Name: Cheng Ke (程科)
Gender: Female
Age: 72
Address: Tianjin City
Occupation: Retired employee from the Huabei Construction Materials Company in Tianjin
Date of Death: 2004
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2004
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hexi District Public Security Bureau Detention Center in Tianjin (天津市河西區公安分局看守所)
City: Tianjin
Persecution Suffered: Torture, force-feedings, detention
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Cheng Ke died after being force-fed in the Hexi District Public Security Bureau Detention Center in 2004. The following is a witness' account of her death.
I was arrested by the police for telling people the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong on September 28, 2004. I met Ms. Cheng in the detention center.
Ms. Cheng Ke
Ms. Cheng was released from Banqiao Women's Forced Labor Camp on August 24, 2004. She was arrested again approximately two weeks later and held in the detention center. She asked a guard for a pen and paper, and wrote a letter to the Procuratorate detailing how she had benefited from the practice, and asked the authorities to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. She then went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and asked for all practitioners to be released.
Zhang Lihong and several other guards force-fed her at around 5 p.m. on the third day of her detention. Ms. Cheng was brought to our cell two hours later. Zhang commanded, "Leave her on the ground; nobody shall help her." Ms. Cheng was clearly in pain and told the inmates, "They force-fed me. You are the witnesses." She asked many times, in a weak voice, "I am thirsty, I need water." Nobody dared to give her water, fearing retaliation from the guards. The next morning, six guards came in and saw Ms. Cheng still lying on the ground. The guards ordered someone to pull her up onto the bed.
The head of the detention center, Tian Baosheng, and the prison doctor quickly came in to check on her. At around 10 a.m., the guard on duty said, "She's dying," and then left. At around noon, we were told that Ms. Cheng had died. She was silent, with her eyes wide open.
The next day, guard Zhang called together the inmates and warned them, "You will say that she died of a heart attack; not one of you will say what happened. If you do, you can forget about going home." The officials at the detention center later gave these inmates two cases of drinks after they gave false testimony.
More information about Ms. Cheng Ke can be found at
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/11/19/54719.html
Those responsible for the persecution:
Tian Baosheng, deputy head, Hexi District Public Security Bureau Detention Center
Zhang Lihong, guard, Hexi District Public Security Bureau Detention Center
