Practitioners Tortured to Death in Guan County, Shandong Province

Since the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, the Guan County Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 610 Office¹ has coerced the police, the Procuratorate, and local judicial departments into persecuting Falun Gong. As a result, thousands of practitioners have been arrested, beaten, imprisoned in forced labour camps, shocked with electric batons, force-fed, enslaved, humiliated, raped, and had money extorted from them. The following are several death cases of practitioners who were persecuted in Guan County:

Mr. Li Zengfeng

Mr. Li Zengfeng is from Xifanzhuang Village. On March 7th, 2008, the secretary of the Inspection Commission, Feng Shuhe, along with political instructor of the Domestic Security Division, Song Yongqiang, and police officer Zhang Zhen, from the Guan County Police Department, led a group of people to Mr. Li's house and arrested him and his wife, Ms. Xu Qiaoyun. The couple was later taken to the Guan County Detention Centre.

Mr. Li was sentenced and transferred to Wangcun Forced Labour Camp on April 11th, 2008. The officials at the labour camp refused to accept Mr. Li because he had high blood pressure, a heart disorder, and the overall state of his health was poor. Instead of releasing him on medical bail or providing him with medical treatment, the Domestic Security Division police took Mr. Li to the Liaocheng City Brainwashing Centre. Soon after his release, Mr. Li became critically ill and died at the age of 44.

Ms. Xu Jiling

Ms. Xu Jiling had been the director of both the Guan County Women's Federation and the Guan County Environmental Protection Bureau. In October 2000, she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong but was detained and later sentenced to three years of forced labour. When her work unit heard of her arrest, they immediately stopped paying her salary.

Due to the mental and physical stress she endured in prison, Ms. Xu developed high blood pressure and was released on bail for medical treatment. Although she was released, her home was repeatedly ransacked and subjected to around-the-clock surveillance by policewoman Xue Lianchun. Because of the large sums of money that had been extorted from her and the fact that she had no source of income, Ms. Xu was forced to sell her family home and live with her younger sister above a rented snack shop.

On March 4th, 2004, the local police went to the shop to take Ms. Xu back to the labour camp. Her sister tried to reason with them, explaining that Ms. Xu was in a very weakened state and should not be moved. However, in the end the police arrested her, too.

Later Ms. Xu went into a deep coma, due in part to the barbaric way the police took her into custody. She was later taken to the county hospital and closely monitored until she passed away in June 2004.

Ms. Xu's eldest son, Li Xue, who is also a practitioner, suffered a mental collapse due to the long-term persecution he endured. Despite his condition, Guan County CCP personnel still tried to imprison him in the Wangcun Forced Labour Camp on December 29th, 2001, and once again on February 27th, 2002.

When the labour camp refused to accept him for the second time due to his mental condition, he was taken to a brainwashing centre called the Shandong Legal System School. While there, he was tortured, causing him to develop bowel and urinary incontinence. As a result, the two brainwashing centre chiefs, Ma Lixin and Luo Guangrong, ordered Guan County CCP personnel to take him home. After returning home, Mr. Li was unable to work, and was therefore without a paycheck for a very long time.

Mr. Guo Dongqi

Mr. Guo Dongqi is the former political head of Guozhanggu Village, Dianzi Township. In October 2000, he went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong and was arrested and detained in the Guan County Detention Centre for more than a month. Later, he was taken to a brainwashing centre where he was brutally tortured, causing him to become severely ill. Because the guards wanted to evade any responsibility for Mr. Gao's death, they ordered his family to take him home.

Mr. Guo organized a Falun Gong experience-sharing meeting in May or June of 2001. When the local police found out about it, they went to arrest him. To avoid being arrested, Mr. Guo left home. The police also tried arresting his family members, who were all implicated, including his young daughter and relatives.

Due to the mental and physical stress he was under, Mr. Guo passed away in April 2003, at the age of 64. After his death, police arrested his second oldest son, who was not even a practitioner, and released him only after a large sum of money was extorted from him.

Mr. Zhang Yanxun

Mr. Zhang Yanxun was from Yi Village, Yanzhuang Township. On March 1st, 2000, he was detained in the local police station. He was later transferred to the county detention centre on March 4th, 2000, where he was brutally tortured.

To humiliate Mr. Zhang, criminal inmates there forced him to imitate a frog hopping around. When he failed to jump high enough, they surrounded him and beat him to the ground. Mr. Zhang was tortured to the point of near death, however policewoman Xue would still not release him. Finally, when Mr. Zhang looked like he was just about to die, Xue allowed his son, Zhang Jie, to pick him up and take him to the hospital. Mr. Zhang passed away on June 1st, 2000.

Ms. Zhao Fengying

Ms. Zhao Fengying was a farmer from Zhaodangbo Village, Dianzi Township. After the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, her daughter and son-in-law were arrested, they had their home ransacked numerous times, and had tens of thousands of yuan² extorted from them. Her daughter was imprisoned in a labour camp once, and her son-in-law, Dong Xinhai, was twice imprisoned in a labour camps. Seeing her family suffering like this caused Ms. Zhao a great deal of mental and physical stress. As a result, her health quickly deteriorated and she passed away on November 17th, 2004.

Mr. Yan Taixiang

Mr. Yan Taixiang was from Wali Village, Jia Town. He suffered years of persecution at the hands of Lin Hongjun, the director of the local police department. One time Lin called the local practitioners together to hold a meeting at the town hall. When Mr. Yan and his wife arrived a little late, Lin handcuffed both of them to separate trees on the side of a road, and beat, berated, and yelled at them in public. As a result, Mr. Yan suffered a mental collapse and died in 2004.

Ms. Wang Yumin

Ms. Wang Yumin, a former cadre from Guan County, died in 2005 after enduring years of torture.

Mr. Xu Jun'gang

Mr. Xu Jun'gang is from Xusanli Village, Guancheng Town. After enduring years of persecution, he finally passed away in the spring of 2008.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is 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.

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/9/30/186801.html