Latest News from China - 08/20/2000

[Beijing] Haidian Police Station is jailing practitioners by filling the quota

The Haidian Police Station received a quota of 100 people to be used to sentence Falun Gong practitioners in Haidian District of Beijing City. The police have already started to arrest practitioners. Other districts and counties in Beijing City may also do the same thing.

To avoid the persecutions, some practitioners ran away from home. The homes of some practitioners were ransacked right after they left.

[Shandong Province] The second coal mine of Jining City detain practitioners in private jail

On May 10, 2000, the second coal mine of Jining City of Shandong Province made a private jail using the three apartments in the Dorm # 1 for female employees in the north region of the coal mine. On each side of the corridor outside the three apartments, an iron door was erected. The private jail has been used to detained local practitioners of Falun Gong.

Three female practitioners have been detained in this private jail. Immediately after the jail was made, a practitioner who surname was Sun was thrown into it. She was detained there from May 10 to 18, and afterwards, she was sent to the Jining Detention Center to serve one month of criminal detention. After she finished the detention term, the communist authorities in the coal mine threw her into the private jail again, and detained her there from June 21 to July 20, 2000. During this period, Ms. Sun protested many times. In the end, she was freed after four days of hunger strike. After she went home, she was under surveillance 24 hours a day.

After that, a practitioner whose surname was Jia got detained in the private jail for 40 days. A practitioner whose surname was Han was detained there for four days. Both were released because they staged hunger strikes.

While being illegally detained, all the three practitioners protested strongly to the communist officials. Once a practitioners told an official: "We practice Falun Gong to become good people." the official replied: "China does not need good people and the second coal mine does not need good people either." Then the practitioner said: "What you are doing violated the law." That official said: "We are not afraid of violating the law because we are implementing orders from higher authorities."

The following is a picture of the private jail. http://www.minghui.ca/gb/0001/Aug/20/w2.jpg

[Gansu Province] Severe human rights violations committed by the police department in Yongjing County

The police department in Yongjing County of Gansu Province has been cruelly persecuting local Falun Gong practitioners.

On January 6, 2000, the police arrested 10 practitioners from Yanguoxia and Sanyuan etc. without any justification. They detained the practitioners illegally for 110 days. In the detention center, some practitioners were put on handcuffs and shackles. Their hands and feet were bleeding because of the frictions of handcuffs and shackles. The food given to them was terrible, and they were forced to do very heavy labor.

In addition, they often suffered verbal and physical abuses from police. In particular, the head of the detention center whose surname was Wu often beat practitioners after he got drunk. He even claimed: "It doesn't matter if I beat a couple of them to death!" To protest the inhumane mistreatments, a practitioner got on a hunger strike. Wu then force-fed the practitioner after opening the practitioner's mouth forcefully by a big iron slice. The practitioner's face was seriously wounded.

In July 2000, the police department threw these 10 practitioners into jail. We hope the world could pay attention to the severe human rights violations against these innocent practitioners.

[Wuhan City] A former cancer patient sentenced with forced labor for practicing Falun Gong

Wang Li, female, 31, Bachelor degree. She lived in the Huaqiao Street of Wuhan City before being sentenced. In 1987, she got cancer, and underwent two surgeries in the Tongji Hospital of Wuhan City. She also went through 10 chemical treatments. But her situation was not alleviated. After she started to practice Falun Gong in 1993, she recovered gradually.

On July 22, 1999, the Chinese government banned Falun Gong. On July 23, 1999, Wang Li went to Beijing to petition the government to correct its wrong decision. In September 1999, she was taken back to Wuhan City. In March 2000, she was forced to attend the "re-education class". On April 2, 2000, she was sent to the Hewan Labor Camp to serve one year of forced labor. Ironically, the signboard of the labor camp read "Fashion Clothes Factory of Wuhan City", which was used to deceive people.

Wang Li and fellow practitioners detained in the labor camp suffered inhumane treatments. They were not given enough food, but they were forced to work, on average, more than 18 hours everyday. In their limited spare time, they were forced to study the "educational materials". If they did not cooperate, they would be thrown into small cells and be hung up and beaten. Every morning, each of them was only given a cup of porridge with a countable number of rice grains. For lunch and dinner, they were given 50 grams of rice, and a bowl of salt water, occasionally with a few pieces of vegetables. Their family members were allowed to visit them only once a month. Each time, they were only allowed to see their loved ones for 10 minutes. The food brought by the family members must be eaten on spot and was not allowed to be brought back to the cells. The workloads assigned to them were so heavy that they could hardly finish them. So they were often forced to work extra hours. In every month, there were always a couple of days that they had to work 24 hours a day. Although it was very hot and humid, they hardly had time to take a break or wash themselves. Whenever they finished the labor, they would fall asleep immediately. Because they did not have enough food while doing the extremely demanding labor, they became very weak. Wang Li weighted about 85 pounds before she was sentenced. But after five months of hard labor, she only weighted 60 pounds.

Currently, the Hewan Detention Center and the Drug Stopping Center of Wuhan City are detaining about 50 practitioners. Some of them were misled by the secret agents pretending to be practitioners, and have written pledges to recant. So they do not need to do forced labor now. But other practitioners are still suffering inhumane mistreatments.

[Chengdu City]

Liu Hui, female. She was arrested by Xiangnong Police Station on July 18, 2000 under the charge of "distributing fliers in Yingmenkou area". Later she was sent to the second detention center of Chengdu City.

The reason for Liu's arrest was as follows. On July 12, 2000, she went to the Disciplinary Office of the Police Department of Chengdu City to file an appeal on the various mistreatments committed by Xiangnong Police Station against local practitioners. An officer called Wang in the Disciplinary Office made a record of practitioners Liu's appeal. After that, he asked Liu to submit a detailed record for further handling. Thus Ms. Liu had the materials typed and printed into a formal file. However, the file was then transferred to Xiangnong Police Station by the police from the Yingmenkou Police Station. As a result, Ms. Liu was arrested with the fabricated charge.