November 1998, he started practising Falun Gong. After July 20th, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong began, he went to appeal, practised Falun Gong and distributed materials exposing the persecution, all in accordance with the law. However, he was repeatedly persecuted by Jiang Zemin's regime, unjustly detained, and brutally tortured in detention centres, mental hospitals, and labour camps.

On the evening of July 25th, 2001, Mr. Zou went to visit a fellow practitioner in Xiangfan City. He was reported and local police arrested him. That night he was taken to the detention centre of the Xiangcheng Police Department. On the second day, Sun Yanjun, the instructor from the Longzhong Police Station, and police officer Yang Weiqiang, sent him to a "Law Education Class" (a brainwashing class), which was located at the Qilidian Forced Labour Camp in Xiangfan City, intending to force him to give up his practice.

Mr. Zou Yuantao didn't cooperate and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" He was dragged from the first floor to his prison cell on the third floor and beaten. Wang Zhiyong, a monitor in the First Division;, 27-year-old Li Peng, who was head of the No. 105 room;, and other prisoners, including 23-year-old Lin Xiangyun, Liu Wei, 20-year-old Li Donghu, and 23-year-old Zhang Zhen, took turns beating him. They kicked him, pulled out his hair and hit his chest with their knees. They also held his arms up like an "airplane," whipped his back with a rubber tube several inches in diameter, burned his toes with cigarettes, and smashed his hands and feet with stools. They tortured Mr. Zou from 10:00 a.m. in the morning until dinnertime, causing him many injuries. They forced him to stand for the entire night and did not allow him to sleep.

Zou Yuantao held a hunger strike twice in the forced labour camp. He was then force-fed by the camp officials. Five or six prisoners grasped his hands and feet and held him down. One person forced his legs down with a stool, while another person held his head and pinched his nose. Someone pried his teeth open with a bamboo stick and shoved one third of a cola bottle into his mouth, which almost choked him. His throat was injured and he vomited blood.

On August 13th, Mr. Zou went held a hunger strike for the second time. On the fifth day of the hunger strike, the labour camp still forced him to work. He could not stand and fell down. Monitor Wang Zhiyong and Chief Zhu of the labour camp dragged him outside into the hot sun. He was not taken back to the prison cell until he almost collapsed. Chief Shi from the labour camp threatened, "I’ll kill you just like killing an ant. Even though you go on a hunger strike, you must still work for me. If you die, it will be counted as suicide!"

By the sixth day, Zou Yuantao could not stand but only lay on the bed. Wang Zhiyong, Li Peng, and Lin Xiangyun dragged him downstairs and to the outside and forced him to stand in line. As a result, Mr. Zou collapsed on the ground and they just left him there. After mealtime, they carried him back to the prison cell. By the seventh day, Mr. Zou was in critical condition and severely dehydrated. The labour camp was afraid of being held responsible and told his family to take him home.

In order to avoid further persecution, Mr. Zou was forced to become homeless. In October 2003, he was arrested again and sentenced to two year's imprisonment. He was sent to the Shayang Forced Labour Camp. Since he refused to cooperate with the guards, he was strictly monitored. Guard Yu Bangqing of the No. 9 Division beat him with electric batons and belts. The No. 9 Division of the Shayang Forced Labour Camp (the former No. 3 Division) is the special division to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The guards force practitioners to squat down for a long time in order to force them to give up practising Falun Gong. Otherwise, they just shock practitioners with electric batons and instigate prisoners to curse and beat practitioners at will. If any practitioner does not obey, he is punished more severely. The evildoers say that the camp officials order them to do those things. The labour camp not only extorts money from practitioners by forcing them to do hard labour without payment, but also tries all means to extort money mailed to practitioners by their families. On the outside, the rate for phone calls is a few pennies per minute, but in the camp they charge two yuan¹ per minute.

Mr. Zou Yuantao was brutally tortured in the Shayang Forced Labour Camp. After he was released in late 2005, his health did not improve and he became even weaker. He passed away on June 24th, 2006.

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/7/18/133327.html