Jul 29, 2005

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has initiated a new wave of arrests and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and dissidents who have promoted the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. It is also targeting those who have openly withdrawn from the CCP and the Communist Youth League, says the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG).

According to the WOIPFG, since April 2005, more than 600 Falun Gong practitioners have been detained. The detentions have occurred nationwide, with most of those held being beaten and interrogated. Dozens have been arrested and sentenced to prison terms. At least one person was beaten to death for possessing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. The WOIPFG condemns the CCP's violence against these innocent people.

Ms. Guo Lifang was a Falun Gong practitioner from Xiangtan City, Hunan province. Guo, 54, was strangled to death for possessing a copy of the Nine Commentaries. At 3 p.m. on March 31, 2005, three people, including at least one police officer, broke into her home. When the police saw a copy of the Nine Commentaries on her desk, they took her to the municipal detention center to interrogate and torture her. On the morning of April 17, Guo's family was informed that she had died of unnatural causes. Autopsy showed nothing unusual in her stomach. The only apparent signs were strangle marks on her neck.

With such an allegedly healthy, energetic person having been tortured to death over about two weeks, police, fearing the consequences, have offered the family monetary compensation, which has been refused. The case is being concealed, with nobody being permitted to view the body. Even staff at the detention center are being monitored.

The WOIPFG urges Chinese Communist Party officials to follow the examples of Chen Yonglin, Hao Fengjun and Han Guangsheng, all of whom were former Party officials that have broken away from the CCP.

http://theepochtimes.com/news/5-7-29/30752.html