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Police Arrest Dozens of Practitioners in Advance of the Olympic Torch Relay in Huaihua City, Hunan Province

July 15, 2008

(Clearwisdom.net) The Huaihua City government, 610 Office, and other departments use the excuse of ensuring "safety" during the Olympics and the Olympic torch coming to Hunan Province in order to implement increased persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Acts of persecution have included arrests, ransacking of homes and harassment in cities, counties, and villages.

Around May 27, 2008, dozens of practitioners were arrested and detained. Some are in the No. 2 Detention Center in Huaihua City. Some are detained in brainwashing centers, and their families are not allowed to visit them. Other people's whereabouts are unknown.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also implemented a rule beginning June 2, which canceled telecommunication service through the post office, trying to forestall transmission of the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong.

The Olympic Games, which symbolize justice, friendship and peace, have become a symbol of horror under the tyranny of the CCP. At the same time, the evilness of the CCP is revealed, thus allowing human beings to clearly see and understand its true nature even more and hence awaken them.

Partial information about the persecution in Huaihua:

In the afternoon on May 27, practitioner Ms. Tang Kaiju was arrested at her own shop at the entrance of the Hutian Development Zone Peony Garden. Her husband, a non-practitioner, resisted the police and tried to stop them from arresting her. He was also taken away. Eventually, her husband was released through the help of friends. But Tang Kaiju is being held at the No. 2 Detention Center in Huaihua City.

On May 22, practitioner Ms. Zhang Min was arrested. A former employee at the Zhongfang Credit Society, she is now retired. The day before, a woman from the human resources office at her former place of work and another woman went to Ms. Zhang's residence and watched the gate--the dormitory of the People's Bank in Huaihua City. The following day, May 22, a police car parked in front of her home. When Ms. Zhang returned home, she was arrested by the officers there waiting for her. They searched her home. She is currently in the No. 2 Detention Center in Huaihua City.

Around May 10, practitioner Ms. Chen Chujun, a former accountant at the Huaihua South Railway Station, was arrested by 610 Office personnel as she walked down the street. Ms. Chen is over 30 years old and a university graduate. Her father was a division commander in the army, and remained at his post without pay for ten years before July 20, 1999. He learned about Falun Gong during a further education class for a foreign language in Beijing. Because Ms. Chen went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong seven times, management at her workplace forcibly sent her to the "Guangzhou City's Legal Education School" (euphemism for a brainwashing center) and afterwards sentenced her to forced labor in Baimalong Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou, Hunan. She was removed from her job. In the labor camp, she refused to renounce her belief and was brutally tortured. While she was on a hunger strike to protest the brutal treatment, she was injected with drugs that damaged her central nervous system. As a result, her brain was severely damaged, and she lost some of her memory. She was unconditionally released after she had been on a 70-day hunger strike. During the 16th Congress Meeting, she went to Beijing to appeal again and was taken to the Railway's Detention Center. Chen Chujun conducted a hunger strike to protest but was force-fed and later sentenced to three years of imprisonment by a judge at the Hunan Huaitie Transport Court. Before she went to Huaihua this time, she picked up a payment at her previous workplace. She was arrested while she was on her way home after a short stay in Huaihua. Her current whereabouts is unknown.

On May 27, practitioners Ms. Xiang Aimei and her husband, Mr. Xie, from Anjiang Town, Hongjiang City, were arrested in Hecheng District by 610 Office personnel in Huaihua City. Both over 50 years old, Ms. Xiang is a former cadre of the Anjiang Town government. They live with their children in Hecheng District, Huaihua City, and truly know Dafa's greatness and preciousness. Therefore, they use every occasion and opportunity to explain the facts to people. Soon after officers from the Hutian Police Station harassed them at home, they were arrested in a systematic way that was planned by agents with the 610 Office's political and judiciary committee on May 26.

On May 27, retired teacher Ms. Tang Fangju, who lives in a dormitory of the city's education bureau was arrested. Two days later, police officers from the Yingfeng Police Station notified her 86-year-old father by phone. Ms. Tang Fangju is currently detained at the No. 2 Detention Center in Huaihua City.

At 11 o'clock on May 27, the home of the mother of practitioner Ms. Zhou Chunsong (also known as Zhou Jiaying) from the Hecheng District, Huaihua, was ransacked. Her mother lives on the left side on the first floor in the dormitory of the Hutian Development Zone Telecommunications Warehouse in Hecheng District. Details of this incident are under investigation. Ms. Zhou is 40 years old and a former employee of the Anjiang Textile Printing Factory. She came to Huaihua when the factory was relocated in the early 1990s and had to resign because she could not cope with the heavy workload due to physical problems. She began to practice Falun Gong in 1997, and her health improved, her moral level elevated, and she learned to look inward and consider others. Through her own experience she became firm in her belief in Dafa. She continued to explain the truth to people and in July 2001 went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was sent to a forced labor camp. When she conducted a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the labor camp no longer wanted to keep her. During this persecution, she was forced to divorce her husband, lost her family and financial resources, and became destitute for many years. She now works as a cleaner in a kitchen. Her mother, who is over 80 years old, is ill, and Ms. Zhou also has a disabled elderly sister. Ms. Zhou has to look after both of them. It is said that personnel from the 610 Office monitored and traced her for a long time to get so-called "Falun Gong information" and listed her as a "key" person. They used unemployed people to follow her day and night in different vehicles. Her current whereabouts is unknown.

In the early morning on May 28, police officers of the Hongjiang City 610 Office broke into the home of practitioner Ms. Wang Biyun. They ransacked her home, and took her to the Anjiang Town's Baihunao Detention Center.

At 7 o'clock on May 28, officers of the Hongjiang City 610 Office suddenly broke into Ms. Yang Jinlan's home, took the over 70-year-old to the police station, and then detained her in the Anjiang Town Baihunao Detention Center. On May 30, these two practitioners were released after having 800 yuan each extorted from them.

On May 27, Ms. Yi Chunxiu of Yingfeng, Hecheng District, was arrested and is probably detained at the No. 2 Detention Center. Ms. Yi is over 50 years old. In May 2000, she went to Beijing to appeal. Her home was ransacked by over ten people including the district 610 Office police and neighborhood committee secretary Shi Yuxiu. Her Falun Dafa books were confiscated, and after police officers failed to extort 5000 yuan from her, they demanded 1500 yuan. On October 12, 2000, she was arrested at a practitioner's home by five to six officers led by Shu Yong. They took her cash of 1000 yuan from her bag, did not issue a receipt, and detained her for a month. On June 6, 2001, when Ms. Yi was handing out truth-clarification flyers in Zhijiang, she was arrested by four policemen. These men dragged her by her hair and pulled her several hundred meters. They kicked her and then beat her with an umbrella until its steel handle was broken into three pieces. In the Zhijiang Detention Center, she was handcuffed many times, once for 13 hours. She was beaten and kicked by a manager with the surname Zhao until she had blue and purple bruises. She was sentenced to one year of forced labor on September 1, 2001.

At 8 a.m. on May 28, over ten policemen, including Yi Zhongxian, Wang Zhiguang, Duan Jianzhou, and Liu of the Public Security Bureau from Hongjiang City arrested Ms. Xue Baoyu while she was on her way to work. The police then went to her parent's home, smashed the door lock with an ax, and broke in. They took personal belongings, valued at over 4000 yuan, including a computer, a printer, an MP3 player, and more, and detained Ms. Xue at the Baihunao Detention Center in Anjiang Town. Ms. Xue, over 40 years old, works for the Anjiang File Bureau in Hongjiang City. She has been sent to a forced labor camp once, and since her husband could not understand practitioners' truth clarification efforts, he divorced her.

On the afternoon of May 28, six people from the 610 Office broke into the home of Ms. Li Julan, pried open her cabinets, and confiscated all her Falun Dafa books.

At 10 a.m. on May 27, Mr. Zhang Qingxiang, a high school teacher at Yuanling, was taken from his classroom and brought to a brainwashing center by police officers. His workplace even paid 5000 yuan to have two people "accompany" him. Mr. Zhang is 40 years old and began to practice Falun Dafa in 1997. In May 2006, people from the 610 Office were going to send him to the Huaihua Brainwashing Center, but he escaped and became homeless for over a year. In October 2007, he took a relative to the Huaihua Train Station, where he was arrested by officers with the Railway's Police Station claiming to be checking IDs. He was sent back to Yuanling. Mr. Zhang Qingxiang can go back to work when the school term starts this year.

At 6 a.m. on May 27, Ms. Peng Guoqing was arrested at her home by 610 Office personnel. She is 56 years old and began to practice Falun Dafa in 1998. Ms. Peng was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in December 2001 for clarifying the truth and was detained at the Changsha Women's Prison. Since her release, she is still often harassed by 610 Office personnel and officers from the police station and neighborhood committee. However, Ms. Peng still publicly hands out truth-clarification materials in public in an open and honorable way.

Ms. Yang Liming of the Xupu County's Vinylon Factory was arrested at work on May 21, 2008. It is said that she was detained at the Xupu County Detention Center and later taken to Huaihua City.

At 4 p.m. on April 25, 2008, Ms. Chen Lanzhi, Ms. Yin Jizhen, and Ms. Xu Chuncui from Yuanling County went out to clarify the truth in Sandushui, Guanzhuang Town, in the county, and were arrested by police officers from Guanzhuang Town that same night. On the following day, they were sentenced to 15 days of detention by officials of the County National Security Division. When officials of the County Public Security office were going to release them after their term was up, personnel with the Huaihua City 610 Office disagreed and had them transferred to the county detention center on May 10. Chen Lanzhi is 52 years old and began to practice in 1997. She is a retired employee of the Shengzi Company in Yuanling County. On July 20, 2000, in order to protest the persecution of Falun Gong, she and over ten fellow practitioners did the exercises publicly in the county stadium and were consequently detained for 15 days. Yin Jizhen is 65 years old, began to practice Falun Gong in 1998, and is a retired employee of the Yuanling County's Post and Telecommunications Office. Xu Chuncui is 58 years old, began to practice in 1998, and is a retired employee of the Yuanling County's Paper Mill.

At around 1 p.m. on May 27, 2008, the home (fifth level of the Cotton Mill dormitory) of the younger brother-in-law of Ms. Zhou Ling was suddenly surrounded by officers of the Huaihua City 610 Office. City police officers and security officers, also from the Tuoyuan and Yingfeng Police Station, were also present in attempt to arrest Ms. Zhou. Her family members arrived one by one, including the children. They vigorously resisted, so the police brought in around 50 to 110 special officers. The entire area was full of people, and they carried away Ms. Zhou Ling from her sister's home. They also confiscated three computers, two notebooks, and two cell phones and did not issue any receipts.

Ms. Zhou was taken to the No. 2 Detention Center in Huaihua City. She is 47 years old, temperate, pure, and kind, and has a good relationship with others. She is unemployed. She became a Falun Dafa practitioner in 1996, and within three months of practicing, her incurable stomach disease, hemorrhoids, and female diseases all disappeared. This enhanced her confidence in the practice, and increased her strong will to believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance". In 2001, three police officers, Zhou Wei, Sun Jianjun and a woman from the political protection section of the Public Security Bureau in Hongjiang City suddenly broke into Ms. Zhou's apartment. After they had gone through the chest of drawers and cupboards, they took her away, handcuffed her to a stool, deprived her of sleep, and interrogated her for two days. She conducted a hunger strike for 11 days in protest. The CCP personnel extorted 2000 yuan from her family and released her. Three days after her release, people from the city 610 Office, the street office, the neighborhood committee, and the cotton mill security office harassed her every day, thus the entire family had no peace. Ms. Zhou had to leave home and became destitute.

On July 7, 2001, Ms. Zhou Ling went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested by officers of the Tiananmen Square Police Station. During her detention, she was tortured and police officers broke two of her ribs. Then she was locked up in the Dongcheng Detention Center in Changping District, Beijing. There she was interrogated with electric batons. Two security persons held her down on a bed and stabbed both her knee joints with four electric needles. They transferred the electricity through acupuncture points into her body. Zhou Ling conducted a hunger strike to resist this brutal treatment for 55 days. They injected her with drugs that damaged her central nerve system. She was severely tormented physically and mentally, which caused her to nearly lose her sight. Her memory got very poor, and she wobbled as she walked. Later they sentenced her to forced labor in the local area. She could not even recognize her own family. While in Baimalong Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou, Hunan, she persevered in her belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." She was released after a six-month extension.

On May 14, 2008, police officer Liu Xuyi and others from the Chegnxi Police Station, Yuanling County, Hunan Province, suddenly broke into the home of Ms. Xuan Hehua's son in Urumqi, Xinjiang. They took Ms. Xuan to the Yuanling County Detention Center. Ms. Xuan is 56 years old. She began to practice Falun Gong in 1997 and is a retired employee of Yuanling County's Farm Machinery. In November 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal and was detained for 30 days. In July 2000, she was arrested on her way to her sister's home and detained for 15 days. In February 2001, she wrote with paint on a wall "Falun Dafa is good" and was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. In July 2005, she was detained for 15 days for handing out truth-clarification material. In May 2006, she was framed by evildoers when she gave out copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party at her workplace. She was arrested and detained until May 16. She became extremely emaciated due to lack of food. She was bailed out while awaiting trial and was sued on October 18, and thus became destitute until her current arrest.

On the morning of April 8, 2008, practitioner Mr. Yang Yonggui from Huoshui Village was arrested by policemen led by the CCP cadre Ding Kehui of the village and county criminal police chief Xiao Longcai. His current whereabouts is unknown. Yang Yonggui is 51 years old, began to practice Falun Dafa in 1998, and went to Beijing to validate Dafa with nine other practitioners in early December 1999. He was escorted back by police officer Xiao Longcai, detained for 15 days, and CCP personnel extorted 2000 yuan from his family. In June 2000, Mr. Yang and practitioners from Jinxi Village went to Beijing again. They were escorted back by the Xinluhe Village cadre, detained for 15 days, and locked up in the Huaihua Collection Post for one month, plus had 500 yuan extorted from them. On February 21, 2001, he and five other practitioners from Jinxi Village went to a fair in Tiepo. They were arrested without reason by the Tiepo Police and detained in Huaihua for 15 days. Around 3 p.m. on March 15, 2008, when Mr. Yang Yonggui was working at a mountain, CCP member Ding Kehui from the village and five other people entered his home and ransacked all his Falun Dafa books.

Around 12 noon on May 10, 2008, personnel with the Hongjiang District 610 Office, the national protection division, the criminal investigation brigade, and the neighborhood committee rushed to the home of practitioner Li Guangping; arrested Li; ransacked the home; and confiscated all Dafa books, Teacher's picture, a computer, printer, satellite receiver, and more. Guo Qiping's home was also ransacked, and an antenna, receiver and other items were confiscated. They are both detained at the Hongjiang District Detention Center.

On May 11, 2008, practitioner Mr. Luo Jiabin of Shaodong County, Hunan, was arrested by Zhenzhou CCP personnel. He went on a hunger strike to resist and was later detained at the Shaodong Detention Center. He has been on a hunger strike for over a month and as of June 13, he is in a critical situation. Mr. Luo was born in 1975 and is from Shizhuqiao Township, Shaodong County, Hunan Province. He was a second lieutenant with the Kaifeng Air Force Special Troops in Henan. Due to practicing Falun Gong, he was forced to resign from the Air Force and assigned to Hengyang, Hunan. He went to Tiananmen Square to peacefully appeal in 2000. He was arrested and detained and later sentenced to forced labor at Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp in Hunan. During the 2005 Mid-Autumn Festival, he was again taken to Brigade No. 7 of Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp in Hunan and was released in January 2008. Due to long term persecution and maltreatment, after he was released from the labor camp, he had financial hardships and worked in another city. When he was working in Chenzhou, he was again taken away by officers of the Chenzhou 610 Office. His wife, Jiang Yulian, is a nurse at the Huaihua City's No. 2 Hospital. She treats people sincerely and persists in believing in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Hence, she has been repeatedly persecuted and was sent to a forced labor camp twice. On September 14, 2005, over ten people from the Hongjiang District 610 office, Chief Huang Lin, Li Jine (female), police officer Zhou Wei, Yu Huimin, and Deng Jianxin from Huaihua City surrounded Ms. Jiang's home and took her and her husband, Luo Jiabin, to a forced labor camp. They had to leave their two-year-old child alone at home. Soon after that, Ms. Jiang had to leave home to avoid further harassment by people with the Hongjiang District 610 Office.