Song Yanzhao Died in 2001 as Result of Persecution at Pingantai Forced Labour Camp in Gansu Province

Name: Song Yanzhao
Gender: Male
Age: 31
Address: Yumen Oilfield , Gansu Province
Occupation: Physician

Date of Death: May 2nd, 2001
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2001
Most recent place of detention: Pingantai Forced Labour Camp
City: Lanzhou
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, hung up, beatings, force-feedings.

Mr. Song Yanzhao was a physician at the Yumen Oilfield Hospital in Gansu Province. In the nine years since he was persecuted to death at Pingantai Forced Labour Camp, some detailed information deliberately hidden by the labour camp has gradually came to light.

Falun Gong practitioners were most seriously persecuted in the fifth brigade at Pingantai Forced Labour Camp.

In April 2001, the fifth brigade at Pingantai Forced Labour Camp played a video of the staged Tiananmen self-immolation¹, which slandered Falun Gong, prompting practitioners Mr. Song and Mr. Qian Shiguang to shout, "Falun Gong is good! Falun Gong is righteous!" As a result, each day for the next several days, team leader Bao Ping incited drug addict inmates Guo Yunfeng and Ma Guodong to strip the clothes off of Mr. Song and Mr. Qian and to tie them to a beam in the vegetable shed. After beating them there for three hours, the inmates would let them down. This torture continued for five days and resulted in two of Mr. Song's ribs being broken. However, labour camp officials did not allow him to receive medical treatment, but instead forced him to do physical labour.

Mr. Qian was also seriously injured as a result of this torture. He was sent to the Dashaping Labour Camp Hospital in Lanzhou for half a year, but was then sent back to Pingantai Forced Labour Camp and subjected to forced labour again.

Mr. Song continued to be persecuted in the vegetable shed thereafter. On May 3rd, 2001, he grabbed a bottle of pesticide and drank it out of desperation. (Editor's note: Song Yanzhao's action was a result of the Chinese communist regime's brutal persecution. However, it was not in accordance with Falun Gong's principles that prohibit killing and suicide.) Inmate Wang Zhigang, who was assigned to monitor Mr. Song, found him foaming at the mouth and unconscious, but did not take any immediate rescue measures. Instead, he slapped him in the face repeatedly.

After Mr. Song died, the Justice Department launched an investigation, but Pingantai Forced Labour Camp officials removed evidence and covered up facilities where prisoners were tortured. The fifth brigade officials coerced drug addict inmates to fabricate evidence about Mr. Song's death and hid his personal belongs. In the end, the Justice Department and the labour camp co-operated in deceiving Mr. Song's family about the facts surrounding his death.

Team heads of the fifth brigade Ma Wu and Kang Shicheng and the sub-team head Wang Wenchang also participated in the persecution of Mr. Song and other practitioners. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at Pingantai Forced Labour Camp continues to this day.

Related articles:

http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2001/7/6/11931.html

http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2001/12/13/16698.html

Note

1. The "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/11/20/232720.html