Press Release: Falsified Reports, Immediate Cremation Used to Conceal Those Tortured to Death

Various torture methods are adopted to coerce Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs. Regional police are instructed that any deaths due to abuse in custody are to be counted as suicide. [Read more...]

According to reliable sources in China, since Communist Party head Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Fu had been kidnapped and taken away to brainwashing classes and detention centres several times, and had been incarcerated in a mental hospital for one month. Ms. Fu had protested her detentions with hunger strikes.

On one occasion, sources say she was tied up and beaten for 47 days before being sent to a labour camp. Shortly after her release from the labour camp in July 2002, she was kidnapped again by Chinese officials and taken to the Hanjiang District brainwashing class, where she conducted another hunger strike. Sources say her captors continued to torture her until it became apparent she would die.

Authorities sent her home on August 6, 2002. She died the same day.

Sources say Hanjiang District brainwashing class is currently torturing numerous Falun Gong practitioners. They are also forced to watch government propaganda shows.

Extensive Torture Common Cause of Death Amongst Falun Gong Practitioners

Reports from China indicate that Falun Gong practitioners who are arrested and imprisoned are routinely tortured in an attempt to force them to give up their belief. The following are recent cases of death by torture that have been confirmed by the European Falun Gong Information Centre:

A clothes manufacturing company employee, Xiao Chengrui, was arrested twice from 2001-2002. On January 2nd, 2002, Xiao went to a local hotel to talk to people about Falun Gong and was arrested by the police for the second and last time. He was jailed, tortured severely until he was emaciated, and injected with an unknown drug that hastened the deterioration of his health. In early June of 2002, the detention centre staff realized that Xiao was dying, and about two days later they sent him home. His family members did their best to save his life; however, he died on the morning of July 17, 2002. Seven months of detention life took a healthy man's life.

Chen Yanying travelled to Beijing to peacefully appeal and was illegally detained. From October 1999, she was detained for 6 months and went on a hunger strike. She was released 8 days later. The following October, she was arrested again and detained for more than 2 months, only being released after a 9-day hunger strike. Several months later she was sent to a labour camp and tortured relentlessly to give up her belief in Falun Gong. She became very thin from extensive hunger strikes, and after one year of persecution, her health had deteriorated close to the edge of death. The labour camp police were afraid of taking responsibility for her condition and notified her family members to take her home. She was dead four hours after she reached her home.

Liu Zhi was detained and tortured three times before her death. Her body was cremated against her family’s wishes, and her ashes were not returned.

Bai Xiuhua, was dismissed from her job because she practiced Falun Gong. She had been arrested 3 times. To avoid further persecution, she became homeless, but was arrested on July 8th, 2002. She began a hunger strike on the same day in protest. Her abdomen was severely injured from physical abuse at the hands of the police to the extent that she was unable to relieve herself, and she died on August 28th.

Dou Hejun was kidnapped in Zhengzhou City at the end of 2000. He was detained at Wei County Detention Centre among other places. He died as a result of persecution several months later.

In August 2001 the Cangzhou City Public Security Bureau illegally arrested Wei Chaozong from his residence. They whipped him with leather belt and slapped him in the face. The next day, he was sent to Cangzhou City No.1 Labour Camp. Wei protested the illegal detention by starting a hunger strike. The policemen used all kinds of instruments to torture him. When they got tired, they would order 5 or 6 prisoners to beat him. At the same time they would say: “Beat him. If he dies, he’s killed himself.” Since Wei continued his hunger strike, the policemen tied him to an iron bed. They threatened him, and kept tightening the belt on his body until his right arm became much longer than his left one. The belt cut into his flesh and he lost consciousness. After the torture, his right arm became one cun (Chinese inch) longer his left arm and it couldn’t move freely any more. They tortured him until he looked like a very old man with a hunchback. On April 17, 2002, the Cangzhou Public Security Bureau arrested Wei and his wife without reason. Wei was transferred to a different labour camp and still wouldn’t cooperate with the policemen and refused to give up his beliefs. The policemen were furious and put him under watch 24-hours a day. If he moved without permission, he was slapped in the face. If the policemen were in a bad mood, he was kicked, beaten, or even hanged. They gave him 1 steamed bun each day to eat. 3 months later, he looked like a skeleton and was barely breathing. To avoid being responsible for killing him, the labour camp asked his elder brother to take him home on August 1st. They also forced his brother to write a letter of repentance for him. Wei couldn’t eat or drink when he got home, and died on August 10th, leaving two young children behind.

Wang Baoxian was illegally given a 3-year labour “re-education” sentence in 1999 and imprisoned in Nianzishan Railway Labour Camp. He suffered inhumane treatment and was transferred Fuyu Labour Camp one year later. When seeing a fellow practitioner being persecuted, he cried out “Stop,” and the policemen beat him and added another half-year to his term. In June 2000, he and a group of practitioners started a hunger strike, which caused the policemen to beat and curse them. He was transferred to Fuyu Detention Centre and put with a cellmate who was ordered to beat Wang for a reward of a steamed bun to eat. He was forbidden to drink or use the toilet. By August 2002, Wang was dead.

Falsified Information Used to Conceal Murder

It is common practice for Chinese police and other authorities to falsify information so as to conceal the death of Falun Gong practitioners who have died from torture. According to sources in China, one method used is to report that practitioners have “jumped” or “fallen” from a building or other high places. The reports are circulated to practitioners’ families, society and the media to further damage the reputation of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners by associating Falun Gong with acts of desperation or suicide. The following are recent cases that have been confirmed by the European Falun Gong Information Centre in which information was falsified to conceal the murder of practitioners.

Liu Jiming travelled to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong several times. She was detained at Qingdao city Dashan Detention Centre. After October 2000, to avoid police harassment, Liu was forced to into homelessness and on August 14, 2002, the city police arrested her. She was sent to Rehe Road police substation and later to a brainwashing centre in Qingdao City at Dashan Detention Centre. However, she was rejected in both places because she didn’t pass the physical examination. The policemen of Rehe Rd. Police Substation put her in an iron cage for several days to force her to write a guarantee letter giving up Falun Gong. Liu refused and went on a hunger strike for 8 days. On August 25th, at 10:30 a.m., the Rehe Road Police Substation notified Liu’s family that she had jumped out of a building and killed herself at 2:00 in the morning, more than 8 hours earlier. Despite being under 24-hour surveillance and weak from her hunger strike, the police insisted that they were unable to stop Liu from jumping. Under her family members’ insistence, they were allowed to see her body, which was damaged beyond recognition.

Rao Zhuoyuan was kidnapped by the police in the middle of June and detained in Guangzhou No.1 Labour Camp. Since he refused to give up Falun Gong, he was beaten and handcuffed to a basketball hoop every day. Later, he “fell” from a 5th floor window for some unknown reason and broke his neck. The police tried to hide the circumstances surrounding his “fall” by not allowing his family members to visit. When they were finally allowed to see him, his vertebra were fractured. He couldn’t speak, but was in tears. He passed away in early August.

Evidence of Death by Torture Concealed by Cremating Remains

Sources in China say the physical torture endured by Falun Gong practitioners before death is often so severe that authorities purposefully cremate the bodies in order to conceal incriminating physical evidence. In most cases the families of the murdered practitioners are not notified of the intent to cremate the remains, or are forced into signing a consent release. The following cases of forced cremation, used to conceal torture and abuse, have recently been confirmed by the Falun Dafa Information Centre.

Since December 1999, Liu Liyun was kidnapped, detained and sent to brainwashing classes three times. She was illegally sentenced to 4 years in jail on December 6, 2001 and died seven months later. The prison claimed that Liu died of disease, but informants said that prison employees beat her to death, and the prison forcibly cremated her body in an attempt to conceal the truth. The day after her death, four police officers went to Liu’s father’s home and told him that his daughter was dead and he would not be allowed to see the body without agreeing to cremation. Because of his refusal to sign, they held and monitored him for three days. Following this intense pressure, the police forced the elderly, illiterate man to sign a release form for Liu’s remains. He was taken to a dark room where Liu’s body was being kept, and allowed to only see her head, which was noticeably swollen. After that, Liu’s body was immediately removed for cremation.

On the morning of July 19, 2002, Zhi Guixiayang was illegally arrested, and the next day other practitioners saw her at a local police station. She was very weak and said that she had been beaten and was suffering from severe internal injuries. By July 25, Zhi was dying. Zhi’s mother was denied visitation, and Zhi was dead two days later. Shortly afterwards her body was cremated without notifying her parents. The police claimed that that Zhi had died because of a hunger strike.

Liu Zhi went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong three times after July 20, 1999 and was imprisoned and tortured each time. Due to many local practitioners being sent to brainwashing classes, Liu was forced to flee into homelessness. Three months later, she returned home and half a dozen police officers arrested her. Shortly afterwards, Liu Zhi's family was notified that she had died while attempting to escape by hanging a clothesline out the window from the third floor. While escaping, the rope broke and she fell to the ground. She was sent to Jingzhou City hospital and died due to ineffective emergency care. The director of the detention centre said that she had kidney disease and had damaged her kidney in her fall. Liu Zhi's husband said that she never had kidney disease and requested to see the case report, or photos of the case location, or his wife’s dead body. All requests were refused and Liu’s family members were forced to sign a document stating that they approved of the cremation of her body and that there would be no funeral. Liu's family was also threatened that if they insisted on investigating the cause of Liu's death, her body would be desecrated. Liu's husband refused to sign for the cremation, and on August 27th he was notified that his wife’s body would be cremated in five minutes. The cremation was forcefully carried out without her family members' permission or presence, and her ashes were not returned to her family members.

Background

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” It is a practice that was taught in private for thousands of years before being made public in 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture, but it is distinct and separate from other practices such as the religions of Buddhism and Taoism. Since its introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China, and is now practiced in over 50 countries.

With government estimates of as many as 100 million practicing Falun Gong, China's President Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999, fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds of more citizens than the Communist Party. Unable to crush the spirit of millions who had experienced improved health and positive life changes from Falun Gong, Jiang’s regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practice while quietly imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practice it.

The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 480 deaths since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll is well over 1,600. Over 100,000 have been detained, with more than 20,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps without trial.