(Clearwisdom.net)

According to news obtained in recent days from China, nine Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death in three provinces, Shanxi, Hebei, and Heilongjiang. The practitioners from Shanxi Province are Yang Yanying, Zhang Aihua, Li Meilan, and Xing Yindi (all of whom were female). Those from Hebei Province are Zhang Xiumin (female), Jiang Xiuyun (female), and Zhao Yingqi. Yu Yongquan and Sun Fanzhe are both from Heilongjiang Province. At least five of them died from torture while in police custody. The four practitioners from Shanxi Province were killed in a single day.

According to news from Shanxi Province, four practitioners in Shuozhou City were tortured to death on October 24, 2002. Equally astonishing was that officials wanted the family members to pay for the return of the corpses of these practitioners. The practitioners killed were all female; they were Yang Yanying, 50, Zhang Aihua, 35, Li Meilan, 43, and Xing Yindi, 45.

According to the same source, on the morning of October 24, 2002, Yang, Zhang, Li, and Xing as well as some other practitioners went to the provincial office building and were arrested by the police while posting truth clarification materials. By four o'clock in the afternoon, news leaked that the four were killed from police beating them with electric batons. The other practitioners, named Shi Suping, Wang Mingxia, and Wang Yingxiang, were sentenced to 15 years in prison after being tortured.

It was told that after the four practitioners were tortured to death, the families of three of them were forced to pay between 8000 to 10000 Yuan each to "buy" the corpse back. The fourth family was also blackmailed, but the amount they were forced to pay is not known.

A reporter contacted the Huairen County office to inquire about the incident. A person there said that this "might have happened," while a policeman at Emaokou Police Station in Huairen County told the reporter rudely that he had no right to investigate the case.

(Reference: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/3/16/33380.html)

According to news from Heilongjiang Pronvince, Yu Yongquan, a 45 year-old practitioner from Daqing City, was persecuted to death around 1 pm on March 8, 2003 in Hongweixing Prison in Daqing City. This was the 15th practitioner persecuted to death in Daqing.

According to the same source, Yu Yongquan was an employee in the Daqing Second Rice Factory. On May 11, 2002 Police in Ranghulu District Police Station and Chuangxin Police Station in Daqing City arrested three practitioners at a local resident's house, Yu Yongquan being one of them. On September 22, 2002, Ranghulu District Court sentenced Yu, without notifying his family, to 10 years in prison, and put him in Hongweixing Prison in Daqing City. The prison forbade the family members to visit Yu.

On March 8, 2003, Yu's wife was asked to go to the prison and found that Yu had died when she arrived there. The prison people said that he died of a stroke. But Yu's family said that he was in excellent health before being sent to the prison.

A reporter called the Hongweixing Prison in Daqing City to investigate. A person on duty said that he could not discuss any details without permission from higher authorities. He asked the reporter instead: "It looks like the matter is becoming serious. Has his family sued?"

(Reference: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/3/14/33299.html)

According to news from Heilongjiang Province, practitioner Sun Fanzhe from Harbin City was persecuted to death by the local police in late February 2003.

According to the news, Sun, 34, was an employee in a Harbin cement factory. On February 20, 2003, the police tried to arrest Sun and surrounded him in his house. Sun fell through the window while trying to escape and died.

When the reporter called, the policeman at the Shuinilu Police Station in Taiping District replied. After consulting for a while with other police in the station, he said he knew nothing about the case.

A Recovered Cancer Patient is Persecuted to Death

According to the news from Hebei Province, Zhang Xiumin, 52, was a cloth factory worker in Tangshan City, Hebei Province. She suffered from throat cancer and the hospital declared that she was terminally ill. After beginning practicing Falun Gong in 1998, her health improved miraculously to the extent that she could speak and read well again.

News sources claimed that at the end of year 2000, Zhang was jailed for two days and two nights by the police because of her practicing Falun Gong at home. Later her family bailed her out, but she died in the beginning of year 2001 because she could no longer practice Falun Gong, and the cancer had returned to her body.

According to the news from Tangshan City, Hebei Province, practitioner Zhao Yingqi, 59, was tortured to death at the Hehuakeng Labor Camp in Tangshan City on December 31, 2002, because he refused to accept the labor camp's brainwashing attempts on him.

The news said that Zhao was a miner in the Fangezhuang Mine in the Kailuan Mine Area. He needed crutches because both his legs were handicapped from a work related accident. On October 17, 2002, agents from the 610 Office [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.] in his company came to his house and arrested him. They sentenced him to three years of forced labor, and put him in the Hehuakeng Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City. He died there forty days later. According to inside sources, Zhao was beaten to death in the labor camp.

The sources said that the labor camp claimed that Zhao died of illnesses. But the family member said that Zhao died with his eyes open, and there was a patch of flesh missing from his corpse. It was said that the corpse was stored in the hospital for some time and its cremation was delayed because both the Hehuakeng Forced Labor Camp and Fangezhuang Mine tried to shirk their responsibility for his death.

A person in the security office in Fangezhuang Mine in Tangshan City confirmed the other day that Zhao Yingqi died in its detention center. Another staff member commented at the time, "You should not talk about this matter. This is directly managed by the Mine authorities."

(Reference: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/3/13/33246.html)

News from Hebei: 52 year-old female practitioner Jiang Xiuyun in Zunhua City, Hebei Province was persecuted to death on July 26, 2000.

According to the news, between June 3 and 7, 2000 (lunar calendar), police from the Shirengou Police Station in Xingwangzhai Town arrested 17 Falun Gong practitioners and took them to the town office for forced brainwashing. Jiang Xiuyun was among them. The news said that it was the hot season, with average temperatures as high as 102^oF. The arrested practitioners were forced to stay in the sun, and were only allowed a half bowl of rice soup for each meal. Jiang was extremely weak after continuous exposure to the sun for several days and lack of food for three days. On July 26, after she was forced to stay outside in heavy rain for another day, the workers in the brainwashing class found that she was dying and sent her home. She died ten minutes later.

A reporter contacted the local authorities and received some interesting information: the Xingwangzhai Town Office, Shirengo Police Station, and Huangtugang Village officials all claimed that the 52 year-old Jiang Xiuyun died of old age. But they admitted that Jiang died within one day after she returned from the brainwashing class, and revealed that Jiang's family has made an appeal to the county office.

2003-3-14