Latest News from China - 08/01/2000

[Hebei] Practitioners on hunger strike for 100 days; their lives in danger

According to the news from the First Labor Camp in Tangshan City of Hebei Province, practitioners in the women labor team have been on hunger strike for many days to defend their basic human rights to the freedom of beliefs. They have suffered tremendously, and their lives are on the line.

At the beginning of this February, Ms. Bai Yuzhi and another five practitioners were allowed to study Falun Dafa books and practice Falun Gong exercises in the hospital after many days of hunger strike. After they started to eat and their health recovered, the labor camp broke their promise, sent them back to the women labor team, and locked Bai Yuzhi and Zhou Ximeng in small cells for 44 days. To protest the mistreatment, they started hunger strike again, and they have been on hunger strike for over 50 days. About a dozen of practitioners are also on hunger strike. Among them, Miao Peihua from Langfang City has been on hunger strike for more than 100 days, Kang Shuxiang for nearly 100 days, Qiu Liying for 90 days, and Zhang Fengda for 40 days. On June 20, 2000, they went through medical examinations, which showed that their health had been harmed to various degrees. In particular, Miao Peihua suffered infection in kidney.

Recently, Biao Yuzhi and Qiu Liying from Shijiazhuang City, Duan Jinjin from Tangshan City, and Zhang Deyi from Qinhuangdao City have been sent to hospital. Lu Chunfeng from Beijing started a hunger strike in the mid February, and was sent away at the end of May. She had been on hunger strike for about 100 days. It was said that she had died in hospital. We hope the outside world could pay attention to this case.

Some new practitioners who learned the Falun Dafa in the labor camp have also stepped out courageously to defend the righteousness and dignity of their beliefs. For example, Zhang Qingfang was once handcuffed to a heatable brick bed for more than 10 days. She continued her hunger strike in the baking heat of the brick bed with great endurance.

[Beijing] The brutality in Miyun County

Since July 20, 2000, in order to prevent practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal, the police department in Miyun County has arrested many Falun Gong practitioners and have detained them illegally up to now. Instead of detaining practitioners in detention centers, the communist officials detained them in the empty houses or schools. Some village governments and local police stations hired many thugs to torture practitioners. They forced practitioners to write pledges. If practitioners refused, they would be cruelly tortured.

The two most notorious places were Henanzhai Village and Xitian Village. The hired thugs were mostly from other villages. They used wood sticks and plastic sticks to beat practitioners, including women and old people. They even did not allow practitioners to sleep. In Xitian Village, more than 20 practitioners are being detained in the Shudi Middle School, suffering inhumane treatments.

The phone number of the police station of Xitian Village is (01186)-10-61000549. The number of the police station of Henanzhai Village is (01186)-10-61086582.

In the detention center of Miyun County, there detained a few dozens of local practitioners, as well as some practitioners from other places who refused to reveal their addresses. The guards ordered convicted criminals to beat practitioners. They even asked the criminals to specifically strike the areas of practitioners' eyes, to make them look like "pandas". A practitioner who refused to reveal her address lost her consciousness during the torture. She was able to regain her consciousness two hours later. The police had thought that had died.

Recently, some practitioners in Miyun County have been sentenced to forced labor without any trials. These practitioners are Guo Jingxia and Liu Xuecheng (who are a couple with two teenage children), Huo Pingsheng, Ma Deshan, Dang Fengxia, Li Yajuan, and Yu Shufen.

[Mainland China] Study Class = Nazi's Concentration Camp

Recently, a "study" class for Falun Gong practitioners was held in our town. Although it was named "study" class, its purpose was to torture Falun Gong practitioners. From June 29, 2000 till today (July 6, 2000), the study class was in operation 24 hours a day. During the day, the practitioners were forced to stand, sit, or lie on the ground in the baking Sun (the temperature on the ground was often as high as 40C or almost 100F). In the night from 0am to 3am, the communist officials would continuously beat practitioners using leather pipes. A practitioner almost lost his consciousness on the night of July 4 during the torture. Then, this practitioner was given an injection of unknown medicine. However, up to now, this practitioner still cannot stand up.

Another practitioner was forced to raise his arms from behind while bending over to receive the beating for half an hour. After that, he was forced to kneel down while stretching out the two arms on which an iron stick was put. If he could not keep that position, he would be beaten. In another case, the thugs demanded two practitioners to curse Teacher Li while beating them. The two practitioners asked: "Does your communist party teach people to curse others?!" The thugs were angered, and beat the two practitioners madly while saying: "We will let you know what it means by the dictatorship of the proletariat!" Despite of the cruel treatments, the practitioners remained calm and peaceful. They told the communist officials about the facts about Falun Gong, and that it is good for both society and people. But the officials said: "Whoever says Falun Gong is good is the enemy of the communist party, and the enemy of the nation. So we will apply the dictatorship of the proletariat to you."

[Beijing]

Mr. Zhao Ming, a practitioner from Ireland, was arrested on May 13 at the home of a fellow practitioner when preparing to go to Tiananmen Square to unfurl banners. Several other practitioners were arrested at the same time. Mr. Zhao said to the police: "What justification do you have to arrest me? It is illegal to arrest people arbitrarily." The police said: "You will know that it is legal to arrest you after getting to the police station." While in the police station and detention center, Mr. Zhao refused to answer police's questions, and refused to take photo. His current situation is unknown.

[Henan] Li Kun was sentenced to three years in labor camp

Practitioner Li Kun from Huangchuan County of Henan Province and another three practitioners were arrested for appealing for Falun Gong on April 25, 2000. Later she was escorted back to her hometown. The local police said that they would free her if she agreed to pledge that she would not go to Beijing to appeal. But Ms. Li refused resolutely. Consequently, she was sentenced to three years of forced labor, and she was forced to divorce her husband. The other three practitioners who were arrested together with Ms. Li were also in custody.

[Hunan] Police Tortured Benign Practitioners

The persecutions against practitioners in Hunan Province have been escalating. Many practitioners have been thrown into prisons or labor camps, or detained in the detention centers. Many more practitioners have lost their jobs or have had their pensions suspended. The police are arresting practitioners arbitrarily without any legal documents. The police also imposed arbitrary fines on practitioners. Those practitioners who could not afford the stiff fines would be sentenced, sent to labor camps, or detained. The police in Qidong even robbed practitioners' grains or withheld the cars of the relatives of practitioners in order to force practitioners to pay the stiff fines. In the prison, every practitioner had wounds caused by brutal beatings. The police tortured practitioners by electric shocks, "sitting on an airplane", "carrying a sword on the back", "sitting on a tiger chair", "staying in water prison", in addition to beating practitioners using wooden sticks and bamboo sticks, and force-feeding practitioners with salt water and water with spicy peppers. To avoid the arbitrary arresting, many practitioners had to leave their homes. They could not even stay in the homes of their relatives.

[Beijing]

The Falun Gong practitioners who used to practice Falun Gong exercises together in a practice site were all under close surveillance during the period around July 20, 2000. Some practitioners were even under home arrest, and were demanded to write the pledge that they would not go out. Some were interrogated and detained for up to 48 hours. Even so, more than a dozen practitioners still went to Tiananmen Square to defend the righteousness of their beliefs. Now, these practitioners are all detained in the Haidian Detention Center. In addition to the brave acts of these practitioners, some other practitioners distributed a large number of fliers to residence buildings, bus stations, and other pubic areas. They also mailed out the fliers to people. Many people got to know the facts of Falun Dafa.

[Guangzhou]

The police in Guangzhou detained 16 practitioners into a drug-stop center on July 18, 2000, and demanded them to write pledge. To protect their rights, practitioners staged a hunger strike.