FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 10/30/2001 [ http://www.faluninfo.net/ ]

Female Representative to the Chinese People's Congress Killed

NEW YORK, October 30, 2001 (Falun Dafa Information Center) - Ms. Lu Qinghua was an accomplished woman in her mid-thirties who was the People's Representative of Dehui City in the northern province of Changchun. She was also the Women's Director of her local area and had been awarded the titles of "March 8th Flag Bearer (a model female Chinese citizen)" and "Outstanding Communist Party Member." Ms. Lu was a devoted wife and the mother of a young son. She was also a Falun Gong practitioner, and for that, she was killed in March, 2000. The details of her death by force-feeding have only now fully come to light.

Ms. Lu Qinghua and her husband took up the practice of Falun Dafa in 1997 and gained a great deal from it, so when the Chinese regime banned the practice in July, 1999, they felt they had to let their government know the truth about the practice. Thus, on March 3rd 2000, Ms. Lu and her husband went to Beijing to appeal to the regime. However, they were arrested and sent back to their local public security bureau in Changchun.

Officials threatened to strip Ms. Lu of her job and all her titles if she refused to agree never to go back to Beijing to appeal. However, this had no effect on her, so she was illegally sent to a detention center.

Ms. Lu began a hunger strike in protest. On March 8th, officials ordered five male criminal inmates to hold her down. They pushed a plastic tube down her nose to try to force-feed her. Even for medical professionals, inserting a feeding tube is a delicate and dangerous procedure because of the damage that can easily be done to the windpipe, lungs, and stomach. Given the violence used, it is not surprising that Lu's cellmates reported that she told them afterwards that she was in great pain and felt that her internal organs had been damaged. The next morning on March 9th, Ms. Lu's condition continued to deteriorate. The cellmates called the guards to check on her, but the guards nonchalantly replied: "If she dies, then we'll just haul her out."

It was not until 5PM that the detention center doctor arrived to give her an intravenous drip. By that time, she was running a high fever of 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and her entire body was experiencing cramps. Finally, she was taken to the hospital. After being notified by the detention center that "she was sick," Ms. Lu's husband went to the hospital. Little more than 10 minutes after he arrived, the doctor declared that she was dead. It was about 8PM. Her grieving husband said: "I only hope the day will come soon when the world finally knows the truth of this persecution against Falun Dafa."

Middle-Aged Man Dies a Horrific Death Following Brutal Beating and Kicking

Mr. Liu Lianyi was a native of Hebei province who was arrested on October 31, 1999 for being a practitioner of Falun Gong. Within days of his incarceration in the Jing County detention center, he had been beaten and kicked so severely by inmates in his cell under orders from the prison guards that he entered into seizures one afternoon and died. He was 54 years old.

One of the most vicious criminal inmates was a man in his 20's called Zhu Yongshan. One day, he asked whether Mr. Liu would continue to practice Falun Dafa, and when Liu replied yes, Zhu began to viciously beat and kick him in the stomach. Witnesses say that at about 1AM that night, Mr. Liu sat up in bed, gripping his chest and groaning in pain. The next day, at lunchtime, Mr. Liu had just started eating when he suddenly fell to the ground, holding his chest. He writhed in agony, lost control of his bowel and bladder functions, and within half an hour, he had stopped breathing. His eyes were still open after he died. The prison guards, however, pretended not to see this horrific scene.

After his death, the police blocked all information and told his family that he had died of a heart attack even though Mr. Liu had had no history of heart disease.

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Category: Reports of Death Cases