New York--Since news emerged last month of three Falun Gong
detainees being killed in custody at a prison in northeast China,
family members of the victims and others prisoners of conscience
have been harassed and beaten, as the authorities seek to cover up
the deaths.
Torture and abuse intensified at Jiamusi Prison in Heilongjiang
province in February after personnel received orders in early 2011
to increase the "transformation rate" among Falun Gong
practitioners held at the camp. The orders were issued as part of a
nationwide three-year Communist Party campaign to reinvigorate
transformation efforts (CECC
analysis).
As a result, three middle-aged male practitioners died between
February 26 and March 8, 2011: Mr. Qin Yueming, Mr. Yu Yungang, and
Mr. Liu Chungjiang (news). Within days
of the deaths, news of the incident and photos of the victims were
posted on the overseas Falun Gong minghui.ca website (photo
gallery). In response to information on the deaths being leaked
online so quickly, the prison was put under lockdown.
Since then, family members of the three victims have also been
harassed and placed under tight surveillance. According to sources
in China, the prison formed a Special Services Team dedicated to
the task of silencing the families. Both uniformed and plainclothes
security agents have been involved in the harassment. Some of the
families, particularly Mr. Qin's wife and teenage daughters, have
experienced repeated persecution in the past.
"As if it were not enough that these families lost a father, brother, and son due to the prison's brutality. Now, rather than punishing those responsible for these crimes, the authorities are investing additional efforts in making these families lives miserable," says Falun Dafa Information Center executive director Levi Browde.
Central to the harassment is pressure to agree to the cremation
of the body of the family's loved one in an apparent effort to
destroy evidence of torture. Under such pressure and promises of
monetary compensation, the relatives of Mr. Yu and Mr. Liu
authorized their cremation.
Family Members Beaten, Hospitalized
As the family members of other Falun Gong practitioners held at the
camp have reacted with panic to news of the deaths and demanded to
see their loved ones, they have also been detained or beaten.
In one incident, ten relatives of Mr. Jiang Botao, a Falun Gong
practitioner held at the camp since October 2010, visited the
prison on March 11. The prison only allowed two of the relatives,
who did not practice Falun Gong, to visit Jiang. When they asked
Jiang if he had been beaten and he replied affirmatively, the
guards monitoring the conversation immediately disconnected the
phone and ended the meeting.
Shortly thereafter, over ten plainclothes police officers entered
the room where other family members were waiting and began shoving
and hitting them in an apparent effort to force them to leave. One
officer struck Jiang's wife in the mouth, while another tore his
sister-in-law's coat (photo).
In the most serious action, one officer kicked Jiang's other
sister-in-law in the chest, where she had recently undergone
surgery. She soon went into convulsions, but the prison personnel
did nothing to assist her. Her family members rushed her to the
hospital and later reported the abuse to the Heilongjiang Prison
Management Bureau, but are still awaiting further
investigation.
Ten days later, the families of two Falun Gong practitioners
scheduled for release visited the prison on March 21. Among the
visitors was Mr. Li Shaotie, a man of around 60. Plainclothes
police officers reportedly asked him to show his ID card, but he
refused, citing that they had no authority to request such
information. He and several family members then left the
building.
However, plainclothed officers would not allow them to leave and
grabbed Li. A photo taken by an eyewitness shows them carrying him
by force to a car (photo). They
took him to the Lianjiangkou Branch of the Public Security
Bureauand later to the Jiamusi branch. According to sources in
China, he fainted several times and his blood pressure rose,
causing the police to call an ambulance to take him to the
hospital. The officers then wanted to send him to a detention
center, but the latter refused to accept him due to his poor
health. The police resigned to allow him to go home. Being too weak
to walk, Li reportedly had to crawl out of the police station in
order to get a taxi home (photo showing
marks of abuse).
An additional 70 Falun Gong practitioners are still being held at
Jiamusi Prison.
Meanwhile, the prison remains under lockdown and the communications of both Falun Gong and non-Falun Gong detainees and personnel is being tightly monitored.
Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party has carried out a widespread, brutal campaign of persecution to eradicate Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual and qigong practice, whose adherents in China still number in the tens of millions. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese who practice Falun Gong remain in captivity, rendering them the single largest group of prisoners of conscience in China (article). The United Nations, Amnesty International, Chinese human rights lawyers, and Western media have documented Falun Gong torture and deaths at the hands of Chinese officials (reports). The campaign and its implementation are in violation of Chinese law and, contrary to common reporting, Falun Gong was not banned as an "evil cult." (analysis).
Urgent Appeal
The Falun Dafa Information Center urges journalists, diplomats, and
human rights groups to further investigate the facts surrounding
these deaths, the beatings of family members of detainees, and
conditions at Jiamusi Prison. The Center also urges them to call
for the immediate and unconditional release of all Falun Gong
prisoners of conscience being held there.
For additional information, see: