Professor Zhu Hang was practicing Falun Dafa in a park on August 30, 1999 when she was arrested by police. Professor Zhu was reportedly tortured with something called the Di Lao device, which literally translated means the "prison in hell" device. Professor Zhu is one of many thousands of people who have been imprisoned, sent to labour camps and reportedly tortured in China for practicing Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong. Zhao Jinhua, a 42 year old woman from Shandong Province did not survive her torture; ten days after her arrest she died as a result of severe beatings at the hands of the police. She is apparently not the only fatality of the Chinese government抯 crackdown on Falun Gong. It is reported that almost fifty practitioners have died because of the brutality of the security forces in China. Tao Hongsheng, as Chinese intelligence officer and former Air Force commander, died after he was confined to a cell at a labour camp and denied medical treatment for two months, according to a Hong Kong based human rights group. His wife Yu Fengyun said: "He loved his country, he wasn't against the government. He just wanted to tell the leaders that Falun Gong is not a XX, that it's good." Others have died as a result of unnecessary medical treatment in mental hospitals.

Zhao Ming is a 30 year old Computer Science postgraduate student who attended Trinity College, Dublin, until earlier this year. He returned to China and was initially sent back to his hometown of Changchun, but his passport was confiscated by the police. According to sources, Ming was told that in return for a confession his passport would be returned to him but he refused.

Unable to return to Ireland to continue studying, Ming went to Beijing to look for work but was arrested on May 13 last by police at a fellow practitioners home as an "important organiser" of Falun Gong. After a period of detention in a police station Ming was transferred to the male labour camp in Daxing County, Beijing. It is reported that Ming and the other practitioners in the camp have suffered severe mental and physical torture, including sleep deprivation, beatings and electric shocks. He has reportedly been forced to write a denunciation of Falun Gong. Zhao Ming and Falun Dafa will be the focus for some of our activities in the campaign Take a Step to Stamp Out Torture. (See letter writing action enclosed.)

WHAT IS FALUN DAFA?

Falun Dafa is one of a number of qi gong practices (hence the name Falun Gong) and draws from Buddhism and Taoism. Practitioners do five sets of gentle exercises and meditation. In 1999 the Chinese government branded Falun Dafa and other qi gong practices as "heretical." Amnesty International believes that Falun Gong practitioners as well as members of similar qi gong movements and some Christian groups, are being persecuted for the expression of their peacefully held beliefs.