(Clearwisdom.net)

Editor's note: Mr. Sun Zhigang, not a Falun Gong practitioner, was a clothing designer who was arrested simply for not having his personal identification. Mr. Sun was later beaten and tortured at the police station for unknown reasons. When friends of Mr. Sun called later about his whereabouts, they were told that he was sent to the hospital. His medical records showed that he was "calm" at the time of admittance and sleeping for most of the time he was at the hospital. The day after, however, Mr. Sun's friends were told that he had "died of a heart attack." When some courageous reporters heard about this case, they conducted a low-key investigation at great personal risk. After an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be massive internal injuries consistent with being beaten in the last 72 hours. There was also evidence of burn injuries on his shoulders and knees. After the story came to light, the local police denied it completely. However, after it was circulated on the Internet, many people posted their own stories of family members or friends who have been raped, beaten, and even murdered in police custody. Mr. Sun's case was shown to be clearly just the tip of the iceberg.

The death of Sun Zhigang has caused a huge public uproar. It resulted in a show trial which ended up sentencing a few people that were detained with Sun Zhigang, and the punishment of a few officials and policemen. In the end, this incident reached the point that it may cause a change of the appearance of the detention system that has been in place for many years.

Now my question is: Was the death of Sun Zhigang avoidable? Is it possible to keep similar tragedies from happening in the future?

Sun's death occurred at the Tianhe District of Guangzhou City. The Tianhe Public Security Bureau branch has been notorious for murdering people. Among the ten Falun Dafa practitioners in Guangzhou City whom it has been verified were persecuted to death, three died at Tianhe. Unfortunately, except for the websites focused on Falun Gong news, no other media has exposed the news, apparently because of the government censorship on the media in China. Now let's first look into why Sun Zhigang' death was so widely noticed. There are three reasons: 1) Sun was a university student; 2) Sun was innocent; 3) Police officers were very cruel.

Those are good reasons, but do not cover the whole issue. Let's take a look at the facts of three other Falun Gong practitioners tortured to death in the same location:

Gao Xianmin, a biology teacher at Jinan University, Li Xiaojing, a teacher at Guangzhou University, Luo Zhixiang, a program engineer at the Guangdong Province Agricultural Development and Construction Company. Their educational level was no less than Sun Zhigang's. They also had no intention of committing any crimes. Even judged by current Chinese law (no matter how distorted it is), practicing Falun Gong is not a crime. Even for real criminals, nobody has the right to torture them to death. As to the cruelty of police officers, it's hard for us to grasp. As to Sun Zhigang's death, at least some kind of investigation has been done, but the reasons for the deaths of the above mentioned Falun Gong practitioners are still considered to be 'national secrets,' like the deaths of other Falun Gong practitioners being detained in jails or detention centers all over China.

Some people have this point of view: "that is a Falun Gong issue and has nothing to do with me." Jiang's regime has been preventing Falun Gong practitioners from seeking legal justice. So far no cases in which Falun Gong practitioners died while in detention have been exposed by the Chinese media and then investigated through the intervention of the upper level authorities like what happened in Sun Zhigang's case. We've even heard many cases in which the murderers of Falun Gong practitioners were promoted because of their cruelty in torturing practitioners. We have to say that the insensitivity of the public to these kinds of atrocities has encouraged the savage acts of Jiang's regime. But the atrocities were not just confined to Falun Gong practitioners. The dictator and its government will certainly apply violence to anyone it does not like. Sun Zhigang's case and another case in which Zhang Bing was tortured to death at the Huludao Forced Labor Camp, Liaoning Province are typical examples.

In Sun Zhigang's case, the highest-ranking officer punished was Han Liping, who was removed from office. He was the deputy director of the Tianhe Public Security Bureau. On August 22, 2002, the Chinese language Minghui website (www.minghui.ca) reported that Li Xiaojing, a teacher from Guangzhou University, was tortured to death at the Tianhe Public Security Bureau Branch. On the list of persecutors, Han Liping's name appears. Han's rank at that time was lower. Apparently, he was promoted instead of being punished after Li Xiaojing died as a result of torture he received in detention. If the media at that time had spread the details of the death of Li Xiaojing as widely as in Sun Zhigang's case, the upper level authorities might have been forced to investigate the issue. At least those wicked police officers would get a warning and know that to murder someone is wrong and that they would be punished. If that were the case, Sun Zhigang's death might have been avoided.

Zhang Bing's case is another example. Going to www.clearwisdom.net (English language) or www.minghui.ca (Chinese language) which is a website focused on reporting Falun Gong related news, and using the keyword 'Huludao' to search, scores of torture cases that occurred inside the Huludao Forced Labor Camp can be easily found. The difference between Zhang Bing's case and Dafa practitioners' cases is that the people who tortured Falun Gong practitioners were police officers or criminals directed by police officers. As early as May 2001, a list of assailants has been published which include: Yao Chuang (camp head), Liu Guohua (brigade head), Ding Wenxue (group leader), Fan Wenjie (deputy group head), clerk Zhang, clerk Dong, Liu Tao, Liu Liang, Gao Aiguo, Zhi Liguo, Wei Wenzhong, Zhang Guozhu, Director Tian, Accountant Yang, group leader Diao, Zhang Fusheng, Wang Shengli, Tong Liyong, Liu Haihou, Li Jian, Cao Shuai, et al. This kind of violence directed from the highest levels has been going on at the Huludao Forced Labor Camp for several years. In an environment where kindness is punished and brutal violence is rewarded, what other results can you expect?

Violence against Falun Gong practitioners is still taking place every day in the jails, forced labor camps, detention centers, and even in the street or township offices in China. Silence toward this kind of violence is encouraging these bloody atrocities. Those who beat Sun Zhigang to death have been punished; those criminal officers who murdered Gao Xianmin, Li Xiaojing and Luo Zhixiang are still at large. If those murderers and the people behind them are not restrained by the law, then next time, who can guarantee the next one murdered is not you?

(Originally published on the Epoch times website)