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Before their deaths, the individuals were humiliated, tortured and, in two cases, driven insane from prolonged torture – all part of a systematic campaign imposed throughout China by former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin to “eradicate” Falun Gong. (special report)
Those killed leave behind orphans and parents who saw their children pass before them. Large sums of money were also extorted from many of the families.
Of the cases verified in August, five took place in Liaoning Province, four in Sichuan, four in Tianjin, three in Heilongjiang, and two in Hebei.
The 23 individuals killed were arrested for refusing to renounce and denounce Falun Gong, for defending their practice and fellow practitioners, or for exposing information about the persecution and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners.
Some were sent without legal procedures to prisons and labor camps for up to 11 years.
The verified number of cases in which people have been tortured to death in China for practicing Falun Gong is 1,060, with informed sources estimating the actual death toll to be well over 5,000. (reports / sources)
The Story of Ms. Zhang Hong’s Death
Ms. Zhang Hong, 31, was a pharmacist at a Harbin City hospital. She was detained and sent to work hard labor for insisting on her right to practice Falun Gong. Exactly five years after Falun Gong was officially banned, on July 22, 2004, she was sent to the notorious women’s labor camp of Wanjia.
Because she refused to denounce Falun Gong she was tortured and killed within ten days of her arrival at Wanjia.
According to sources familiar with Ms. Zhang’s case, on the day of her arrival at Wanjia, guards forced her to stand with her hands cuffed to two upper bunk-bed poles, causing extreme swelling. She began a hunger strike in protest on July 24 and guards force-fed her large amounts of concentrated saline solution. They would not let her drink or use the restroom.
Ms. Zhang continually spoke out and exposed the abuses she was facing. The guards then taped her mouth, handcuffed her hands and feet to a bed, stripped off her pants, and left her out in the hallway. She was forced to relieve herself in the bed. After she was violently force-fed on July 29, she sustained severe injuries leaving her bed sheets covered with blood.
On the afternoon of July 31, four male guards carried Ms. Zhang away on a stretcher and proceeded to disinfect the entire room. The section head announced: “Ms. Zhang Hong died from kidney failure as a result of heart disease.”
Ms. Zhang's family is now turning to the legal system with an appeal to investigate her death.
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NEWS - Sep. 29, 2004
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net
Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about), is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Practiced in over 50 countries world-wide, Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture. With government estimates of as many as 100 million practicing Falun Gong, China's Communist leader Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999 (report). Since that time, Jiang's regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practice while imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practice it. The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of 1,060 deaths (reports / sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. In October 2001, however, Government officials inside China reported that the actual death toll was well over 1,600. Expert sources now estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labor camps, typically without trial.
