China's Shame: Deaths in Police Custody

We are witnessing today in the People's Republic of China an alarming escalation in the persecution of Falun Gong. Led by president Jiang Zemin, China's leadership has stepped up measures aimed at eliminating Falun Gong. Increasingly the victims of this persecution are women, the elderly, and even the disabled. Equally alarming in all this is that in the face of international criticism China's leadership has not shown remorse or concern. Instead, it has made a policy of denial and doubled its efforts to cover up its rampant human rights abuses against Falun Gong-abuses which now include over 200 murders. In the past month alone, the Falun Dafa Information Center and world media have reported 20 more Falun Gong practitioners' deaths in police custody.

Police have claimed that the cause of death in each of these cases was either "suicide" or "sudden illness." However, family members of the victims were either not allowed to see the practitioner's body, or, in other cases, saw a body covered with bruises and signs of torture, but were then prevented from obtaining a legal medical investigation. Many victims and their families had been told by police that harsh treatment of Falun Gong practitioners could "never be too excessive" and that "if practitioners are beaten to death, it will be counted as a suicide." All evidence suggests that these directives indeed came from the communist party's leadership.

State Secrets

To further ensure the secrecy of its abuses, China's officials have classified the deaths of Falun Gong practitioners as "state secrets"; the same designation has been given to the battered bodies of tortured practitioners. Professor Zhu Hang of Dalian City, for example, was sentenced to years in labor camp simply for sending pictures overseas of her own tortured body; her charge was "leaking state secrets." US permanent resident Dr. Teng Chunyan, meanwhile, was recently sentenced to three years in jail for the alleged "crime" of disclosing to journalists the illegal detention of Falun Gong practitioners in China's mental hospitals. The fate of Zhang Zhenggang, of Huaian City, was even worse. Comatose from beatings and torture in custody, Zhang was taken by police to the crematorium, still alive, in order to prevent family from seeing his bruised and battered body and then revealing the torture he suffered.

Playing with the Law

China's leadership has labored to hide these abuses by other means as well, most notably through shrewd contortions of the legal system. On June 11, Jiang's regime issued a new document, "Explanations to Some Questions About the Law" (part II). The document puts forth new legal directives aimed at classifying Falun Gong as "subversive," thus enabling more harsh punishments, including executions. In this document one sees that Jiang and his government are seeking legal grounds for their organized killings of Falun Gong practitioners. In his June 11th article, BBC reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes described the Chinese government's document, saying, "With these new regulations they are hoping to give a veneer of legality to what is essentially a brutal political struggle."

Yet there can be no mistaking it: Jiang Zemin's campaign against Falun Gong has been from day one in direct violation of China's own constitution and the international human rights treaties China has signed. There can be no justification for the persecution, no excuse for the killings. No amount of manipulation to the law can veil the illegality of this persecution.

Source: Falun Info Net