My Good Friend Wu Yao (Photos)

Ms. Wu Yao, about 17 years ago

(Clearwisdom.net) I know that my good friend Ms. Wu died in the Dispatch Department of Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, Beijing, in June 2003. I was never able to thoroughly figure out how she died.

One day in January of this year, someone placed some truth-clarification materials into my mailbox. Inside, there was an article that talked about the severity of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The article said: "Up until July 2004, the number of Falun Gong practitioners who have died as a result of the persecution is 1,022. ... So far, verified by a third party, more than 27 Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing have been persecuted to death." Of them, 18 people were known to come from one of the six districts and four counties in the Beijing area. As for the other nine practitioners, no one knows where they came from. The sixth person on the list of the nine practitioners whose hometown was not known was Ms. Wu Yao. When I read Ms. Wu's name, tears trickled down my cheeks. To my surprise, the only piece of information that people knew about Wu Yao was her age (57 years old). Now I'd like to share with everyone what I know about her.

Ms. Wu was an English teacher at the North Hospital Affiliated High School in Haidian District, Beijing. In the early 1990's, because her heart disease was getting more and more serious, she had to give up work and take it easy. In 1996, she began to practice Falun Gong. Not too long after, her body and her state of mind were obviously improved. She recovered completely from all her ailments (heart disease, throat problems, spinal nerve problems and others).

After the summer vacation of 1997, the principal of her school arranged two classes for her to teach in the fall semester, and asked her to be the director of a class. The principal also asked her to participate as a leader in educational reform. Wu Yao used the principles of Falun Dafa, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," to educate students and set an example, so the students she taught had not only good academic records, but also had high moral character. For this, Ms. Wu received high praise from the school leaders and her colleagues, and received many awards.

She was such a good teacher, but just because she did not give up practicing Falun Gong, Wu Yao suffered from persecution for a long time after the practice was banned on July 20, 1999. On September 9, 2002, while distributing truth-clarification materials, she was arrested. She was taken to Donggaodi local police station and tortured all night. The police initially played friendly and tried to draw out the origin of the truth-clarification materials. After this strategy did not work, they kicked, beat and verbally abused her and punished Ms. Wu by forcing her to stand, and poured cold water over her head. Finally, the police looked up her name and address on the Internet, but they failed to obtain any other information. During the evening of September 10, Teachers' Day, this excellent teacher was sent to the Fengtai District Lockup.

After Ms. Wu was sent to the Fengtai District Lockup, in order to protest this illegal and unjustified imprisonment, she started a hunger strike. She was force-fed by the police. They ordered six or seven male criminals to twist her arms, hold down her legs, hold her nose, and pinch her cheeks. Ms. Wu was firm and unyielding from the beginning to the end. Later on, when she found out that the criminal inmates who lived with her in the same cell did not understand Dafa and this was the reason they insulted Dafa, she stopped her hunger strike.

On October 12, 2002, the Fengtai Lockup sent Ms. Wu to Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp twice. Each time, because her blood pressure was too high, the labor camp refused to accept her. On June 11, 2003, the police sent her to Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp for the third time. This time, they ignored her high blood pressure, and the police delivered her to the Dispatch Department of Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp. After getting out of the vehicle, twenty-four male practitioners and five female practitioners (including Wu Yao) were made to line up on both sides of the road. Several police officers wearing white coats stood in front of the them. One of the officers shouted loudly: "You are all criminals. Do not look at the chief and lower your heads!" At that time, Ms. Wu raised her head and squared her shoulders. She showed no fear at all. The police were afraid (Ms. Wu was tall and strong) and ran to point at her and shouted: "Lower your head!"

Ms. Wu calmly said: "I am not a criminal!" Then two policewomen ran over and pushed her head down. The police "admonished" her for about 30 minutes. Ms. Wu was held down throughout. After the "admonishing," the male practitioners were taken away. Ms. Wu was still held by police.

On June 22, 2003, Ms. Wu's relatives were called to Tuanhe Hospital. The hospital chief, two directors both surnamed Zhang from the Dispatch Department, and another officer surnamed Wang (maybe the chief of the Education Section) were present. One director said: "She has been healthy up to now and obeys the management. At 4:30 a.m. today, the personnel who inspected the dormitory went to their room (12 people in the room) and found that her breathing was not normal. When the person on duty tried to wake her up, she did not speak or respond. They asked a doctor to take her blood pressure. It was over 120, so they sent her to the hospital in a hurry (about ten minutes away). They resuscitated her for about 40 minutes. The resuscitation failed. Her heartbeat and breathing stopped." After a family member listened to the introduction, he asked the chief of the hospital whether there was a resuscitation record. The chief said yes. Her family member said: "We want to take a look." The chief said: "You must be authorized by the Procuratorate (CCP Prosecution Department)."

Strange! Did they really have the resuscitation record? Does it have anything to do with the Procuratorate? Obviously they were afraid of letting people see it! Why are they afraid of letting it be seen?

Since they said Ms. Wu was not sick and that her blood pressure was normal, why did she not respond when someone called her? How could she suddenly die? After she died, it was seen that her left hand was black and there was a drop of blood on her left sleeve. Why didn't the two directors and the chief of the hospital give any explanation? The family members requested to be left alone for a while to discuss the issue because they had too many doubts about the situation. The police repeatedly emphasized that the Tuanhe Hospital did not have any refrigeration equipment and urged them to allow them to take away Ms. Wu's body. After the family members repeatedly requested, and said the discussion would be very brief, the police reluctantly gave them some discussion time. During the discussion, the police interrupted them several times and announced that only Ms. Wu's husband and youngest son could negotiate with them. After discussion, the family members made the following three requests: 1) visiting Ms. Wu's room at the Dispatch Department to find out the cause of her death; 2) asking the medical examiner to examine her body; and 3) examining "the resuscitation record."

Ms. Wu's family members had thought to sue the Dispatch Department if it was found that she had been persecuted to death. Later on, because they were afraid of revenge by the police, they never carried out this plan.

On June 28, 2003, the Dispatch Department asked Ms. Wu's family members to go to the Daixing County Funeral Parlor for the memorial service and cremation of her body. They only allowed her youngest son to enter the funeral parlor hall to say goodbye to Ms. Wu. All her three other children, relatives and friends who attended the memorial service were not allowed to take a final look at her.

After Ms. Wu's second younger brother (who is an attorney) arrived at the funeral parlor, a director of the Dispatch Department, Zhang Jizhong (on June 22, he did not say anything at the hospital) appeared suddenly and stretched out his right hand to say, "Thank you," with a big grin on his face. Her younger brother was feeling grief and indignation, and did not pay attention to him.

Apparently, director Zhang was happy because Ms. Wu's family members had no option but give up their plan to sue the Dispatch Department.

Just ten days after Ms. Wu was sent to the Dispatch Department of the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, she was dead. I know nothing about how the police persecuted her to death during those ten days and there is nowhere I can find out. I hope that those who were in the same prison cell, or who know the inside story, can write out the true situation. I urge them to thoroughly expose the sinister methods the police carried out on Ms. Wu, and to return Ms. Wu's fine reputation!