Our Plea to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong: Find the Murderers of Female Practitioner Xiong Fengxia

(Clearwisdom.net) To the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFLG):

We would like to tell you what had happened before and after Xiong Fengxia died from persecution for her belief, so that more people will know the details of the case and justice can be served.

Ever since Jiang began persecuting Falun Dafa, the lawless police officers of the Dingxing County, Hebei Province have stolen personal items for themselves while searching Dafa practitioners' homes for Dafa materials. They stuffed their pockets with Dafa practitioners' money and personal property. The police also fine the practitioners so they can get even more money. The fines can be as little as a few hundred Yuan to tens of thousand Yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan.]. In Dingxing County alone, at least 1000 practitioners have been fined. Some practitioners have been detained, beaten, and fined several times. The lawless police maltreat Dafa practitioners in every way they can and use torture at random. There is no law or discipline whatsoever. Some of the tortured Falun Dafa practitioners were crippled by the injuries and some have been tortured to death.

In February 2002, about 30 thugs from the Gucheng Town, Dingxing County, Hebei Province seized Xiong Fengxia's husband Yang Jinyu from their home and took him to a brainwashing centre in Liyu Village, Dingxing County. They handcuffed Yang Jinyu to a tree and beat him. Tang Ruixing, deputy head of the Gucheng "610 Office" [a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches], urged the perpetrators in the brainwashing centre to take "good care" of Mr. Yang. During his 40 or so days in the brainwashing centre, he suffered some type of corporal punishment every day. Mr. Yang was forced to do some extremely difficult and exhausting movements. The perpetrators extorted fines of several thousand Yuan from Mr. Yang's family as payment for his release. However, Mr. Yang is still illegally held in the detention centre.

On March 21, 2002, Zhang Jun, head of the Jurisdiction and Law section of the county Public Security Bureau, and his men again forced their way into Xiong Fengixa's home to arrest Xiong's family members. It so happened that a lot of Xiong's relatives and friends were visiting that day. The police were trying to fulfil their quota of arrests. That time it was Xiong's eldest daughter Yang Yanli. After the police entered the house they jostled and elbowed people out of their way and ransacked cupboards and chests. Xiong's second daughter Yang Ruimei, youngest daughter Yang Yanting and his sister Xiong Fengling asked the police to explain their conduct. As a result a police officer became enraged and began to punch and kick Xiong's family members. The police knocked Xiong Fengling to the ground then dragged her by the legs for over 50 metres . They tried to take her to the Public Security Bureau. Yang Ruimei was also knocked to the ground and kicked in the head by an officer wearing leather shoes. Yang Yanting was pulled to the ground by her hair and dragged for quite a distance. Several elder people among the onlookers spoke out, which made the police stop the beatings for fear their actions might cause public wrath. However, the police shifted their anger towards Yang Yanli in the police car. They beat her and after they returned to the government office of the town Tang Ruixing, deputy head of the "610 Office" of Gucheng, kicked and punched her and shocked her with an electric baton. When the battery died in the small electric baton he switched to a larger one.

By the time Yang Yanli arrived at the brainwashing centre she was unable to eat and fainted the following day on her way to the washroom. She did not eat any food for five days and only when she was diagnosed with gastric bleeding did the staff phone the town government to pick her up. The police purposely placed her in the town in order to defraud her family of 2,500 Yuan for boarding expenses.

Xiong Fengling is Xiong Fengixa's younger sister. When she returned home the following day she received a subpoena accusing her of "obstructing the performance of public duties" and fining her 4000 Yuan. However, the police only admitted to receiving 3000 Yuan, which means they pocketed 1000 Yuan. Xiong Fengixa's daughters Yang Ruimei and Yang Yanting received a subpoena charging them with the same crime and fining them 5000 Yuan each. The two sisters dared not stay at home for fear they would be arrested and so they went into hiding. Only after paying money to the relevant government officials at different levels were they sure they wouldn't be arrested.

Xiong Fengxia was forced to do manual labour in other villages and only returned in the autumn when she was needed to help with the harvest. At about 4 o'clock October 1^st, the police entered her house by climbing over the walls and breaking the windows. At the time, she was the only one home. The police ransacked the house and then took her away by force. They didn't even allow Yang Fengxia time to put on her shoes. After illegal interrogation in a detention centre she was taken to a brainwashing centre.

Li Ping is the former director of the brainwashing centre promoted to secretary of the Tian Gong Temple township committee for his "merits" in persecuting Falun Dafa. He was replaced by Li Aijun, a cruel and ruthless person. He hired about a dozen or so demobilized soldiers and promised that if they did well they would be hired permanently. Li Aijun used the former soldiers to commit crimes against Dafa practitioners. The hired roughnecks used very brutal methods and every one of them was cruel and ruthless. They seemed to understand Li Aijun's intention just by looking at his expression and started to torture Dafa practitioners right away. Li Aijun said, "This place is hell. Whoever comes here will have to go through the gates of hell. It's also called 'saving the people and dictatorship'. We have the support of the government, the army, the Public Security Bureau, and the armed police. There will be no one who will speak for you. If you are beaten to death then you died for nothing because it will be settled when my superior signs an affidavit declaring your death was a suicide." He also said, "The brainwashing class is designed to destroy you mentally and the military drills are used to find your faults so we can fix you up. In this place, whether you are a male or female, old or young, we treat you all the same." From what he said, it's not hard to see why the thugs were so frenzied. Actually, they went far beyond what they were ordered to do. With the backing of Jiang's political gang of hooligans, these thugs disregarded law and discipline, used instruments of torture at will, and used disgusting language.

At the brainwashing centre Xiong Fengxia, Tian Chunfeng, and other Dafa practitioners were always maltreated. The perpetrators would force them to smell a urine bucket, drink the water in which they had washed their feet, stand in an "army corps" posture (under the scorching sun, practitioner's feet are planted on the fiery ground and the skin on their faces peels off from sunburn. Practitioners are also forced to sit on the ground and their buttocks become covered in sores from sitting for long periods of time.), run long distances, do push ups, and imitate the movements of animals. The practitioners were also force-fed. The perpetrators used whatever they could find including ropes, rubber tubes, electric and rubber batons, wooden sticks, handcuffs, shovels, sling chains, and wooden cues to beat the women. They used indecent assaults, kicks and punches, and swearing. Those they considered to be "key members of the Falun Dafa" were confined in solitary compartments where they endured the so-called "special treatment."

Practitioners were made to run long distances; those who had been severely tortured and the elderly were carried by other practitioners or made to run by being dragged by a rope. There were perpetrators in front leading the runners and thugs with clubs at back driving the practitioners to run. Practitioners were forced to do 50 or more push-ups at a time. If anyone was unable to do 50 push-ups they were made to do even more. If someone collapsed or stopped, the thugs would hold the person down with a foot. The practitioners were forced to do push ups again and then the thugs would push them down with a foot again. This process was repeated many times. Whenever practitioners were unable to hold the "army corps" posture for a long time they were kicked. Every Dafa practitioner in custody was covered with cuts and bruises. Some suffered from blood in the urine and many others had difficulty walking. Tian Chunfeng, Wang Shumin, and some other Dafa practitioners have still not fully recovered from their injuries.

During the 13 days Xiong Fengxia was held at the brainwashing centre she lost consciousness several times during the severe beatings. She had cuts and bruises from head to toe. As result she had great difficulty in walking and eating meals. However, the perpetrators inhumanly accused her of faking the symptoms and beat her some more . The evil perpetrators asked other practitioners to carry Xiong Fengxia, who could not walk anymore, to the drill ground to take part in the "training." When other practitioners carried her to the toilet they found that she had blood in the urine. Dafa practitioners informed the head of the brainwashing centre and requested that she not be tortured again. However, the perpetrators ignored the request. Later that night Xiong Fengxia was exhausted and had difficulty breathing. But the perpetrators continued to torture her and had no intention of sending her to the hospital. Xiong Fengixa stopped breathing shortly after 11:00 pm. The vicious perpetrators finally called a country doctor. Only after the doctor announced that Xiong had died did the perpetrators send her corpse to the hospital.

Xiong's family was notified of her death at about 2:00 the next afternoon. Her husband Yang Jinyu heard the news while he was in a detention centre. In order to shirk responsibility for their crimes, Shi Tianyuan, head of the Dingxing "610 Office," and the Secretary of the Gusheng Town Political and Judiciary Committee falsely claimed that Xiong Fengxia died of a heart attack after emergency treatment failed. They also hypocritically said that they would not sentence Yang Jinyu and would change his son's job from temporary to permanent worker in an attempt to use petty favours to stop Xiong's family from investigating their crimes. The grieved husband insisted on seeing his wife's corpse. After four or five days, Hao Guochi, Secretary of the county's Political and Judiciary Committee and two deputy heads of the county Wang and Yang arrived. However, they only allowed Yang Jinyu to see his wife's corpse once. They also said they needed to get permission to release him from the detention center. When Yang Jinyu was finally allowed to see his wife's corpse, he was only shown an area no larger than 34 centimetres. This was the area between the abdomen and the thighs. Yang found that about 27 out of 34 centimetres were black and blue. Other parts of his wife's body were covered and Yang was not allowed to see any more. After that, Yang Jinyu was returned to the detention centre. The coroner of Baoding City Procuratorate performed an autopsy. Those attending included people from the Dingxing Town's police station and its legal medical expert as well as Li Wenxiu and several family members of Xiong Fengxia.

On November 8, Zhang Jun, Head of the Law Education Section of Dingxing Town's police station hoodwinked Yang Jinyu by saying that they were prepared to release him. However, they drove the car to the Baoding Forced Labour Camp in an attempt to deliver Yang Jinyu and five other practitioners in the same car to the detention centre. The vicious perpetrators took Yang's blood pressure in the car and found that the upper reading was 245. The labour camp refused to accept him so he was returned to the Town government office.

The authorities promised to report the cause of the Xiong Fengxia's death in about 20 days. However, one month later Hao Guochi, Secretary of the county's Political and Judiciary Committee, shirked his responsibility by saying that he had not received the report yet. When Xiong's family phoned the Procuratorate they were asked to phone the county. After another two weeks of delay Hao Guochi said, "The case has been submitted to the province and will be assessed by the province. Baoding City dared not make the decision." Another three weeks passed before Shi Tianyuan, head of the County "610 Office," got the report from Baoding City. Members of the County Political and Legal Commission, Li Wenxiu, Secretary of Gucheng Town's Political and Legal Commission, and four members of Xiong's family were present when Yang Jinyu's elder brother Yang Jinfu read the autopsy report. The report stated, "There are 43 wounds in the front part of the body as a result of beatings but none are mortal wounds, no fractures; there are abscesses in parts of the lungs with light yellow mucous, therefore the cause of death was an illness." This autopsy report, prepared under the despotic power of the Jiang's political gang of hooligans, cannot be believed. No matter what wording the report used, it simply can not refute the fact that Xiong Fengxia died in the brainwashing centre of the Dingxing County, Hebei Province because she practiced Falun Dafa. Therefore, concluding that Xiong "died of an illness" to absolve the murderers of their criminal offences is just not acceptable.

The local lawless officials knew clearly that their utter disregard for human life cannot be denied. They finally offered Xiong's family 55,000 Yuan in compensation so they won't charge the police with murder.

We plead to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong to track down the murderers of Falun Dafa practitioner Xiong Fengxia and bring them to justice.