Recalling Fellow Practitioner Mr. Gu Qun

Mr. Gu Qun, 50 years old, was a practitioner from Dalian City, Liaoning Province. On the afternoon of March 16th, 2008, the police from the Tianjin Street Police Station of Dalian City arrested him while he was distributing Falun Gong materials. The next day, he was transferred to the Yaojia Detention Centre in Dalian City. At about 2 p.m. on April 9th, 2008, his family was notified of his death.

Mr. Gu Qun

Mr. Gu appeared to be in his early 40's. He stood straight and walked quickly. His countenance was calm and compassionate. Compared to thirteen years ago when he was often sick, he was a different person.

Mr. Gu had been often sick most of his life and he was eager to become healthy. He had been to many places to look for a cure. Day after day and year after year, he spent more time and money but his illnesses became worse. When he had almost lost hope in life, he found Falun Gong. He had the chance to come to Teacher Li's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong] lecture in Dalian City. July 1st, 1994 was a memorable day. After eight days of classes, Mr. Gu completely changed. His illnesses were cured and he was full of energy. His experience of the physical benefits and his witness to Falun Gong's mighty power brought him more confidence in his practice of Falun Gong.

In his work, Mr. Gu did not abuse his power and always looked inward when problems occurred. When he saw his customers experiencing difficulties, he would help them without letting them know. He treated them like his relatives and friends. Some of his customers wanted to give him gifts or money to show their gratitude but he refused to accept it. He had established a very good reputation.

The housing availability was often scarce at that time. Allocating a house was often like warfare. In order to help resolve the conflicts, Mr. Gu gave up his allocated house to others. His action became a favorite story in the Bureau of Industry and Commerce where he worked. The person in charge of allocating the houses was touched by him. Mr. Gu's actions were rooted in the belief in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

During the five years of his practising up to 1999, Mr. Gu had gone to the Dalian Labour Park every morning to voluntarily teach the exercises and spread Falun Gong. After the persecution started, he saw many practitioners arrested, beaten and detained. Good and evil were inverted. He felt he had to do something. In February 2002, he went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution. Since then, he was persecuted constantly. He was arrested, detained or sentenced to forced labour six times and suffered brutal torture. However, he always firmly believed in Falun Gong.

During the last eight years, Mr. Gu was compassionately exposing the persecution of Falun Gong to people everywhere he went no matter what the circumstances. He wanted to help people see through the lies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and thus treat practitioners kindly. He was anxious to let more people know the truth.

On the afternoon of March 16th, 2008, the police from the Tianjin Street Police Station arrested Mr. Gu while he was distributing Falun Gong materials. The next day, he was transferred to the Yaojia Detention Centre. He held a hunger strike to protest his arrest but he was brutally force-fed. His body suffered serious injury from the force-feeding. Later, he was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour.

On April 7th, 2008, the detention centre officials sent him to the Dalian City Third People's Hospital. The doctors made the decision to keep him in the hospital for treatment, but the detention centre officials insisted on sending him to the Police Department Hospital. In fact, they didn't send him there. Instead, they brought him back to the detention centre. At around 9 a.m. on August 8th, he was sent to the Dalian City Third People's Hospital again despite the fact that he had died in the detention centre. The detention centre officials had staged this to shirk their responsibility. They also tried to block news of his death from spreading and didn't tell his family until around 2 p.m. on April 9th, 2008.

Mr. Gu's elderly mother became ill upon hearing the news. His elderly father was grieving and crying. His daughter, who was studying in Germany, still had not been told the news.

Mr. Gu's father tried to seek justice for his son and sent an appeal letter to the Dalian City Procuratorate. But his letter was returned to him due to the policy of the procurator not accepting any appeals related to Falun Gong. His father managed to send his letter to the Dalian City Politics and Law Committee. But his letter was transferred to the Xigang District Police Department with an instruction to compensate his father with some money. Mr. Gu's father was a high ranking official in the government. This was a true insult.

The period of time from Mr. Gu's arrest until his death was only 23 days. The brutality of the persecution is hard to imagine. There are over 65 confirmed deaths due to the persecution of Falun Gong in Dalian City. The CCP's crimes are unpardonable.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/4/25/199565.html