The Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong  -- May 13, 2008

Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Content


  • A Child Dies While Both Parents Are Detained; Police Refuse to Release Parents for the Funeral

  • A 12 year-old boy who suffered a severe case of food poisoning was not able to see his parents at his last moment of life, Because his parents were jailed for practicing Falun Gong. Both of them were not allowed to attend their son's funeral.

  • Mr. Fan Dezhen's Body Cremated against His Family's Wishes

  • Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Fan Dezhen was arrested and brutally beaten several times. On April 20, 2008, he was tortured to death at Suizhong County  Detention Center in Liaoning Province. His family requested to see his remains. However, the police performed autopsy and cremated Mr. Fan's remains without permission from his family members to destroy the incriminating evidence.



    A Child Dies While Both Parents Are Detained; Police Refuse to Release Parents for the Funeral

    On March 13, 2008, Xu Dingguo, a 12 year-old boy from Pan County, Guizhou Province, suffered a severe case of food poisoning and was rushed to the hospital. On the way, he cried out "I want my mom and dad," until he passed away. He was not able to see his parents at his last moment of life. His mother, Ms. Chen Yumei was arrested in February 2007, and is being imprisoned at the Guizhou Province Women's Forced Labor Camp in Guizhou Province. His father, Mr. Xu Qihua was forced to leave home to try to prevent the persecution of him and his family. However, in September 2007, Domestic Security agents arrested him in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province. On April 10, 2008, Mr. Xu was tried in a secret court at the Police Hospital in Guiyan City, and no family members were allowed to attend.

    Officials at the Guizhou Province Women's Forced Labor Camp refused to let Ms. Chen attend her son's funeral. Officials from the Guiyang City State Security Department, the Guiyang City Police Department, the Yunyang District Procuratorate, and the Baihuashan Forced Labor Camp also refused to allow Mr. Xu Qihua to attend his son's funeral. They plotted to sentence Mr. Xu Qihua, Mr. Li Donghong and Mr. Jia Lian after they had been detained for more than six months.

    Xu Dingguo lived in fear of the police due to their violent actions toward his parents. Xu, his little sister, and his three cousins had been living with their grandparents. In January 2000, Xu Dingguo's parents and seven other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Xu Dingguo's uncle, Mr. Xu Guangdao, was beaten to death by Beijing police. His wife was forced to leave home to avoid being implicated, leaving three children behind, a five-year-old boy, a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old daughter. After that Xu Dingguo's grandparents were both detained, and his parents were arrested. His uncle-in-law was arrested and sent to the Guizhou Province Men's Forced Labor Camp. The surprise visits and harassment, monitoring, ransacking of their home and insults struck fear in the hearts of Xing Dingguo and the four other children. The family also struggled to make ends meet. Their family's farm land was confiscated by the local government to build a new train station, and they received no compensation. Although the two older children are old enough to receive the government's low-income compensation, they were denied this income because their parents are Falun Gong practitioners. They could only exchange the corn that their grandparents planted for some rice to maintain their living. At the same time, their grandparents had to struggle to pay for their tuition.

    The five children suffered greatly from their parents' absence. Whenever others asked them, "Do you miss your parents?" they cried out, "We even dream about them." The difficult environment these children lived tempered them. They could endure hardships, were thrifty, respected their elders, and helped with the smaller children. At school, when Xu Dingguo saw that his classmate did not have money to buy lunch, he gave his lunch money, which was two yuan, to his classmate without hesitation, and went hungry himself. Sometimes he gave away his allowance, given to him by his aunt, to help other classmates who had financial difficulty. After he finished his homework, he helped cook the rice, get the vegetables from the garden and also cooked them, if his grandparents were not home yet. All of his relatives, neighbors, teachers and classmates knew him to be a good boy.

    On March 11, 2008, two days after the winter break, he went to buy a two-yuan meal outside of school to save money, since the school meal was three yuan. However, after he ate it, he started vomiting and had a fever. The next day, he still managed to come to school but he was not able to stand up without assistance and had a rash all over his body. On the way to the hospital, he kept crying, "I want my mom and dad," until he passed away.

    The grief-stricken family requested to have Xu's parents come home for his funeral, but the police refused. The police never even passed the news on to them.

    Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/4/29/177488.html


    Mr. Fan Dezhen's Body Cremated against His Family's Wishes

    Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. Fan Dezhen, 33, was arrested and brutally beaten several times because he practiced Falun Gong and believed in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." On April 20, 2008, at approximately 7:50 a.m., he was tortured to death at Suizhong County  Detention Center in Liaoning Province. It wasn't until about 7:00 p.m. that his family was notified of his death by the the detention center administration.

    Mr. Fan's family wanted to know the cause of his death. Wang Xueping, director of Suizhong Detention Center, claimed that Mr. Fan's death was a result of malnutrition. Mr. Fan's family did not believe this because Mr. Fan's mother-in-law had gone to the detention center on April 14, 2008, and deposited 200 yuan for his keep. She asked the director how her son-in-law was, and Wang replied saying that Mr. Fan ate two bowls of food per day and seemed energetic.

    The day after Mr. Fan's death, his family requested to see his remains. The guards from the detention center told the family that they would be allowed to view his body that night, but they also threatened that they would perform an autopsy and the body would be cremated whether the family saw the body or not. Mr. Fan's wife and mother-in-law insisted that they would see Mr. Fan's body the next day and would not allow his body to be cremated. Mr. Fan's mother was worried that she would only be allowed to see her son's ashes, she agreed to view the body that night. Mr. Fan's parents and the oldest brother went to see the body, along with many friends.

    On April 21, 2008, Mr. Fan's wife and family went to Suizhong County Detention Center to see his body. At 1:20 p.m., the family was taken to the cremation site. Approximately 60 people were waiting there, and the majority of them were plainclothes police. Relatives were required to wait at the lounge under close supervision of the plainclothes police. The family was told by one of the police that they conducted an investigation and knew the cause of death, but would not say. The family was also told that autopsy was performed and cremation would begin at 2:00 p.m. He said that the family had already seen the body.

    Mr. Fan's wife protested loudly, "We did not even see the body and we do not even know the reason of death. How dare you perform cremation!" The response by the police was that this was a special case. He said that they already requested and got an answer from the director from the Province Police Department. He said that if there was a problem, the family could seek help from the Civil Affairs Department. The relatives said that it was their right of to investigate the cause of the death and would seek an attorney and have the forensic doctor perform the autopsy. They also requested a high ranking officer, but one claimed that he was the deputy director of the police department Gu (given name unknown) and said that they were not the policy makers but the executors.

    Mr. Fan's family argued that the body could not be cremated without the family's permission and that Wang Xueping, director of Suizhong County  Detention Center, shirked his responsibility. Mr. Fan's wife said that he should take the responsibility for her husband's death. The police wanted to destroy the body and incriminating evidence as soon as possible, and then urged family to visit the body, otherwise it would be cremated. The family said firmly they would not allow the cremation, even if they could not see the body. Without the permission of Mr. Fan's family, the chief of Suizhong County Police Department ordered that the body be cremated. During the process of cremation, family members were not allowed to leave the lounge and were required to wait to get the ashes. Mr. Fan's family received his ashes but were never allowed to see his body.

    Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/4/25/177163.html