AFP: More [Falun Gong] Deaths 'in Custody'

BEIJING: Two more members of the banned Falun Gong qigong grouphad been beaten to death in police custody, a human rights group andfamily members said yesterday.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights andDemocracy in China said that a total of 70 Falun Gong practitioners hadnow died in police custody since the movement was outlawed [...] in July last year.

Li Wenrui, 37, an official at the Foreign Trade Bureau in the northern cityof Harbin, died on November 9 at a detention centre in Beijing, thecentre said.

Li was arrested just three days earlier when he protested against thegovernment's crackdown on the group at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The police notified his family on November 11 that he committed suicideby jumping out of the window at the detention centre, but Li's familymembers said they were sure he was tortured to death.

``My daughter came to Beijing to see the body and his skull had a bighole in it and there were many bruises on his body. He was definitelykilled. He was tightly watched, how could he jump out of the window?''Li's mother-in-law Gao Sixian said yesterday.

The centre claimed that another practitioner, Yang Guijin, 40, also diedbecause of torture. Yang was arrested last month for distributing FalunGong leaflets. She was severely beaten in a police station and went on ahunger strike for a week to protest against the treatment. She was founddead on October 15.

The centre yesterday urged United Nations Human Rights CommissionerMary Robinson, who is visiting Beijing, to step up pressure on themainland to improve its human rights' record and stop its torture ofdetainees.