Among all the talks that I made with officials in the various national appealing bureaus, the longest one did not last more than 15 minutes.  In addition, most of the receptionists were quite impatient, as if we were making troubles for them.

--  The Author

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To the leaders of the Chinese Central Government,

Greetings!  I’m Zhang Xuelin, 31 years old.  I’m a villager in the Xujia Village, Beiguan Town, Weicheng District, Weifang City in Shangdong Province.  On February 21 of this year, my mother, Ms. Chen Zixiu, a 58-year-old Falun Gong practitioner, was beaten and tortured to death within 3 days in the secret "forced transformation" site in Weicheng District.  Here I would like to describe the whole course of the incident (I wrote two articles before) and state my own retrospection and thinking of the past half year.  I wish that the government would know the truth, as well as the genuine feelings and living situations of our common people.  Even if I am detained again and die like my mother, I would not hesitate or feel sorry about it.

After the death of my mother

I once wrote two articles at the end of February and mailed them to the administration bodies of the office of State Councils, the office of the Central Government, Chinese Central Television Station and other news media.  I provided the sources and true stories of the incidents to them, as well as to some residents in the local area.  In early March, according to police, my article was posted on the Internet.  Just because of these two articles, the police summoned me four times until April 3, which totaled 107 hours.  On April 17, I was held by the police in the name of administrative detention for 15 days, based on Item 5 in Article 19 in "the Provisions to the Management of Social Security."  Their charge was "distorting the facts and disturbing social order".  Even now, I still don’t know how I distorted the facts and what facts I distorted?  What are the facts supposed to be?  After being released, I gained certain freedom since they withdrew restricted surveillance on my home by the administrative officials and police.  I have been constantly appealing to the police, legislative and administrative bureaus.  I do wish to believe in the law and the government. 

Forced Cremation

On March 11, the police verbally explained to me the results of my mother’s pathological analysis.   I don’t know much about medicine.   So I requested the forensic reports, but was denied.  But I understood from the pathological analysis that acute severe pulmonary emphysema could lead to death in a very short period.  My mom’s lungs were quite healthy, and before she left home she had no such symptoms at all.  She must have been beaten up and tortured to death, which is undeniable.  However, I did not have any written explanation or conclusion from the police.  The police once suggested that I  check the Criminal Law and the Codes for criminal procedure.  They would examine the case and then pass it to the investigation bureau. 

On March 16, from 5:30PM to 7:00PM, the working group, which consisted of nearly 20 leaders from police, investigation bureau and governmental officials of the village, town and district; sent notice to my brother and me, demanding us to go to the cremation field at 9:00AM the next morning.  We immediately expressed our opposition.  At the same time, we questioned all of them: What disease caused the death, what had my mother gone through in those 3 days, and the relationship between the tortures and her death.  I knew who the murderers were.  I knew that they were still at large.  At 9:00AM on March 17, we arrived at the cremation field.   The cremation field was heavily guarded.   I estimated that there were about 200 people and 20 police vehicles; which were all from the police, the investigation bureau and the court.  One of my relatives and I again presented the opposition from the family: we did not agree on the cremation and submitted a written request for the storage of the corpse and the rights to handle it by ourselves.  At noon, the chief of the legal section in the District police station, accompanied by the leaders of the administrative office, gave us the final notice, "no matter whether you agree or not, the cremation has to be carried out at noon; someone will be responsible for it."  However, when we requested the certificate of cremation later on, nobody was responsible to handle our case.  

The replies from the different levels of government offices and judicial departments:

I believed that the police and judicial department would have a conclusion after examination of this case, so I started to request the forensic reports.  Here are the various responses:

District Police Department: the forensic reports had been finished a long time ago, but we could not give it to you.  What we told you earlier was the result (referring to their verbal message about the pathological analysis).  If you don’t agree, you can apply for reexamination to the higher authorities.

City Police Department: If you disagreed with the forensic reports from the District Police Bureau, you have to submit the certificate of the entrustment from the District Office and the materials from the initial forensic examination.

District Police Department: during the last forensic anatomy, there were officials from the City Police Department.  So there was no need to submit materials.  If you don’t believe, you may ask them.  (However, I believe the primary criminals to organize the torture were the officials in the District offices.)

I also visited the investigation bureau and the court.  Their responses are:

City Middle-level People’s Court: Criminal cases cannot be indicted by individuals and should be brought to public prosecution. 

City Investigation Bureau: We do not accept any cases related to Falun Gong, even related homicide cases.  

The High-level Province's Investigation Bureau:  You had better hurry to sue the murderer!

Province's Administrative Office and Government Office: Don’t you know what kind of organization Falun Gong is?  (They even questioned me back) Why didn’t they accept your case?  Don’t you know?

Province's Police Department: (I submitted the articles that I and the eye-witnesses wrote) your mom died from a heart attack.  Didn’t you agree with that yourself?  (I have never agreed with that.)   Why do you come here to make troubles!  Go away!  Go away! Go away!

The Offices of State Councils and Central Government: Go appeal to the State Police Department.

The Highest Procuratorial Organ: Go appeal to the State Police Department.

The National Women Association:  You’ve got to stop appealing around.   Please go home quickly.  There are some nation's policies that we could not explain and there is no way to explain.  Yet, we are not able to do anything for you. 

The State Police Department: I wrote a letter to Weicheng District's Police Department on June 19.  (The original sealed letter was passed to the District's Police Department)

The District's Police Department:   after repeated requests, there was still no written decision as of July 21.  (Because I did not agree with the administrative detention by the District's Police Department, this was also included in the appealing procedure). 

The District's Police Department: The decision was made to sustain the administrative detention applied.

The District's Court: they received my letter before the due date. After my repeated requests, they indicated verbally that: we would not establish a court case for your administrative lawsuit.  We could not give you the reasons and the written decision on why we didn't establish the case.  You can talk directly to our higher offices.

The District's Representative Office of People’s Congress:   The District People’s Court did not establish a court case, but they should give you something; however, they felt that the decision from the District's Police Department was quite appropriate.  You’d better go to the Middle-level Court.

The Middle-level Court:  (Response from telephone consultation) Why did the District Court say that?  You should have the legal evidence to point out that what they did was wrong.   Have you found out the legal evidence? Then the phone was abruptly hung up.

The City Administrative Office and Government Office: we could not deal with this case.  We don’t handle this kind of cases.  You are really young and capable!

The Highest People’s Court: without the trials from local people’s court, you should not appeal here.  If the court still does not accept the case, you should go to the State Police Department again.

The Office of the National People’s Congress:  without the ruling from the Court, we would not accept your case. 

The second visit to the State Police Department:   (another police officer received me, while he did not know the whole course of appealing) He first drafted a letter to the City Police Department; he patiently listened to me while I explained it all to him.  He said: "People should not be beaten to death even if they practice Falun Gong!" He was shocked: "The police even detained you?"  ……He wanted to say something but held it on a second thought.  He finally said: "Trust the law".   Only at that moment, I had the feeling of being consoled.  But who knows what kind of leaders that our local judicial department relies on.

The State Judicial Department: (the response from telephone consultation, concerning the death of my mother) You may ask the State Police Department, regarding whether this case is completely closed or is set aside.  The cause of death must be explained clearly.

I asked: "Is it due to the issue of Falun Gong that we encountered this consequence.  They answered: It should not be.  

However, three days later, when I went to the office of the State Judicial Department in person, I got a different reply: Is this what the local court told you?  What can the judicial department do?  (The police won’t accept the case of my mother’s death) The administrative body has its arrangement.  Ok, you’d better stop the appeal and obey the order from the administration.

However, according to a fellow-villager from the Shandong province who appealed to the State Police Department at the same time, there was one Falun Gong practitioner who came to here to appeal.  He got beaten up right after he claimed to practice Falun Gong.

The Judicial Department of the State Councils:   (after they heard about my mother being tortured to death due to the practice of Falun Gong, they hummed and hawed for quite a while.)  This matter is quite complicated.  You’d better go to the Supervisory Department of the State Committee of Discipline Examination.

The Supervisory Department of the State Committee of Discipline Examination:  go to the State Police Department.

In my effort of appealing numerous times, I saw and met the large assembly of appealing groups.  There were so many unbelievable things, but they appeared to be so common, except for the Falun Gong practitioners being detained by the police.  According to the policeman who was in charge of receiving appeals from Falun Gong practitioners at the gate, among the 100 people who appealed, there would be no more than 10 cases being resolved.  There was so much disappointment, anger and hopelessness.  Among all the talks that I made with the officials in the various national appealing bureaus, the longest one did not last more than 15 minutes.  In addition, most of receptionists were quite impatient, as if we were making troubles for them.

(To be continued)