Mr. Zhang Kunyang, 55, Dies in Sichuan Province

Name: Zhang Kunyang
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Address: Changchi Town, Najiang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan Province
Occupation: Coal Miner
Date of Death: July 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 29th, 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wumaping Prison in Leshan City
City: Bazhong
Province: Sichuan
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, torture, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Mr. Zhang Kunyang worked in the coal mines for many years, and was sick with industrial pneumoconiosis. He was diagnosed with third degree tertiary silicosis in 2004, and was receiving disability benefits from the Guangyuan City Labour Bureau. That same year he fractured his shoulder blade in a traffic accident. He started practising Falun Gong when there was no hope for him to survive. Soon after he began practising, his health greatly improved.

On May 29th, 2006, police arrested many Falun Gong practitioners, including Mr. Zhang, because many Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution had been appearing in Nanjiang County. Mr. Zhang was sentenced to two years of imprisonment, and taken to the Wumaping Prison in Leshan City. He was inhumanly tortured there and forced to sign the statements to renounce practising Falun Gong against his will.

Upon returning home in 2008, local Domestic Security agents and officers and community administrators often came to his door to harass him and force him to write "thought reports." Nanjiang County State Security agent He Caiguo asked Mr. Zhang multiple times to be a spy to help monitor local practitioners, but Mr. Zhang absolutely refused. Officers watched him closely, forbidding him to go out of town.

The long term brutal mistreatment and harassment caused Mr. Zhang's family to blame him for all these sufferings. Mr. Zhang's silicosis recurred and developed into emphysema, and he died in July 2009.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/4/11/221339.html