Please listen to this heartbreaking story. Ms. Zhao Jinhua, age 42, was a resident of Zhaojia Village, Zhangxing County, Zhaoyuan City in Shandong Province. On September 27, 1999, Ms. Zhao was detained by the Zhangxing County police while she was working in the farm fields. The police asked her if she would continue to practice Falun Gong. She said "yes". On the morning of October 7, she was tortured until she lost consciousness and was taken to the county hospital emergency room. After she regained consciousness, she was taken back by the police and tortured again until 3 PM. She died before arriving at the hospital this time. That afternoon, legal medical experts of Yantai City performed an autopsy, reporting the following: Injuries and wounds on many parts of the body except the head. Blood deposits beneath the skin within a total area of 120 cm x 60 cm. Conclusion: Death caused by beating with blunt instruments. Ms. Zhao was a Falun Gong practitioner for four years, and was a well-known kind person in the local community. When her family buried her remains, the whole village came to pay tribute and mourn their great loss.

It is hard to imagine that a human being can be illegally beaten up and tortured to death by government officials in a country with a legal system. It is harder to imagine that the human being tortured to death was a well-known role model and loved by all of the people around her. It is even harder to imagine that she was beaten to death because she wanted to practice Falun Gong and wanted to be a person with a noble character and sterling integrity. It is extremely shocking that the local criminal authorities admitted everything openly and did not try to deny it at all. We can not help but feel sadness welling up because if the kind people of the world are kept silent, then justice will not be brought to these shockingly brutal criminals.

Nobody knew what Ms. Zhao said and thought before she died. She might have tried to warm the cold hearts of the criminals with her warm blood; she might have tried to wake up the conscience of the kind people in the world with her life; or she might have tried to warn the kind people what would be the destiny of the good people, being destroyed by evil. However, she might have thought or said nothing, and simply wondered why she was being beaten up because she wanted to be a good person. She might also have felt sorry that she could no longer help other people.

We should let the soul of Ms. Zhao know that being a good person is not a crime, and the murderers should be punished. We and the kind people of the world hold a righteous feeling that this type of non-human brutal act should be stopped, because we know a world without sympathy, love, and justice will be lifeless and cold. Injustice somewhere is injustice everywhere.

We appeal to the world to condemn this brutal crime and to prevent any more innocent lives from being endangered. Today, you dry our tears, tomorrow we relieve your pain; today, you hold me in your arms when we feel sad, tomorrow we shoulder you on our backs when you are tired. We can work together to make a better world, a world full of love and justice.

We appeal to the world for your support: 1) to investigate this act of utter disregard for human life by a local authority; 2) to make public the results of the investigation; and 3) to bring the criminals to justice.