(Clearwisdom.net, February 16, 2004) Recently, there has been a sharp increase in the number of Falun Gong practitioners arrested, tortured and even killed in China. It was learned that in northern China, 15 Falun Gong practitioners died as a result of the persecution in just the first two weeks of February. On February 14, practitioners from the New York area gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate and unfurled large banners, calling on the Chinese authorities to stop persecuting Falun Gong and to bring the chief persecutor Jiang Zemin and his accomplices, Luo Gan, Liu Jing, and Zhou Yongkang, to justice.

Ms. Wei Lu, one of the coordinators of this activity said that Falun Gong practitioners are greatly concerned about the new wave of violent raids and arrests of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Sources have reported that in the City of Anda, Heilongjiang Province, alone, more than 40 practitioners were recently arrested by police. After their arrests, practitioners suffered from all kinds of torture every day in labor camps or jails. A number of them were killed. A typical death case was that of Mr. Peng Guangjun, a practitioner from Houqiaoxin Village, Qiaoxin Town, Huairou Borough, Beijing. Because he practiced Falun Gong, he had been unreasonably arrested and detained several times. The last time occurred on September 28, 2003. His family did not learn any news about him until January 26, 2004 when the authorities informed them that Mr. Peng Guangjun was dead. The authorities forcibly cremated Mr. Peng's body. According to eyewitnesses, Mr. Peng's head and body were black and purple, and there were bloodstains. His face was covered with marks caused by electric shocks. Some of his bones were also fractured.

Fifteen death cases reported this February also included: Mr. Zhang Bingxiang, former worker from a pharmacy affiliated with Acheng City Medicine Corporation; Ms. You Zhilan, from Xintai County, Hebei Province; Mr. Zhang Youqing, a construction worker from Longxi County, Gansu Province; Mr. Feng Shichao from Salian Town, Miyi County, Sichuan Province; Ms. Yang Jingyun, former Women's Division President of Qing'an County Trade Union in Heilongjiang Province; Ms. Guo Ruixue, a farmer from Shandong Province; Mr. Na Changjian, from Minfu Village, Wujia Town, Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province; Mr. Song Gang, deputy section chief of the Legal System Office in Yinchun City Government of Heilongjiang Province; Mr. Liu Ming, a worker from Dandong Fiber Factory, Liaoning Province; Mr. Wang Xidong, a worker from Juhua TV-set Factory, Dandong City, Liaoning Province; Mr. Song Shijie from Siping City, Jilin Province; Ms. Jin Guanghua, from Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province; Ms. Xu Shuxiang from Changchun City, Jilin Province, and Mr. Lu Huizhong, from the Dandong Number One Department Store, Liaoning Province. It has been verified that these practitioners were tortured to death.

New York Falun Gong practitioners expressed that Jiang Zemin, the former Secretary-general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was the one who commanded and schemed this persecution. Out of his jealousy and fear of this spiritual group of 100 million people and the founder of this cultivation practice, Jiang started this irrational and inhuman suppression. Luo Gan (member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Secretary of the Commission of Politics and Law of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Central Committee), Liu Jing (Deputy Minister of Public Security, Vice Director of the 610 Office of the CCP Central Committee) and Zhou Yongkang (Minister of Public Security of the People's Republic of China) are the accomplices who enforce Jiang's policy of eradicating Falun Gong.

Today, Falun Gong practitioners are emphasizing that there is no time to delay in bringing the chief persecutor and his accomplices in this persecution to justice. Practitioners expose what Jiang's group has done in order to awaken the very basic morality and conscience of society. We hope that through this new round of arrests and killing of Falun Gong practitioners in China, Chinese government officials from different levels as well people with a sense of justice in the international community will clearly understand the facts of Jiang's suppression of Falun Gong and stop the atrocities.

Meanwhile, we sternly serve notice to those government officials who follow Jiang to persecute Falun Gong, that anyone who persecutes Falun Gong will eventually be held accountable for what he has done, because history is just. Jiang and his accomplices will be punished by the law, human conscience and morality. Currently, Jiang has been sued in a number of countries because of his persecution of Falun Gong. Recently, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) put 45 officials, including Jiang and Luo, who participate in the persecution of Falun Gong, on a list to be monitored.