Falun Gong Sends Out "SOS" Following Four More Deaths in Custody

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 7/6 www.faluninfo.net

(Falun Dafa Information Center) July 6 - The Falun Dafa Information Center has confirmed that four more male Falun Gong practitioners have been killed while in police custody in China. Following on the heels of the verification that 15 women recently died in the Wanjia labor camp in Harbin, these new deaths bring to 255 the total number of Falun Gong practitioners killed as a result of the crackdown. The four men died in separate incidents in different parts of China.

"This latest report indicates that Jiang Zemin's regime is systematically killing Falun Gong practitioners," said Falun Gong spokesperson Adam Montanaro.

"'Beating [Falun Gong practitioners] to death should be reported as suicide' -- Policemen in different labor camps are repeating these instructions handed down from above," he said.

Mr. Montanaro pointed out that, in the last few weeks, reports of practitioners being killed are arriving on an almost daily basis. To counteract this dramatic increase in police violence, Falun Gong practitioners and their supporters have launched a campaign entitled: "SOS! Urgent Call to Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China." This campaign "seeks to draw the attention of the international community to the on-going and systematic slaughter of innocent people," Mr. Montanaro said. As part of this campaign, Falun Gong practitioners in the United States have embarked on a walk to Washington D.C. starting from several major cities and culminating in a large-scale rally on July 19th. Falun Gong practitioners have posted their daily progress and photos on www.walktodc.org.

Details of the four new deaths:

• On July 1 or 2, 41-year old Chen Jiafu died at Zhoushuizi labor camp in Dalian City, marking the first confirmed death in the month of July.

• Between May 2 to 15, 2001, 28-year old Mr. Song Yanzhao was beaten until his ribs were broken at Lanzhou Pinantai labor camp in Gansu Province. He died from severe injuries. Staff members at the camp revealed that Song Yanzhao had been hung on a 2-meter high iron bedstead for a whole night before he died.

• At the end of May 2001, 40-year old farmer Mr. Liu Xuedong from the Shenxing section of Baoding City, Hebei Province was released from four months in a detention center. He died the day after he was released. He weighed only 25 kg when he died, and his body was covered with bruises.

• Before the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) of 2001, Mr. Zhao Maoxing from Chengzi Town, Jiujiang County, Jiangxi Province, was beaten to death by the police after he was captured on his way to Tiananmen Square and escorted back to Jiangxi Province. People who know about the incident said that Zhang's body was still handcuffed to the bed when he died, and that he was covered with torture wounds when he was sent from the hospital to the crematory.

Spokesperson Adam Montanaro said the number of Falun Gong practitioners who are tortured to death is rapidly escalating, and that Jiang Zemin's regime announced new judicial guidelines against Falun Gong on June 10 that provide a legal justification for this kind of murder. Such guidelines have emboldened officials in detention centers to step up torture, he said.

Chinese police will be conducting statewide checks on rented apartments and the transient population from July 3 to July 15, reportedly to check for released criminals. According to credible sources, this action is in fact a plan to carry out mass arrests of the thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have been left homeless as a result of the crackdown.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Adam Montanaro 917-405-4507, or Feng Yuan 917-912-3301. Email: [e-mail], Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/