8/29/2003

(Clearwisdom.net)

Falun Gong practitioner Ouyang Ming was a school teacher in Huanggang City, Hubei Province. Because he was relatively young (in his 40's), knowledgeable about computers (which allowed him to more easily break through the information blockade aimed at keeping truthful information about Falun Gong out of China) and firm in his determination in practicing Falun Gong, he was looked upon by officials as one of the most "dangerous" practitioners in terms of his ability of exposing the persecution. For nearly three years and seven months after January 2000, Ouyang Ming lived under the constant shadow of dread and threat caused by the persecution, and was detained by police a total of 4 times. The following are some of the facts provided by other practitioners who knew his situation.

Ouyang Ming's first detention was in April 2000, when he was abducted and sent to a brainwashing class aimed at forcing him to give up his beliefs. After being released, he was sentenced to the Shizishan Forced Labor Camp for one year because he still refused to give up practicing Falun Gong. In April 2002, just one month after being released from the labor camp, the Huanggang City police abducted him once again and sent him to the Huanggang City Number 1 Detention Center for more than a year. According to Ouyang Ming himself, he had continuous fever and coughing for nearly a month since May 2003. In mid-June, under near death conditions, the police sentenced him to two years in the Shayang Forced Labor Camp. When the labor camp's doctors conducted an x-ray examination and found a puncture wound in his lung and numerous internal ailments (caused by police beating and torture), they refused to accept him. In order to evade responsibility for his critical heath condition, the police contacted Ouyang Ming's ex-wife (who they had forced to divorce him) on June 24, and sent Ouyang to the City's Respiratory Disease Hospital. When other practitioners went to the hospital to see him, the guards at the hospital told them that Ouyang had Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis, and numerous serious internal ailments. The police in the detention center should have provided a prognosis record for Ouyang's conditions, but instead they kept them secret. After practitioners saw Ouyang, he was a completely different person than before. He was like a walking skeleton and was very sensitive to the cold. He also had an uncontrollable cough. Even though he was in his 40's, he appeared to be like someone in his late 50's. He was extremely fragile and needed two people to hold him when walking.

At the City's Respiratory Disease Hospital, Ouyang did not have anyone to help him out. His parents had passed away, and his two brothers were both overseas. His ex-wife was also not around. Neither his working unit nor the police sent anyone to look after him, and he had no income at all. All the fees charged by the detention center and the hospital were paid by his ex-wife. After four days at the hospital, there was no apparent improvement in his health, so Ouyang asked to be discharged from the hospital so he could go home. On July 10 he moved from his home to the house of another Falun Gong so they could take care of him. The other practitioner cooked and took care of his personal needs, and he was quite content in that environment. After a while his health improved and he could study the Falun Gong books and do the exercises on a daily basis, and his life was basically back to normal.

Between the later part of July and early August, Ouyang asked other practitioners to send truth clarification materials to his friends, administrators and management officials in his parents' workplace (the Huanggang City Food Bureau), hoping that they could have a proper understanding of Falun Gong. When the police found out, they declared that they wouldn't let him off that easy and tried to track him down once again. On August 19, he felt a bit tired so he did not do his regular Fa study and exercise practice. When another practitioner asked him if he felt uncomfortable, he said he was fine, other than feeling a bit uptight. He appeared to be normal and had his regular meal. In the early morning of August 20 around 1:30 a.m., he said that he would write a letter to his ex-wife and child the next day, asking for their understanding and wishing them all the best.

In the morning, when others tried to awake him for breakfast, they found that he had passed away. When they changed his clothes, they noticed that there were large dark colored patches on his back. His death was not caused from short-term conditions. The non-stop detention and torture he received by police had pushed his physical body beyond its limit, causing it to eventually collapse.