610 Office of Dandong City Political and Judiciary Committee Responsible for Arresting Falun Gong Practitioners and Sending Them to Brainwashing Centres

After conducting a special 610 Office [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong] meeting, officials from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 610 Office, of the Political and Judiciary Committee in Dandong City, instructed officers from the police department in Dandong and officials from the 610 Offices in different counties and districts to arrest Falun Gong practitioners. The police subsequently harassed practitioners and their relatives, and ordered practitioners to write a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong while threatening to arrest and send them to brainwashing centres.

In late August 2010, police harassed practitioners from Dandong and Fengcheng. Officials from their workplaces and neighbourhood committees also participated in the harassment. Within just one week, August 25th-31st, six practitioners from Donggang were arrested, including Xiu Yuan, Xiu Yan (already released), Zhang Wei (escaped), Dong Yinhong, Deng Min, and Han Nuan.

The Donggang City Police Department held another meeting on September 3rd. It was said that they made plans to widely persecute practitioners. In that meeting, a group was established to be in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. They planned to re-investigate all practitioners in Donggang. This was the second large-scale persecution in that city, which took place after the large-scale house ransackings and arrests in December 2009. It was also the first step of the so-called "Return Project" conducted by the CCP to persecute Falun Gong in the Dandong area.

During the first large-scale house ransackings and arrests, 14 practitioners and their relatives were arrested by officials from the 610 Office of the Political and Judiciary Committee and the police departments in Dandong and Donggang. Four practitioners were sentenced to imprisonment, two practitioners were tried, and two other practitioners were given a guarantor pending trial.

Arresting Falun Gong practitioners and their relatives, extorting money from them, and ransacking their homes has become a popular way of making money among Dandong 610 Office personnel. Many officials in Dandong obtained their political capital and higher positions this way. Thus, they persecute practitioners unscrupulously.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/9/9/229404.html