Mr. Cao Baoyu, a 56-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Langfang City, Hebei Province was tortured until he was on the brink of death. The Guangyang District 610 Office agents sent him to Guangyang District People's Hospital (also called Beida Street Hospital) to continue tormenting him under the persecution. He died at the hospital on April 27, 2006.
Prior to the onset of the persecution against Falun Gong
Mr. Cao Baoyu lived in Xugezhuang Village, the Guangyang District, Langfang City, Hebei Province. He worked at the Property Management Division of the Langfang City Pipeline Bureau. He was also well known in the Weifang food industry for his great skills and integrity.
All of his illnesses disappeared after he started practicing Falun Gong in 1993. Mr. Cao attended Mr. Li Hongzhi's Falun Gong classes in Tianjin City on January 17, 1994 and on March 14, 1994, and attended the last class on June 28, 1994 in Jinan City.
He was the main volunteer assistant in the Weifang area. Mr. Cao moved to Wuqing County, Tianjin City in 1995 to work in the food industry. 10,000 people were introduced to Falun Gong in Wuqing County due to Mr. Cao's efforts.
At beginning of the persecution, Cao Baoyu was arrested and secretly sentenced to four years in prison
On July 17, 1999, before the Party began publicly persecuting Falun Gong, Zhang, head of the Internal Security Section at the Wuqing County Police Department in Tianjin City phoned Cao Baoyu and asked him to come to Wuqing County because he wanted to learn about Falun Gong practice sites. Later, on Cao Baoyu's way home on a bus, lawless officials from Wuqing County intercepted the bus and illegally arrested Cao Baoyu. In the evening they sent him to the Xiazhuzhuang Township Police Station in Wuqing County.
On July 19, Jiang Zemin's group began arresting Falun Gong practitioners nationwide. Mr. Cao Baoyu was secretly transferred to the Tianjin City Custody Center and detained there that day. The persecutors replaced his real name with "Li Yu." They didn't notify his family, who looked for him everywhere and never found out his whereabouts. Finally, Tianjin City Police Department agents sentenced him to four years in prison with the charge "gathering 'en masse' to disrupt social order," without following any legal procedures. He was savagely tortured at the Tianjin Prison, including being beaten and verbally abused, forbidden to sleep, and forced to sit on a small stool about three inches wide, four inches tall and five inches long while being forced to listen to Falun Gong-slandering propaganda. Mr. Cao suffered severe physical and mental abuse and was further persecuted by being fired from the Langfang City Pipeline Bureau. Nevertheless, he persisted in his belief in Falun Gong.
Cao Baoyu sent to Langfang brainwashing center after prison term expired
On July 20, 2003, when the prison term was completed, Cao Baoyu had by then shown symptoms of various kinds of illnesses. Tianjin City Police Department officials refused to let his family take him home because he had not "reformed". Agents from the 610 Office of Langfang City and from the Langfang Pipeline Bureau sent Cao Baoyu to the Langfang brainwashing center to further persecute him. Due to his family's strong protest, they first took Cao Baoyu to the Langfang Pipeline Bureau Hospital for a physical exam. He was found to have an open wound between his back and neck, about 10 cm [3.9 inches] long and between 5 cm [2 in] and 6 cm [2.4 in] wide that exposed the bone. He was diagnosed with "methanoic acid poisoning," and the doctor said the condition could not be treated. The Langfang City and the Langfang Pipeline Bureau 610 Offices gave the family the run-around. The Pipeline Bureau officials later paid Cao Baoyu's family 3,000 yuan and washed their hands clean of any responsibility.
Cao Baoyu was beaten at the Dachang County Detention Center for trying to rescue a fellow practitioner
After he went home, Cao Baoyu studied the Fa and did the Falun Gong exercises, and he basically recovered. On February 5, 2006, Cao Baoyu and some other Falun Gong practitioners went to the Xianghe Police Department and the county government to appeal the local police's arrest of Falun Gong practitioner Wang Shaoqiu from Langfang City. Officers from the Dachang County Police Department in Langfang City beat and kicked the practitioners and took them to the Dachang County Detention Center.
In the evening, a thin, tall detention center head arrived and ordered all Falun Gong practitioners to strip naked and submit to a search. The practitioners refused and were savagely beaten. The detention center head called several guards and armed police officers to come over; they forcibly searched Cao Baoyu. The detention center head dragged him out into the hallway outside an interrogation room. He slapped Cao Baoyu's face and hit his mouth until Cao Baoyu's teeth became loose and his eardrums ruptured. He later tied Cao Baoyu to a metal chair. Cao Baoyu went on a hunger strike to protest the gross abuse under the persecution and was released on February 13. He was extremely weak when he went home.
Arrested again in 2006 and sent to Langfang Detention Center; Cao Baoyu was extremely weak
At 7:00 a.m. on February 18, 2006, six officers from the Langfang City Police Department, from the Guangyang District Police Department, the National Security Division and the deputy head of Beiwang Township Police Department jumped over the wall into Cao Baoyu's home. Because of the Two Party Conferences in progress, they took Cao Baoyu, who had not yet recovered from his injuries, to a brainwashing class. At the brainwashing class, three or four people watched each Falun Gong practitioner. They subjected practitioners to sleep deprivation. Cao Baoyu held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was first held at Huakang Hotel and then at the Shengyanlou Hotel. Officials from the Guangyang District Procuratorate in Langfang City and from the Langfang Police Department later arrested him under the false pretense of "disrupting social order" and locked him up in the Langfang Detention Center.
Cao Baoyu was extremely weak from the torture. The police then sent him to the Langfang City Hospital and the Chinese Medicine Hospital for so-called "emergency treatment," which amounted in fact to brutal force-feeding. This resulted in declining stomach function, stomach bleeding and severe damage of the stomach lining, along with other treatment-caused problems. The abusers never once notified Mr. Cao's family about his condition. After Cao Baoyu slipped into critical condition several times, they sent him to the Guangyang District People's Hospital for so-called emergency treatment. For days, the wrong drugs were administered, which was responsible for the decline of Cao Baoyu's heart and kidney function. He urinated blood and became incontinent.
Family not allowed to visit Cao Baoyu; wife arrested and sent to brainwashing center
Cao Baoyu's family went to the Guangyang District National Security Division to ask about his whereabouts, but the officials ignored them and refused to tell them where he was being held. The family went to many places and eventually found out that Mr. Cao was in the Guangyang District Hospital.
Cao Baoyu's wife went to the hospital to visit him. The hospital staff hid the truth and threatened and intimidated her. To prevent her from seeing her husband, they told her Cao Baoyu was not held there. Eventually, his wife barged into the ward where Cao Baoyu was staying and saw an extremely weak Mr. Cao. She pleaded with deputy head Liu from the Guangyang District, who was watching Cao Baoyu, and with the hospital officials, to allow her to stay to take care of her husband, but they refused. They claimed she was interfering with treatment and pushed her out of the hospital.
When the family overcame interference and again went to the hospital, the doctor told them that Cao Baoyu was in serious condition and could die at any time. The family strongly demanded that they be given permission to take Cao Baoyu to a better hospital. Deputy head Liu feared losing his job should it come to light that they had been using the wrong drugs, and said to the family, "The condition at your home is poor; the hospital has better service and certainly would not kill him through treatment." The actual truth is that the hospital has outdated equipment and does not have any qualified doctors. Zhao Jiapu and Xin Pingyu, heads of the 610 Office, also tried to stonewall the family by telling them not to come to the hospital anymore, and that they would be arrested if they came again. They said to the family, "If you don't like it, go to the United Nations and sue us!" They forced the family out of the hospital.
Cao Baoyu's adult children, relatives and friends went to the hospital several times but were refused visits. The family then went to the Langfang City Party Committee to demand Mr. Cao's release. The officials told them to go to the Appeal Office, and the Appeal Office agents told them to go to the Guangyang District Party Committee, who in turn told them to go to the 610 Office and the National Security Division. The officials passed the buck; none of them agreed to take any responsibility, and all refused to take action.
On April 25 Cao Baoyu's wife again went to the hospital. Liu, deputy head from Guangyang District and Zhao Jiapu, head of the 610 Office, said "Cao Baoyu is healthy. You can visit him." When the family went in, however, they saw that Cao Baoyu was delirious and had very poor hearing. He was incoherent and he had feces on his body and hands. After a few minutes, Liu and Zhao Jiapu arrived and said, "Ok, it's time for you to leave." In fact, they had called Xin Pingyu, a 610 Office head, and asked her to send officials to the hospital.
Before Cao Baoyu's wife walked out of the hospital's front gate, four men pinned her down. Xin Pingyu ordered a group of persecutors to push her into a car and take her to the Langfang Traffic Hotel where a brainwashing "class" was being held. On the first floor of the hotel, two people grabbed her wrists and two people grabbed her ankles and they dragged her along, upside down. They stepped on her hair and dragged her up to the fourth floor. The four people then threw her on the floor. Mr. Cao's wife went into convulsions. The officials said, "Stop faking already!" When she recovered slightly, she asked why she had been arrested. The officials answered, "No reason! We just had to arrest you so you would stop making trouble at the hospital."
The 610 Office agents took Cao Baoyu's wife away without telling her family. Her family looked for her everywhere but didn't know where she was held. Cao Baoyu's was worried about her husband and was thus under tremendous pressure and didn't eat or drink. Liu Shuxiang and Guo Ling, two collaborators, brainwashed her every day, and she became very weak.
Cao Baoyu, on the brink of death, passed away; perpetrators block information
On the morning of April 27, it was heard that Cao Baoyu was receiving emergency treatment at the hospital. Cao Baoyu's son heard the news and rushed to the hospital and asked to see his father for the last time, but his request was denied. He was told his father was doing well and that the family would be notified of whatever happened to him. The son waited outside the hospital for a long time but was never permitted to see his father.
Around 10:00 a.m. on April 28, the village officials told Cao Baoyu's son and other family members to go to the conference room on the fourth floor of Shengyanlou Hotel where the brainwashing class was held. The conference room was heavily guarded. Officials from the Guangyang District Procuratorate and the police department read a document stating the reason for Cao Baoyu's arrest and the trial on April 25. They also read Cao Baoyu's death report. He had passed away in the evening of April 27. When the family confronted the officials as to why they didn't notify the family when Cao Baoyu was in critical condition, the head of the Guangyang District Hospital said, "There are rules! We don't notify the family when we shouldn't." He didn't say what the rules were.
When the family asked to take Mr. Cao's body home, officials from the Guangyang District Procuratorate and the police department again said that due to orders from above (they didn't explain what the orders were) the body could not be taken home but instead, an autopsy had to be performed later the same afternoon, followed by cremation early the next morning. They even said that they ashes cannot be taken home. Everything must be done under police supervision. With strong protests from the family, they waived the autopsy and postponed the cremation.
Cao Baoyu's wife was not aware of her husband's death. The Beiwang Township Political and Judiciary Committee agents concealed the facts and sent her home from the brainwashing class around 11:00 a.m. on April 28, saying they feared her health would fail her. They thoroughly monitored Cao Baoyu's home by dispatching several people to guard the door, and forbade anyone to enter. They took photographs of and videotaped whoever entered the family's courtyard.
When several relatives learned of Cao Baoyu's death they barged inside Cao Baoyu's home and told his wife about it. When the wife tried to tell her friends and relatives, officials from the Beiwang Township Political and Judiciary Committee took over the home phone so she could not make any calls. They also dispatched all officers from the Beiwang Township Police Department to enter the courtyard and prepare to arrest people. The police only withdrew with a guarantee made by the village Party Committee.
Perpetrators fear exposure of facts and refuse to hand the family the ashes
Around 1:00 p.m., officials from the village Party Committee, from the Guangyang District Police Department, from the procuratorate and the court, the Guangyang District 610 Office and the National Security Division agreed to the family's request to conduct a surface body exam in the afternoon, postpone the cremation and let the family accompany the body to the crematory.
During the body exam, the family saw purple dots on the back of Mr. Cao's hands and on the wrists, and scars on the wrists and ankles left by ropes, which they guessed were the result of force-feeding and IV infusion. They also saw blood in the right nostril, unidentified excretion from the urethra, and black feces underneath the body.
The officials forbade the family's presence when the body was sent to the crematory; they directly took the body and cremated it on May 1. They forbade the family and friends to observe the cremation from close by and banned taking of pictures or videotaping. After the cremation, the ashes were light green. The crematory workers said it is the result of medication overdose. The ashes were sent to a cemetery and buried under the watchful eyes of officials from the police department, the National Security Division, the township Political and Judiciary Committee and the village Party Committee. The officials said whoever took the ashes home would be arrested.
After an extensive search, the whereabouts of Mr. Hu Zhiming were discovered on May 24, 2006. Mr. Hu Zhiming, the younger brother of New York resident Mr. Hu Zhihua, is currently held in the Beijing City's 2nd Detention Center. According to the information source, he has been on a hunger strike for almost 40 days, since April 25, to protest the illegal detention and is in critical condition.
Hu Zhiming enrolled in the Engineering University of the Air Force in Xi'an City in 1990. After receiving his Master's degree, he worked in the computer lab of the Military Training Equipment Research Institute of the Air Force in Beijing and achieved the rank of Major. After the Chinese Communist Party started to massively persecute Falun Gong practitioners in 1999, as he was persistent in practicing Falun Gong, his Air Force employers dismissed him. Later, Hu Zhiming was incarcerated and persecuted in the Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai for four years. After getting out of prison, he found a job in Beijing in the high-tech field. Unfortunately, police department and National Security Bureau of Beijing agents arrested him in September 2005 for exposing the truth of the persecution, and his whereabouts were unknown since then.
Over the past half year, New York resident Hu Zhihua has been busy seeking help from many resources. The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group has filed petitions with three UN human rights groups, including the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, and Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. Since the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners was exposed, Mr. Hu Zhihua worries much about the safety of his younger brother Hu Zhiming and queried the CCP in a rally, "Where is my brother?"
On February 21, 2006, Zhang Shibo, the head of the Fuyu County 610 Office in Jilin Province, Du Dianlong, the chief of the Fuyu County National Security Team, and others illegally broke into practitioner Mr. Wang Enhui's home in Dongyu Village, Xiaojia Township, in order to arrest him. Mr. Wang's wife resisted the police and an officer hit her on the head so hard that she nearly lost consciousness. She was so seriously injured that she was sent to the Fuyu County Mental Hospital for treatment and spent more than 5,000 yuan before being released. What happened to Mr. Wang Enhui and his wife caused his daughter, who has a history of mental illness, to suffer a relapse. Right now she is still in Taonan Mental Hospital receiving treatment.
On March 23, the Fuyu County Court secretly tried Mr. Wang Enhui in the detention center. Sun Yajun (female) was the judge. Wang Licheng appeared in the court representing the Procuratorate. Gao Yunbo and Wang Yongjiu, the CCP party secretary and the public security director of Dongyu Village, perjured themselves in the trial. Mr. Wang Enhui was dragged into the interrogation room by several criminal inmates and given a five-year sentence. On April 20, 2006 , Mr. Wang was sent to the Shiling Town Prison in Siping City, where 63 more practitioners are being held. After Mr. Wang went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the police guards force-fed him and tortured him for a long time. This has put his life in great danger. The prison refused to accept Mr. Wang three times due to his severe medical condition. Because of his family's strong and persistent requests to release him, the Fuyu County Police Department released Mr. Wang on medical bail. On April 30, 2006, Wang Enhu's family'picked him up.
When Wang Enhui was illegally detained at the Fuyu County Detention Center, he was brutally tortured by the prison guards and criminals. As soon as he was sent to the detention center, the police forced him to sit on the tiger bench for two days and nights. His hands were cuffed behind him. The handcuffs were so tight that they cut into his wrists. The police did not loosen the handuffs even a little, and Mr. Wang's hands and shoulders became severely swollen. Mr. Wang went on a hunger strike to protest his treatment. After five or six days, the police incited criminals Li Xingyan (from Wanxing, Wujiazhan Town), Liu Xiwu (about 40 years old and from Hanjiadian, Xiaojia Township), and Zhao Yongfu (from Xin'anzhen Vilage) to force-feed him. They beat Mr. Wang and yelled at him while they force-fed him. Zhao Yongfu viciously pinched Mr. Wang's cheek. His cheek was so mutilated that a deep purple hard lump developed. Then they used a syringe to spurt liquid food (rice boiled in hot water and a concentrated salt solution) or just the concentrated salt solution into his mouth. If he did not swallow, they would twist the syringe inside his mouth, puncturing his throat and the insides of his mouth. A few days later, Doctor Xing Yan'gang from Qianyushu Village, Gongpengzi Town, Fuyu County, who was imprisoned there due to malpractice, started to feed Mr. Wang. He poured the concentrated salt water into Mr. Wang's injured mouth, which caused severe pain to his stomach, and extreme thirst.
Mr. Wang Enhui firmly resisted the persecution, and they failed to force-feed him. So they angrily poured all the food and cold water all over him. The police forced Mr. Wang to sit on the tiger bench for a long time and ordered two criminals to watch him in turn. Criminal inmate Zhao Yongfu whipped Mr. Wang's back even though he was extremely weak. In early March, before the detention center sent him to the hospital to force-feed him, they released him and stopped beating him. Then they found someone to make a videotape to propagandize their "noble deed." Afterwards, they continued to have him force-fed in the hospital and to make him sit on the tiger bench while three criminals brutally force-fed him.
Criminal Liu Xiwu also beat Mr. Wang Enhui as he force-fed him. Liu claimed that this kind of torture was to "serve" Mr. Wangi. Every day, Liu tried to find a chance to torture Mr. Wang. During the force-feeding, prison guards Jiang and Xiang also kicked Mr. Wang. One day during an inspection of the detention center, Mr. Wang shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" Prison guard Nie Jing used a six-cm diameter plastic tube to beat him. Afterwards, Nie Jing also hit Mr. Wang's cheek.
Each time Mr. Wang Enhui was sent to prison, in order for him to pass the prison's physical exam to be accepted, the detention center always sent him to the hospital first to feed him a protein- and potassium-rich solution to adjust his body chemistry. In the hospital, criminals had to carry Mr. Wang wherever he had to go. His feet were still shackled to the hospital bed, and the police watched him all the time. Mr. Wang shouted, "Falun Dafa is good" whenever he saw someone while he was in the hospital. Finally, the prison refused to accept him three times.
Mr. Wang Enhui's health condition is extremely precarious due to the brutal persecution he has suffered. Because of his family's demands, the detention center finally agreed to release him.
In 2001, Mr. Wang Enhui was persecuted in the Jiutan Forced Labor Camp for more than one year. He was brutally tortured many times. He was in solitary confinement for 50 days. His health was really bad as a result. Mr. Wang was released on February 2, 2002, but was arrested again on March 16. On the night of March 16, Wang Enhui was sent to the Fuyu County Detention Center and was illegally sentenced to three years in the Jiutai Forced Labor Camp on March 25. On September 20, he was released and picked up by his family due to the critical state of his health.
I am a Canadian citizen. My son Zhu Canbiao, who lives in China, firmly believes that Falun Dafa is good. He had gotten to know Falun Gong before, but for some reason had not genuinely practiced Falun Gong at that time. Later, an overseas practitioner clarified the truth to him. He was moved and decided to practice Falun Gong.
The overseas practitioner mailed him some Falun Gong materials, including an MP3 player with Master's nine lectures, a DVD player with DVDs of Master's nine lectures, and a copy of the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party".
My son Zhu Canbiao had been on a business trip for a month. When he returned and went to the post office to pick up the overseas parcel between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on May 18, 2006, agents from the National Security Department in Guizhou Province arrested him.
That night around 2:00 a.m., several police officers took him along and searched his home. Some Falun Gong materials, including handwritten copies of Master's lectures were found at his home. A friend saw him after this incident and stated that he had obviously been beaten. His eyes were bloody and he had difficulty walking. He was told that he violated the law and was taken back to the National Security Department. No one has heard from him since.
At about 6:30 pm on March 22, 2006, three policemen from the National Security Group of Shuizai County Police Department broke into Falun Gong practitioner Nie Benlian's home. They searched the house and made a mess of it. Mr. Nie's grandson saw this and reprimanded them loudly: "You people are robbers! Stop the robbery at my house." The policemen didn't listen. They wanted to arrest Mr. Nie, but he shouted loudly, "Falun Dafa is good!" Neighbors came running to the house to see what had happened. They scolded the three policemen: "Why don't you go catch bad people? Why do you bully the good people? Don't you people have any conscience?" The three policemen originally wanted to catch someone to get some reward money. But they were given a good dressing-down and slipped away shamefaced.
Nie Benlian is in his 60s. He suffered from tracheitis and a stroke, but not long after he started to practice Falun Gong, he recovered completely and the family was very happy for him.
Mr. Wang Jun, a Falun Gong practitioner in his fifties, suffered various diseases. After he started to practiced Falun Gong, all his illnesses were gone. But then he was sentenced to three years in a labor camp. Three years later, Mr. Wang was transferred to the Xiangcheng Prison. Six months later he was then sent to the Xuchang Labor Camp and kept there for another two years. The police officers in the labor camp shocked him with electric batons, tied him with ropes and put him on the tiger bench. He was fired from his job as well.
Ms. Liu Jinfang is a Falun Gong practitioner in her thirties. She was put into prison and was interrogated in the middle of the night. Six policemen from the local police department rented a room in the Lianhua Hotel. There they hung her up with her hands cuffed behind her back. They beat her with a leather belt until she fainted. Then they poured cold water over her until she woke up. Then they hammered sharp bamboo sticks into her middle fingers through the tips of the fingernails and burned her face with lit cigarettes. Ms Liu wanted to go to the toilet but the policemen didn't allow her. At dawn she passed into a coma. The six policemen sprayed perfume over her body and called the doctor. They lied to the doctor, telling him that she was hit by a falling tree.
Ms. Sun Shimei was a Falun Gong practitioner in her forties. She was sent to a labor camp in Zhengzhou City, where she was beaten to death, leaving her two children behind. One of her children was studying at university and the other one at middle school. The police threatened her family, warning them not to make any appeals and saying they were not responsible for the death. They put pressure on Ms. Sun's family and on the leaders of her work unit. Her family members stayed in Zhengzhou for over a month and were given 30,000 yuan as a burial fee. The policeman who caused the death of Sun Shimei, however, got off scot-free.
Wu Zixiang is a Falun Gong practitioner in his fifties. Late one night, policeman Liu Guoqing led more than 100 people to break into his home, putting up ladders and climbing over a wall. They kicked the doors and lay in wait on the ground with pistols in their hands. They pointed the pistols at all in the family. The children howled with fright. And the adults trembled. The police searched every corner of the house but found nothing. One policeman pointed a pistol at Wu Zixiang's wife and asked where Wu Zixiang was. After they learned that he was in his hometown looking after his sick mother, this gang of people went down to Mr. Wu's hometown and arrested him. His elderly mother was scared to death and lay in bed crying her heart out. She kept shouting, "Don't take my son away. My son has committed no crime."
Married couple Zhong are both Falun Gong practitioners in their seventies. They were illegally arrested and sent to prison. The police didn't release the couple until they had extorted 70,000 yuan from them.
Ms. Tian Suhua is a Falun Gong practitioner in her thirties. She was illegally arrested and sent to prison. On the hottest days in summer she was forced to squat outside under the scorching sun. If she moved even a bit, the policemen would kick and punch her. Their purpose was to make her give up her belief in Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. Ms. Tian was then sent to the Shibalihe Labor Camp in Zhengzhou City. She was persecuted severely there and became disabled. She could barely see and could hardly walk, and after she was released, she had to be looked after by her mother. After Tian Suhua had only been home several days, the policemen went to her home and took her away again. She was sent to the detention center where she was again brutally persecuted.
Falun Gong practitioners Wei Xiaoma and Fu Meilan, a married couple, were sent to prison and persecuted. They were released after heavy fines were extorted from them. Police often went to their home to harass them. The couple had no other choice but to leave home to avoid the persecution. They still have not been able to return home.
Ms. Zhao Shujing, a Falun Gong practitioner in her sixties, has been in prison for a long time. She was inhumanely persecuted and suffered a mental collapse as a result.
The National Security Group, under the local police department, took many Falun Gong practitioners' money. Practitioners Feng Lei, Liu Guiping, Cui Xuguang and Songmei were fined. Some families were broken up because of the heavy fines. Some went bankrupt and others were forced to become destitute and homeless. Still others were burdened with heavy debts. Meanwhile, the policemen who got the fines spent the money frivolously.
Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Yang Yuru, 49, is a primary school teacher who lives in Wupaili Village, Jiaoxi Town, Zhenyuan County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province.
In August 2005, Yang Yuru was reported to the authorities when he distributed truth-clarifying materials and was illegally arrested by officers from the Jiaoxi Town police station. It's said that he was sent to Guiyang for reeducation through labor, but the details are still not clear as to where he was imprisoned.
The whereabouts of Wei Shuhua from Shanxi are unknown after she was illegally arrested 2003
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wei Shuhua is in her 30's and is from the Yanhua District, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. During the first half of 2003, the police in Yuncheng illegally arrested her, and her whereabouts are still unknown today. Ms. Wei Shuhua and her husband were already divorced at this time.
After Wei Shuhua was arrested, her daughter, who is one-and-a-half years old, and Ms. Wei's father who is very old, were left at home to care for themselves. Presently, her young daughter's whereabouts are also unknown.
Looking for Falun Gong practitioner Yao Zhongyuan from Shandong
Doctor Yao Zhongyuan worked at the Shandong Zibo Food Machine Factory. He was 65 years of age and about one and a half meters tall. He left his home when the persecution first began on July 20, 1999 and there has been no contact or messages from him since.
Looking for Falun Gong practitioner Ni Hong from Beijing
Ms. Ni Hong, 39, lived in Beijing Dongcheng District Donghuamen. She jumped from the building where the "brainwashing class" was being held, in order to escape. After escaping, she was forced to leave town so the authorities would not find her.
There has been no contact or messages from Ms. Ni since.