Summary of Other Articles and News - January 17, 2004

(Clearwisdom.net)

Facts of Persecution

1) It has been learned that eight Falun Gong practitioners held in the Dalian City Prison in Liaoning Province are on a hunger strike to protest being subjected to brainwashing. Mr. Yang Chuanjun has been on hunger strike for at least a month and he is currently in critical condition.

2) Mr. Wang Quan is a Falun Gong practitioner from Qijiazi Town, Changtun County, Liaoning Province. Because he went to Beijing to appeal, he was arrested and detained at the Tieling City Labor Camp. After his one and a half year term of forced labor had expired, he was detained for an additional 15 months. Afterwards, he was sentenced to three years of forced labor again. Due to the torture he received, he has injuries all over his body; he has difficulty walking and his vision is blurred. His elderly parents and a 5-year-old child are left at home with no one taking care of them.

3) Tang Yanbin is the political security section chief of the Suiling Forest Bureau in Heilongjiang Province. Together with Du Jianping (the former detention center director), Tang has persecuted Falun Gong practitioners many times. They went to practitioners' homes to harass them. They forced practitioners to write pledges promising to give up cultivation. Tang Yanbin once brutally beat Ms. Duan Guiqing with a stick. Du Jianping ordered inmates to force feed Duan with pig excrement and subjected her to a variety of tortures. Another practitioner, Mr. Zhai Libin, was handcuffed and shackled and forced to sit on the cement floor. In June 2000, Du Jianping kicked Zhai Libin and Zheng Xuewei with his leather boots for over 30 minutes. They also took away the 10,000 yuan in cash Zhai had with him. Zheng Xuewei was forced to sit on the cement floor for 4 straight nights and he was also forced to eat pig excrement. Over a dozen practitioners had been fined by Tang Yanbin ranging from 1,500 yuan to 6,000 yuan.

4) Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, 44 practitioners in Shiting Town, Laishui County, Hebei Province have been arrested and detained in the local police department and detention centers. Some of the practitioners have been arrested on many occasions and detained for as long as two years. Some of them were brutally beaten and had their money stolen. Ms. Jiao Fenglan was tortured to death last May. Mr. Yan Hequan was illegally sentenced to 11 years in prison. Seven practitioners were sentenced to forced labor camps. Mr. Yan Yong, Ms. Zhang Fengzhi and Mr. Cheng Shuli are still being detained in the Baoding Labor Camp. Mr. Fang Yongzhen and Me. Zhang Shuqin has been detained for over 8 months and is still being detained.

5) On November 26, 2003, while visiting a fellow practitioner, Ms. Yang Bo from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province was abducted by the Rang District Police Department. She is currently held in the detention center where she is being subjected to torture. Her 70-year-old mother is paralyzed and receives no care. Her father also has difficulty taking care of himself without assistance.