12 Falun Gong
Deaths in 14 Days
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September 19, 2002 (Australian Falun Dafa
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On one occasion, sources say she was tied |
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… ] |
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 Falun Dafa Information Center:
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 center 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 traveled 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 labor 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 labor 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.
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 Center among other places. He died
as a result of persecution several months later.
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.
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 Labor 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 labor 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 labor 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 labor “re-education”
sentence in 1999 and imprisoned in Nianzishan Railway Labor Camp. He
suffered inhumane treatment and was transferred Fuyu Labor 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 Center 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 Falun Dafa Information Center
in which information was falsified to conceal the murder of practitioners.
Liu Jiming traveled to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong several times.
She was detained at Qingdao city Dashan Detention Center. 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 center in Qingdao
City at Dashan Detention Center. 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 Labor 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 to conceal torture
and abuse have recently been confirmed by the Falun Dafa Information
Center.
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 she was beaten to
death by prison employees, 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 center 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.
Posting date: 22/Sep/2002
Original article date: 20/Sep/2002
Category: News from China & Media Release
