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Falun Gong Adherent Wang Yuhuan Dead from Chinese Police Abuse
High-profile torture victim called “a saint” by leading Chinese attorney
(10/16/2007 16:43)
NEW YORK – Ms. Wang Yuhuan, a well-known Falun Gong adherent from the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, has died of suspected abuse while in police custody, the Falun Dafa Information Center reported Tuesday. Wang, a prisoner of conscience, had previously been arrested twelve times by Chinese authorities on account of her religious beliefs, and tortured extensively.
Wang’s family report that she passed away on September 24 after having been transferred to Changchun City Central Hospital. It is believed she was removed to the hospital following torture and abuse at the hands of authorities. Chinese police regularly send victims of rights abuses to hospitals or return them to their families when death appears imminent, hoping to avoid the additional scrutiny likely following a death in penal facilities. Wang’s family were not notified of her death until October 9, more than two weeks after her death.
“No one who has not personally experienced such pain can imagine how much it hurts.”
—Wang Yuhuan, before her death. Read her personal account of torture endured in 2005.According to sources close to Wang, she had been in captivity since May 9, when she was arrested along with another 38 Falun Gong adherents in Changchun who were assembling to exchange views and experiences related to the practice of Falun Gong and local efforts to counter official propaganda and rights abuses. Officials from the Jilin Province Public Security Bureau, Changchun City Police Department, and the Erdao District Police Department were said to have orchestrated the arrests.
Changchun authorities are said to have conducted a manhunt throughout the city, arresting an additional 32 adherents thought to be associated with the planned gathering. A number of homes were reportedly raided and ransacked by police, driving local followers of the Falun Gong from their homes and likely into lives of destitution. The Information Center is particularly concerned for the welfare of Feng Liping, who local sources indicate has been subjected to severe physical abuse while in police custody; Feng is said to have lost use of one of his arms, with family being forced to cover related medical costs.
Wang Yuhuan’s travails gained international attention following an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao by prominent Beijing attorney Gao Zhisheng, published in December of 2005. In the letter Gao details Wang’s removal by police to a mountain torture chamber two hours outside of Changchun. There, Wang was subjected to a litany of inhuman and degrading abuses, including sexual assault by male police; frequent beatings; burning (to the eyelids) with cigarette butts; the puncturing of eardrums with bamboo picks; electrocution with batons; and injections with unknown drugs and substances, among other measures. Wang said of the abuse, “No one who has not personally experienced such pain can imagine how much it hurts.”
Around the time of her conversations with Gao, Wang made public, in her own account, the gut-wrenching details of the abuses she suffered. (link)
Gao has referred to Wang as “a saint who survived the torture rack.” Gao had interviewed Wang in person while investigating abuses against the Falun Gong in northeastern China for two weeks in November and December of 2005. Gao was accompanied on the fact-finding mission by Jiao Guobiao, then a distinguished professor of journalism at Beijing University.
The Information Center remains particularly concerned about Feng Liping and other Changchun Falun Gong adherents arrested May 9, most of whom the whereabouts and welfare of are unknown.
(10/16/2007 16:43)
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
Contacts: Gail Rachlin (+1 917-757-9780), Levi Browde (+1 646-415-0998), Erping Zhang (+1 646-533-6147), or Christina Chai (+1 917-386-5068).
Fax: 646-792-3916 Email:, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/