Falun Gong member dies in custody after China beatings

According to The Associated Press (Feb 28, 2000), As the U.N. human rights chief prepares to visit Beijing, a rights group reported Monday that police had beaten to death a member of the Falun Gong spiritual group.

The group also said the parents of two jailed activists had asked China' s leaders to release their daughters.

Chen was at least the 11th Falun Gong practitioner to die while in police custody, either from mistreatment or hunger striking, since the ban in July, the group said.

Authorities in the eastern city of Weihai detained Chen Feb. 17, accusing the 60-year-old of heading to Beijing to join protests, and they demanded a $120 fine her family could not pay, the center said. On Feb. 20, a fellow detainee told her family that Chen was being beaten, and the next day, police notified them she was dead, it said. " The body the relatives saw was too horrible to look at. It was covered in purple and black bruises, the ears, nose and mouth had blood stains and the teeth were broken,> "> the center said. Police prevented the family from videotaping the corpse, and lawyers approached by relatives who wanted to sue refused to take the case, saying the government would never approve, the center reported.

Police officials in Weifang said they knew nothing about the case. The State Council, the cabinet, declined comment, but in the past has denied that Falun Gong members have died from police abuse.

---

Reuters also reported on Feb 28 2000 5:48AM ET that Falun Gong member dies after China beatings.

A 60-year-old member of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong died after beatings by Chinese police, a human rights group said on Monday in a report issued days before the U.N. rights chief is to visit China.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights & Democratic Movement in China said Chen Zixiu died from police beatings sustained after she was detained by police in Weifang in the eastern province of Shandong for failing to pay a fine.

The centre said family members called by police to fetch her body on February 21 -- four days after her detention-found it covered with bruises, the teeth broken and blood coming out of the ears.

While Chen was kept in a government-run " Falun Gong re-conversion camp " police demanded her daughter pay a fine of 1,000 yuan ($120, $1 is about 8.278 Yuan) -- a sum Chen couldn 't raise because she had already paid a 5,000 yuan fine, the centre said.

Police in Weifang could not be reached for comment.

The Hong Kong-based centre said Chen> '> s death brings to 11 the number of Falun Gong adherents who have died from beatings or hunger strikes in custody

The centre urged U.N. rights chief Mary Robinson, who will visit Beijing on March 1-2 and meet Chinese leaders, to "frankly criticize these extremely grave violations of human rights in the handling of the Falun Gong issue. "