[Falun Dafa Information Center, June 20, 2001] It has only recently been revealed that a 60-year-old woman from Shaanxi Province died in the Shaanxi Female Labor Reeducation Camp on February 10th last year at around the time of Chinese New Year.

The 60-year-old woman named Huiqin Yan was a Falun Gong practitioner. She had gone to Beijing to appeal in December 1999 when the authority banned the Falun Gong practice. She was arrested and sent back to her home province to the Shaanxi Female Labor Reeducation Camp. Less than one month later, it was heard in the local area that she had died. The labor reeducation camp claimed that she had died of illness, but sources disclosed that she was beaten to death by criminals under the order of labor camp officials.

So tightly is information controlled in China that it was only recently that news of her death was heard overseas. The Info Center immediately contacted sources in the Public Security system and obtained verification directly from the Shaanxi Female Labor Reeducation Camp. Although Yan's death took place one and a half years ago, camp staff still had a clear memory about it. When asked: "How was Huiqin Yan handled after she was beaten to death?" the labor camp staff answered: "Oh, we treated it as a sudden heart attack."

To date, 224 cases of Falun Gong practitioners dying due to the persecution have been verified. On that list of deaths, 16 practitioners' names still have not yet been identified, but Huiqin Yan was not among them.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Adam Montanaro 917-405-4507 or Feng Yuan 917-912-3301. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com , Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/