Torture Victim Dies Surrounded by Chinese Security

NEWS – June 20, 2005 Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net

High-profile Torture Victim Dies Surrounded by Chinese Public Security Bureau Agents

One of China’s Highest Government Leaders Personally Involved

NEW YORK (FDI) – The brutally disfigured face of 37-year-old Ms. Gao Rongrong (http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=8783 photos) has been publicized around the world, but it still wasn’t enough to save her from being tortured to death three days ago by Chinese Communist Party officials.

After nearly two years of incarceration, brainwashing and torture, Gao died in the emergency room of China Medical University Hospital. Public Security agents closely guarded her room and held watch at the hospital’s entrances to ensure information about her condition does not reach the outside world.

According to sources familiar with her case, Gao’s body is currently being held at the Wenguantun Funeral Home in Shenyang City. Chinese police are pressuring her family to cremate her body quickly, in order to destroy all evidence of the torture she endured.

Gao is the 54th Falun Gong practitioner verified to have been tortured to death in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province.

Senior Chinese security officials who have recently sought asylum in Australia ( news) say the widespread torture of Falun Gong practitioners in China prompted them to abandon their posts and flee their country.

Gao’s story is clearly a case in point.

Woman’s Face Burnt, Disfigured from Routine Torture

Ms. Gao was an accountant at the Luxun Fine Arts College in Shenyang City. Because she persisted in her practice of Falun Gong, she lost her job shortly after former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. Gao made peaceful appeals in Beijing to call for an end to the persecution and was detained by authorities for several months.

In July 2003, Gao was sent to the Longshan Forced Labor Camp. During her detention, Gao had been beating by camp officials, according to sources familiar with her case.

At approximately 3:00pm on May 7, 2004, Tang Yubao, the deputy head of the No. 2 Brigade along with team leader Jiang Zhaohua, called Gao to the duty office and began to torture her with electric batons for 7 hours, according to these sources. Those detained with Gao in the labor camp say she sustained burns on her face, head and neck, which caused her face to swell and become disfigured. Her face was covered with blisters, and her hair was matted with pus and blood. Gao could only open her eyes a crack because of her swollen face and her mouth was severely swollen and deformed.

In a desperate attempt to escape her torturers, Gao jumped from the 2nd floor office window, fracturing her pelvis, thigh and legs.

Gao was hospitalized for her fractures making it possible to secure photos of the scars on her face, neck and body, and post them on the Internet. For the next several months, details of Gao’s case were submitted to various levels of Government in the U.S. and around the world as well as to the United Nations. Photos of her torture injuries were featured in demonstrations and public education exhibits in major cities throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Although she remained hospitalized, Gao was under constant surveillance from Chinese police, who said they would take her back into custody once she was released from the hospital.

On October 5, 2005 – once Gao’s recovery was sufficient for her to be moved – a small group of friends from her hometown were able to successfully help her leave the hospital to avoid being abducted by police and subjected to further torture.

Politburo Standing Committee Member Personally Oversaw Directed of Gao

As international pressure mounted concerning her case, one of China’s highest-ranking officials, Luo Gan, stepped in.

As a member of the Politburo Standing Committee – the group of nine men who effectively run the country – Luo ordered the Liaoning Province CCP Political Judiciary Committee, the Procuratorate, the Department of Justice, and the Police Department to conceal any and all information about Gao’s case.

The Shenyang City Police Department (State Security Division) began tapping phone lines of all Falun Gong practitioners in the region in an attempt to discover who helped publicize Gao’s case and secure her escape.

A roundup was subsequently ordered of all individuals believed to have assisted Gao in escaping from the Hospital. One of the individuals, Mr. Feng Gangand, was later admitted to the Masanjia Hospital on the thirteenth day of a hunger strike to protest his abduction. Another individual, Mr. Sun Shiyou, is reported to have been severely tortured, including being shocked in the genitals with electric batons. Mr. Sun’s family members were also abducted.

On March 6, sources in China say Gao was located by the police and once again abducted. Neither her location nor her condition were revealed to family members until June 12, when they were told she was being held at the Masanjia Hospital.

According to her family, by the time they reached the hospital on June 12, Gao had lost consciousness, her organs were atrophying, and she was hooked up to a respirator. They say she was little more than “skin and bones.”

It is not known what torture or abuse she faced between March 6 and June 12 while in custody, but clearly, witnesses say, something had brought her to the brink of death.

Public security officers did thorough searches of all individuals coming in and out of Gao’s hospital room. Officers were also monitoring all the hospital entrances.

Gao died four days later.

ENDS

NEWS – June 20, 2005
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net

Background

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (http://faluninfo.net/faq.asp about), is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” Practiced in over 50 countries worldwide, Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture. With government estimates of as many as 100 million practicing Falun Gong in China, China’s then-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 2,336 deaths ("http://www.faluninfo.net/fdifocus.asp?FocusType=Death_Cases"reports) 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.

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