I first met Mr. Yu Zhou and his wife, Ms. Xu Na, on a mild winter afternoon. Ms. Xu had just been released from Beijing Women's Prison. She was thin, but her eyes were bright. I knew some of the suffering she had gone through during her five years in prison. Yu Zhou was tortured to death by the Communist regime on the eve of the Chinese New Year.

Mr. Yang Weihua, 35, was arrested and detained three times in the past nine years. On June 27th, 2003, Mr. Yang and ten other practitioners entered Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. Guard Zhao Shuang (male) led a group of assistants to shock all the practitioners with electric batons for three hours. Guards tortured practitioners by almost suffocating them with plastic bags, shocking them with electric batons, brutally beating them, locking them in a "Small Cell". After being released, Mr. Yang's health worsened and he was in critical condition several times. He died on June 5th, 2008.

On December 30th, 2005, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Qingqing was taken back to her family in Fu'an City six months prior to the end of her five-year prison sentence. At that time, she was in very poor health. She was unable to walk or lift her left arm. Once, in Fujian Province Women prison Ms. Li was taken to a pitch-dark room where she was hung with her arms handcuffed and only her toes touching the ground for six days straight and another twenty-four days with her arms stretched horizontally. During these many days of horrible torture, she went on a hunger strike against the persecution for ten days. Seeing that she looked near-death, the Fujian Women's Prison sent her home to avoid taking any responsibility. She died six months later.

Ms. Xiao Sumin was a 46-year-old practitioner. On May 30th, 2008, she was arrested and detained. After enduring more than two weeks of non-stop torture, Ms. Xiao's life was in eminent danger. Guards were forced to take her to intensive care at the hospital, where she was immediately put on oxygen. However, due to the severe torture she had previously suffered, she died within 3 weeks. Her body was quickly cremated on June 21st, 2008.

I am not a practitioner, but I was once detained in the Chuanxi Prison, and I personally witnessed how the police persecuted Falun Gong practitioners who were jailed there. In 2005, a Falun Gong practitioner was tortured to death in the Chuanxi Prison. In order to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners, the police physically tortured them. They hung the practitioners by their handcuffed wrists from window frames for ten or fifteen days and didn't let them down. The practitioners were also deprived of sleep. Their strong wills when facing tyranny and their peaceful minds and pure hearts in adhering to Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance greatly touched me.

Seventy-year-old Ms. Liu Yuanfang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was taken to Qianmen Police Station and placed in a wired cage. After returning home, Ms. Liu was continuously harassed by the police. As a result of the relentless persecution, Ms. Liu began to suffer symptoms of illness. Ms. Liu passed away on September 10th, 2003.

My name is Yan Jingqiu. I'm 49 years old and a Falun Gong practitioner from the North District in Qingdao City, Shandong Province. I was sentenced to forced labour and was brutally persecuted in a labour camp for persisting in my belief and insisting on freedom of speech. My oldest sister, Yan Jinghua, was also sentenced to forced labour. Due to the intense pressure, both my husband and my father died, but I was unable to see them in their last moments.

On December 30th, 2000, five police officers stormed into Ms. Zhou Fenglin's home and took her into custody without any reason. Ms. Zhou went on hunger strike to protest her arrest and detention. The guards brutally force-fed her and cuffed her wrists and ankles onto a torture board that is usually used on death-row prisoners. She was dragged into a cell at noon on January 9th, 2001 after being tortured on that board for nine days. Her cell-mates saw that her breathing was getting weaker and weaker, and she looked like she was about to die, so they called the guards to help her. Guards took her to the hospital to be resuscitated. Ms. Zhou died the same day.

Mr. Jiang Qiulai (over 60, exact age unknown), lived in Renqiu City, Hebei Province. On October 10th, 2007, Mr. Jiang and fellow practitioners were arrested while doing the Falun Gong exercises at home. His home was ransacked. Mr. Jiang was detained in Renqiu City Detention Centre for four months, and he was severely tortured with brutal force-feeding among other methods. On February 27th, 2008, his family picked him up, for his condition so urgent that he could not walk. Mr. Jiang was bedridden and could not take care of himself. His family took him to see doctors, and they found he had four fractured ribs. Mr. Jiang told them they were caused by guards beating him in the detention centre. Mr. Jiang's family had him treated with intravenous injections, but he died on June 11th, 2008.

On January 20th, 2002, Mr. Zhao was arrested by police. Mr. Zhao was interrogated and tortured, while cuffed to an "iron chair" with his hands cuffed behind the back of the chair and his mouth taped. The officers kicked Mr. Zhao in the shins with their leather boots, to the point that his bones were exposed. He suffered excruciating pain during this terrible ordeal. Mr. Zhao was imprisoned several times more. When he was released from Daqing City Prison in 2005, he was in critical condition and could not eat at all. His entire body was in pain and he was unable to take care of himself. After two years of being bedridden, he died on June 18th, 2008.

In May 2008, it was reported that eight Falun Gong practitioners died as a direct result of the persecution. Among them, two were female and three were over 50 years old. All eight victims died between January and May of this year, 2008, with three of the eight deaths occurring in May. The Minghui/Clearwisdom website has revealed that among the 42 confirmed death reports between January and May 2008, thirty-four died within the period of January to May.

Ms. Li Xiaowen, 67, lived in Sichuan Province. In November 2007, she was arrested and taken to Chengdu City Legal Education Centre, a Brainwashing Centre located in Xinjin County. She was tortured to the point of being in critical condition, and was released in March 2008. She had been having heavy bleeding ever since. Ms. Li Xiaowen had been arrested many times, and endured torture numerous times. At the beginning of May 2008, she passed out due to the bleeding, and was taken to Sichuan Province Medical University Affiliated Hospital for recovery. She died at the beginning of June 2008.

On September 8th, 2007, police in Benxi City took Mr. Liu Yanheng, 64, into custody. He was subsequently sentenced to two years of forced labour. There are many means of torture means used in Benxi City Forced Labour Camp, including the stretching bed, locking in a small cell, and other brutal methods. Many detained practitioners have been tortured until they develop heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke Due to being subjected to brutal treatment while in detention, he died ten days after his release from Benxi City Forced Labour Camp on June 7th, 2008.

Mr. Cui Guangyong, 38, was an accountant. In 2003, police officers arrested Cui Guangyong. They tortured him for 10 days. The policemen could not find any evidence to persecute him, so they had to release him. In 2007 police arrested him again. During 14 days, in the cold and wet training centre, Cui Guangyong's physical health became worse and worse due to the physical and mental torture he was subjected to. He passed away on the night of May 29th, 2008.

On April 28th, 2008, after the remains of practitioner Mr. Wang Guiming were cremated, the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp dispatched prison guards to bring the ashes to Tonghua City, where Mr. Wang's family resides. Their aim was to take Mr. Wang's wife, Ms. Han Fengxia, into custody and hand her over to the local 610 Office. To avoid being arrested, Ms. Han did not attend her husband's ash spreading ceremony.

In early May 2008, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xu Na was transferred to Chongwen District Detention Centre in Beijing. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials filed her case through the Procuratorate, and are ready to put her on trial. Xu's family has hired a lawyer to defend her. We have learned that the police did not find any evidence for their show-trial in Ms. Xu's home, nor did they find any in her vehicle. Under normal circumstances, she should be released. The CCP was worried that she would protest her husband's death by torture, so they transferred her and arranged to put her on trial.

While distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, practitioner Mr. Gu Qun was arrested on March 16th, 2008 by police. The next day he was moved to Yaojia Detention Centre in Dalian City. Mr Gu started a hunger strike in protest and suffered brutal force-feeding by the police. His body was severely damaged. On April 8th, the police sent Mr. Gu to the Third People's Hospital. In fact what they sent was his dead body, hoping to shift their responsibility onto the hospital.

Ms. Liu Yuelan, 73, went to Beijing many times to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested in Beijing and tortured with handcuffs, brutal force-feeding, and was burned with cigarettes. She was also detained by the local police many times. Officers at the Nan'guan Station forced her to kneel down for more than two hours with her arms tied behind her back. She was forced to leave her home to avoid being arrested but was then arrested in the spring of 2001 by officers from the Liangshan County Police Department. She was in a forced labour camp for more than a year. She died on February 22nd, 2008.

Mr. Liu Quan, 52, was a Falun Gong practitioner who lived in Benxi City, Liaoning Province. On the morning of May 4th, 2008, the Nan'guanling Prison Administration in Dalian City called his family, and told them that Mr. Liu had died at 2:00 a.m. due to a sudden heart attack. His family viewed his body on May 5th, 2008. They found that his face was yellow, the flesh around his eyes and lips was purple, there were large purple bruises on his back, and his nose was filled with cotton balls. After Liu Quan's body was cremated, the family noticed that the ash appeared very dark, suggesting that he may have been poisoned.

Ms. Xu Jiarong, 61, was a Falun Gong practitioner. In July 2001, officers from the Xixiu District Police Department suddenly ransacked her home, arrested and detained her in the Heishitou Detention Centre for more than two years. Then they sentenced her to seven years in prison. She was tortured in the Yang'ai Prison until she could not take care of herself. Her family requested her release many times, and she was finally released at the end of April 2008. She died shortly after that on May 13th, 2008.

Mr. Cui Guangyong, 38, was a Falun Gong practitioner. However, after the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, he was not allowed to practise Falun Gong because of pressure applied by the local police departments. Some of the village officials frequently went to Mr. Cui's home to harass him, both physically and psychologically. He was forced to leave his job and was sentenced to forced labour twice. Those same officials extorted thousands of yuan from his family. In October of 2007 he was again sentenced to forced labour. After he was released, he died on May 29th, 2008, as a result of this persecution.

A male Falun Gong practitioner was arrested in May 2006 while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong in Shibei Town, Jiangsu Province. The police took him into custody at the Shibei Town Station, and then detained him in the Kunshan City Detention Centre. The detention centre transferred a group of prisoners from the Xinjiang prisons so that they could be employed to violently "punish" the people arrested. This practitioner was soon beaten to death by the encouraged prisoners.

To stand up for Falun Gong during the persecution, Mr. Gu Qun took the train to Beijing to appeal in February 2000. He was arrested, escorted back to Dalian, and then detained at the drug rehabilitation centre. After his appeal in Beijing, Mr. Gu was arrested six times, detained, sentenced to forced labour, and severely persecuted. On March 16th, 2008, Mr. Gu Qun was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution. Police officers arrested him. The next day he was taken to Yaojia Detention Centre in Dalian City and was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour. Before he was escorted to the forced labour camp, in the morning on April 8th, Mr. Gu died in Yaojia Detention Centre. Only 23 days had passed between the time of his arrest and his death as a result of torture.

Around May 24th-26th, many practitioners went missing in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. Among these, twenty-four were arrested in one night in Dongling District. Another practitioner was also missing and her paralysed mother has been left at home without anyone to care for her. An internal source revealed that when Party Political and Judiciary Committee Chief Zhou Yongkang arrived in Shenyang City, he secretly ordered the arrests of 50 practitioners. Now we have confirmed at least 30 that were arrested, with many more suffering brutal treatment, and many families living in terror. Mr. Miao Qisheng, has been tortured to death by police officers in Shenyang City. His wife Zu Liming was also arrested on May 24th, 2008. Their son Miao Yumeng (nicknamed Mengmeng), once again lives alone.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xu Na, 40 is a well-known painter. Her husband Mr. Yu Zhou, a famous Chinese folk singer, was tortured to death by police during the Chinese New Year. Ms. Xu Na is currently being imprisoned in Beijing. Her trial has been put on hold because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is afraid of international attention to her and her husband. Ms. Xu has overcome many difficulties to appeal for justice in the case of her husband's death while she is still in prison.

Thirty-eight-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Wang Guiming died as a result of abuse in the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp on February 29th, 2008. He had been arrested while working on February 13th and many people saw the police beat him in the police van. He went on a hunger strike to protest the detention and was force-fed three times. When the family saw his body there were bruises all over it, evidence of abuse. Yet the police maintained that Mr. Wang had killed himself.

Mr. Lu Tingxiao was 66 years old. He started practising Falun Gong in 1997. In October of 1999, Mr. Lu went to Beijing to appeal for a stop to the persecution of Falun Gong. After he came back, his workplace sent him to a brainwashing centre and he was fined before he was released. Mr. Lu was detained several times afterwards and his home was ransacked many times. In May of 2007, while Mr. Lu was in Hainan Province, he was sent to another brainwashing centre. During detention, he showed symptoms of severe illness. Mr. Lu passed away on March 31st, 2008.

Ms. Zeng Suqiong, 50, was a Falun Gong practitioner from Leshan City, Sichuan Province. She was arrested many times for persisting in Falun Gong practice. For a long while, she led a destitute and homeless life. When she was arrested again in 2002, she was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp and detained in the Longquan Women's Prison in Sichuan Province, or Chuanxi Women's Prison. Her husband divorced her and took away their son and all of their property. After she was released in 2006, she was homeless, and had to live in an elderly residential home. She was the only female in the home. Even so, she was monitored and harassed by local police officers. She passed away in June 2007.

Mr. Gu Qun was a Falun Gong practitioner who lived in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. He was arrested five times and later sent to a forced labour camp. While Mr. Gu was distributing Falun Gong materials exposing the persecution on March 16th, 2008, he was arrested by police and taken to the Yaojia Detention Centre the next day. He went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was violently force-fed, which permanently damaged his health. He died within 23 days after being arrested for the fifth time.

On December 19th, 2007, some Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Bai Heguo was transferred from Huazi Prison to Nanguanling Prison. Because he refused to do forced labour, guard Zhang Shuyi ordered prisoner Zhou to beat Mr. Bai in an office and then handcuffed him to the heating pipe. Mr. Bai's head was beaten beyond recognition, and his eyes were only a slit due to the swelling. When the guards found that he was dying, they took him to the hospital for emergency care, but he had died by the time he made it to the hospital.

According to witnesses, at 9 a.m. on July 9th, 2006, Ye Changdong, the head of Wenlin Town Police Station, put on plain-clothes and went with 20 others to force a female practitioner in her 70s to the emergency room on the third floor of Renshou County Hospital. The elderly practitioner sat on the edge of the bed for a little while and seemed to be in a lot of pain. The police told her to lie down. With one hand on her abdomen, she lay down on her side. A while later, Yang Changdong noticed that the woman was dying, so he got a doctor to do artificial respiration. It was only about three or four hours from the time she was taken into Emergency until her death. During that time, no one examined her. The doctor said that there was no record made of her visit.

Ms. Deng Shufen, in her 70s, was arrested and detained eight times after the persecution started. On October 1st, 2007, she went to speak out for justice for Falun Gong to the town government. In the middle of that night officers arrested Ms. Deng and took her to the Chengdu City Legal Education Centre (a brainwashing centre) for 40 days. She was released after she could not eat as a result of the mental and physical torture. She was as thin as a skeleton, and her eyes remained wide open for two months. She died on May 5th, 2008.

Mr. Jin Yongnan, a Falun Gong practitioner, was brutally mistreated in forced labour camps for years. In 2004 police arrested him again at home and confiscated Falun Gong books and leaflets exposing the persecution. The police tried to make him reveal the source of his materials by torturing him. From that afternoon on, the police beat him six days and six nights in a row, deprived him of sleep, and put a steel hat on his head so that two people could take turns beating it with a wooden bat. The bat snapped, his head bled and swelled, and every part of his body was damaged. In Jiutai Forced Labour Camp and suffered even more cruel torture, including the "stretching bed" and "swinging." Due to suffering from long-term torture Mr. Jin passed away on May 3rd, 2008.

Ms. Li died as a result of the persecution in 2004, and her husband Mr. Jiang died in 2006 as a result of the persecution. Mr. Jiang Chengjiu was sent to Suihua City Forced Labour Camp for a two-year term. He was released in 2003. On September 3rd, 2004, police again sentenced him to three years of forced labour. His wife died about two weeks later. Mr. Jiang refused to succumb to the brainwashing. Guards cruelly tortured him, causing him to go deaf in on ear, and his legs and buttocks were covered with bruises. He died on November 15th, 2006.

Mr. Teng Zhiduo, 62, became very healthy after he began practising Falun Gong in 1998. However, since the persecution started in July 1999, the police arrested and detained him many times. The most severe case occurred in autumn 2004 when police officers arrested Mr. Teng while he was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong. They detained him for two months and subjected him to numerous tortures. On March 24th, 2008, Mr. Teng Zhiduo fell. His family took him to the hospital, but he quietly passed away, never having recovered from the tortures he experienced for refusing to give up his belief in Falun Gong.

In May 2006, agents of the Yongzhou City Domestic Security Division ransacked Mr. Tang Cibao's home and took his computer, printer, TV, and cash. He was forced to leave home to avoid being arrested. In January 2007, someone reported that Mr. Tang had returned to his home. Officer Feng Defu arrested him on February 2nd, 2007, and took him to Xinkaipu Forced Labour Camp to serve a two year term. Mr. Tang lost 70 pounds due to the brutal mistreatment. He had no energy to talk, and developed serious liver disease. The Camp Administration ordered his family to pick him up in October 2007, and he died on May 13th, 2008.

Ms. Zhang Hanping, in her 40s, lived in Tianjin City. She was arrested while putting up posters exposing the persecution in the Baodi District in April 2004. She was then sentenced to three and a half years in prison. While she was jailed in the Tianjin Prison, Ms. Zhang was subjected to brainwashing and physical abuse. She suffered from diabetes and pancreatitis after she was released in 2007. Ms. Zhang died on April 30th, 2008.

On February 13th, 2008, Mr. Wang Guiming, a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested by local police and subjected to brutal torture. On February 27th, 2008, he was taken to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp, where he died two days later, due to torture. The authorities, however, stated that he died a "sudden death." His wife, Ms. Han Fengxia, hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit with the Suburban Procuratorate in Changchun City. She presented eight doubtful points to show that Mr. Wang did not die of "sudden death," but was actually murdered. Consequently, Ms. Han was arrested from her residence on April 15th, 2008.

Mr. Ding Guowang was sentenced to 18 months of forced labour at the Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing. He was subjected to brainwashing. In March 2003, Mr. Ding was released. He appeared to suffer a nervous breakdown. He would often cry or laugh without reason and spoke gibberish. He could not take care of himself, and his condition worsened in 2004. In 2005, half of his body was paralysed and he could no longer speak. He became incontinent and had to fully rely on his family to take care of him. He died on April 20th, 2008, at the age of 65.

Ms. Fu Ping, 44, was arrested in 2000, while handing out Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. She was locked in a cell for death row inmates for more than three weeks by officers from Gaoxin District. Ms. Fu was then sentenced to 18 months of forced labour. Later, she was reported to the authorities while handing out DVDs exposing the persecution. Her home was ransacked, and she was forced to leave her home for a long period of time to avoid being arrested. After returning home, Fu Ping was under surveillance and could not practise Falun Gong. Her former illnesses reoccurred and she lived a hard life. Ms. Fu died at the end of March 2008, her body entirely swollen.

Zhang Xiaoruan is a Falun Gong practitioner. Because he believed in Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, and wanted to be a good person, he was persecuted during the past nine years. His family was devastated. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Zhang Xiaoruan was dismissed by his work unit and lost his job because he insisted on practising Falun Gong. Zhang Xiaoruan's son, Zhang Wenbin, was dismissed from Xiaoyuan Village School because he did not give up his practice of Falun Gong. In the village, he was often abused, and laughed at by other people. He passed away on December 28th, 2000, at the age of 14.

Mr. Lu Renqing, 39, could not understand why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, so he decided to go to Beijing to appeal for this good practice that had benefited him both spiritually and physically. He was arrested in Beijing before he was able to get to the Office of Appeals. After that he was arrested several times and in December 2002, sent to Huazi Prison. On the September 27th, 2004, under orders from the guards, three prisoners stuffed his mouth, and then beat him until all three of the prisoners were exhausted. He was injured all over his body and had two broken ribs. The long term mental and physical tortures that Mr. Lu had endured damaged his health beyond recovery. Mr. Lu Renqing died on April 19th, 2008.

Mr. Yang Gui (also called Yang Dezhi) is disabled. He and his family have been persecuted again and again by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the last nine years because they persist in their belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance". Yang Gui and his brother, Yang Chao, were sentenced and are still being held in forced labour camps. His sister, Yang Liu, was arrested by the police and beaten. His uncle, Jian Yongjun, was sentenced. Both of his parents died.

On March 13th, 2008, Xu Dingguo, a 12 year-old boy suffered a severe case of food poisoning and was rushed to the hospital. On the way, he cried out "I want my mum and dad," until he passed away. He was not able to see his parents at his last moment of life. His mother, Ms. Chen Yumei was arrested in February 2007, and is being detained at the Guizhou Province Women's Forced Labour Camp. His father, Mr. Xu Qihua was forced to leave home to try to prevent the persecution of him and his family. However, in September 2007, State Security agents arrested him in Guiyang City. On April 10th, 2008, Mr. Xu was tried in a secret court at the Guiyan City Judicial Police Hospital, and no family members were allowed to attend.

Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. Fan Dezhen, 33, was arrested and brutally beaten several times because he practised Falun Gong. On April 20th, 2008 he was tortured to death at the Suizhong County Detention Centre. It wasn't until later that his family was notified of his death by the the detention centre administration. Mr. Fan's family wanted to know the cause of his death. The director of the Suizhong Detention Centre, said that Mr. Fan's death was a result of malnutrition. Mr. Fan's family did not believe this because Mr. Fan's mother-in-law had gone to the detention centre and deposited money for his keep. The day after Mr. Fan's death, his family requested to see his remains but the police cremated his body before the family could see his body or give premission for his cremation.

Mr. Fan Dezhen, 33, was a Falun Gong practitioner. In 2001 he went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong and was detained in the Huludao Labour Camp for three years. In order to force him give up his faith, several guards shocked him simultaneously with electric batons, and beat him cruelly. He arrested again in 2005 and taken to the Huludao City Labour Camp again, where he was tortured many times. In 2008 he was arrested once more and died on April 20th, 2008 in the Suizhong County Detention Centre.

At the end of 2000, when about a hundred practitioners from Huludao went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to peacefully protest the persecution to Falun Gong, they were detained or sent to labour camps. In January 2001, I got to know Fan Dezhen in the Huludao Detention Centre. He and his father had been apprehended together. Fan Dezhen firmly resisted their attempts to "transform" him, so he was sent to a more strict supervisory team. Although we did not see Fan Dezhen any more, we could often hear shouts of "Falun Gong is good" from upstairs. We knew he was still firmly safeguarding his faith. Later, because he printed Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution and distributed them publicly, he was sentenced to forced labour several times.

Since February 24-25th, 2008, Chaoyang City Public Security Bureau and other city departments have arrested 14 Falun Gong practitioners under orders from Zhang Minghua, the deputy chief of the Public Security Bureau. Mr. Chen Baofeng, a taxi driver, was tortured to death within eight days while in custody. A source exposed that to cover up the murder and find more excuses to persecute practitioners, Zhang Minghua is now colluding with personnel from the Public Security, Procuratorate, and court systems to fabricate allegations and false evidence. The perpetrators are attempting to exaggerate their false evidence all out of proportion in order to aggressively persecute practitioners.

26-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Wang Lihui has been held for nearly twenty days. The National Security Team of the Nangang District Police Department denied his family their right to visit him. His 60-year-old mother is so worried, that her heart attacks frequently recur, and she suffers from extremely painful headaches. Over the past several years, she has witnessed her husband Mr. Wang Shixue being arrested and tortured to near death several times. He died recently, and now her son has also been arrested. She is very worried about her son.

Mr. Hong Haoyuan was a university graduate in his 20s. Early in 2000 he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. He was arrested by the 610 Office of the Chaozhou City Police Department and was sentenced to two years at Sanshui Forced Labour Camp. While there, he was inhumanely tortured and persecuted for practising Falun Gong. Before his arrest he was a handsome and strong young fellow, but by the time of his release, he was just a bag of bones and could barely walk or breathe. Relatives and neighbours could hardly recognize him. He was extremely weak and passed away in the early hours of January 5th, 2003.

Mr. Gong Zhaotao, 52 years old, had been actively informing people about the persecution of Falun Gong and dispelling the state propaganda attacking the practice since July 20th, 1999. In October 2007, while distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution he was forcibly taken away by police and detained in a forced labour camp for one year. After being persecuted for over four months in Wangcun Forced Labour Camp, he passed away on February 22nd, 2008. Upon examining his body after his death, his family discovered a great deal of blood had come out of his ears and mouth. The labour camp authorities claimed that he died from coronary heart disease. His family originally intended to pursue justice, but communist authorities cremated his body to cover up the evidence.

On February 24th, 2008, Ms. Jing took a taxi to Shenyang City to visit her relatives and friends who were imprisoned at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. Police arrested Ms. Jing, the practitioners who were with her, and the taxi driver and jailed Ms. Jing at the Chaoyang City No. 1 Detention Centre. The taxi driver was tortured to death. The first time Ms. Jing Fei was imprisoned was July 1999. She was arrested in Beijing while appealing for the right to practise Falun Gong and was taken to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in November 1999. Ms. Jing lost her beloved job in the government-owned nursery school because of her beliefs.

In 1998, I started doing the Falun Gong exercises. At that time, my wife Ma Gui'e was undergoing treatment for breast cancer at the Shenyang Tumour Hospital. During that period of time, a Falun Gong practitioner introduced her to the practice, and she began to practise Falun Gong too. Within two weeks of starting the practice, she suddenly noticed that the bowl-sized tumour was now as small as her fingertip. On July 20th, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began, our village's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary turned us in. The police told us that it was higher ranking officers forbidding us from practising Falun Gong. The village CCP secretary started to continually harass us, subjecting us to tremendous mental torture. He forcibly occupied a quarter acre of land that we had cultivated ourselves. Under such persecution, my wife's disease reoccurred. She died on July 18th, 2002, at only 44 years of age.

Ms. Wang Yulan, about 50, was arrested for distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Deputy Police Chief Yin Chaobo beat her viciously while attempting to force her to write a guarantee statement that she would stop practising Falun Gong. He beat her face until it was black and blue, grabbing her by the hair and slamming her into the wall. He then put a metal bucket over her head and pounded it repeatedly with a hammer. Ms. Wang felt dizzy and faint and was unable to hear. The following morning, Yin continued to torture Ms. Wang, who was already severely bruised. He used the cord from a hand-crank telephone to give her electric shocks until she lost consciousness.

Mr. Yin Fuquan, 45, was incarcerated in Tailai Prison. Mr. Yin suffered from all kinds of persecution and torture. Since he refused to accept being brainwashed, the prison guards had prisoners put 35-pound ankle shackles on him and forced him to stand under the burning sun. He was beaten, kicked, and forced to squat for a long period of time. They also tortured him with the "big hang up" and punched his face, causing his nose and mouth to bleed. He became paralysed and bedridden. Not until Mr. Yi was in critical condition did the prison authorities agree to let him be picked up by his family on August 8, 2007. He suffered and was in pain for six more months, and died on February 13, 2008.

In November 2000, Ms. Gao Shulan, 36, went to Beijing to appeal for justice on behalf of all Falun Gong practitioners. She was arrested and detained at the Qinglong County Detention Centre. It was very cold. She and others were confined in a cold room without heat. A long plank was all they had for a bed, without bedding. It was very dirty, and some spots were pretty wet. The space was not big enough for all of them to sit on, and it was much too small for them to lie down. They were handcuffed and placed in leg irons that weighed more than 30 pounds. They could not stand or lie down. During the winter, the guards poured water onto the cement floor and ice as thick as four inches formed. Wang Jin and his guards then forced practitioners to lie flat on the ice. Ms. Gao and her fellow practitioners were forced to lie on the ice on many occasions. Ms. Gao's health deteriorated and she died on February 2nd, 2002.

How do the veteran inmates know for sure if these practitioners are killed for their organs instead of being released? Firstly, these people will not promise to stop practising Falun Gong, so there is no way they will be released. Second, practitioners are taken to an isolated room. Many doctors dressed in white will go to the room and collect them, and they are never seen again. One day a new prisoner was put in our cell. He told us that a practitioner's family was arguing with the guards outside. They questioned why their relative had died so suddenly and why the body was cremated before it was shown to the family. The inmates were puzzled. After all, that practitioner was alive when he was removed from the cell two days ago. How could he die so suddenly? He must have been murdered. Why did they deny his family the right to see the body before cremation? It is because his organs had been removed. Think about it. They harvest organs from executed prisoners, why wouldn't they go one step further?

On May 9th, 2007, the police in Changchun City arrested many practitioners during a conference. After that, officers from the Changchun City Police Department and 610 Office searched and arrested practitioners according to the list they obtained at the conference. In order to avoid persecution, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Jin Chengquan and his wife Ms. Li Jin were forced to leave their home. On January 14th, 2008, Mr. Jin Chengquan had a heart attack and passed away at the age of 56.

Ms. Chai Heping, around 58, went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in October 1999 and was arrested by the Beijing police, picked up by her employer, and detained in the Handan City Second Detention Centre. She was released after the police extorted money from her. She lost her job, and her husband had been retired early many years ago, so she was under significant financial pressure. She went to Beijing to appeal again in 2001, and she was arrested and detained in the Handan City Second Detention Centre again. She was sentenced to one year of forced labour at Shijiazhuang City Women's Labour Camp. When she was picked up by her family after one year, she had lost her eyesight and had an unclear consciousness. She used to be so intelligent, but she became mentally impaired from the torture. She died from falling out of a building in March 2008.

Mr. Li Hongfu was repeatedly jailed and tortured for telling people about the persecution of Falun Gong. The torture included the "tiger bench", electric shocks, nailing bamboo shoots under his fingernails and merciless daily beatings by convicted drug addicts. The brutality caused Mr. Li's spleen to rupture and his ribs fractured. He vomited and had difficulty breathing. He weighed less than 40 kg (88 lbs), could no longer walk unaided, and was in constant excruciating pain. Mr. Li never recovered and died on December 8th, 2006, at the age of 31.

Practitioner Mr. Zhao Shouzhu, 38, was forcibly taken into custody in 2000. Because the guards found him doing the Falun Gong exercises they beat him fracturing three of his ribs. Prisoners also beat him down to the floor, forced him to stand up, then beat him down again. They held his head down to the floor and took turns kicking him with their leather boots all over his body, even his head. Upon being released, Mr. Zhao had to leave home to avoid being arrested. On March 31st, 2008, Mr. Zhao was arrested while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution. He began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The police had people from the City Hospital brutally force-feed him with unknown drugs. He died around April 20th, 2008.

Mr. Fan Zhende, 33, was a Falun Gong practitioner had been been detained and violently beaten multiple times. In 2001 he went to Beijing to appeal and was detained in the Huludao Forced Labour Camp for three years. In order to force him give up his faith, several guards shocked him simultaneously with electric batons, and beat him cruelly, causing his whole body to be injured and swollen, and his face to be deformed. On February 25th, 2008, Suizhong County Domestic Security Division Leader Li Changhua arrested eleven practitioners, including Mr. Fan and his wife Yang Xiaoxue. Mr. Fan died at around 7 a.m. on April 20th, 2008 in the Suizhong County Detention Centre.

On January 28th, 2003, Mr. Peng Fangjian was arrested by 610 Office agents and detained at Renli Town Police Station. According to inside sources, He was brutally beaten by the officers. Three days later, Mr. Peng was imprisoned at Lingquansi Detention Centre. Mr. Peng began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was tortured to death on February 10th, 2003. Someone who had been imprisoned with Mr. Peng at the detention centre said that Mr. Peng had been subjected to brutal torture by prisoners, and that his mouth and nose were always filled with blood. Mr. Peng refused to renounced Falun Gong and his mind was always firm. He was on a continuous hunger strike, and the police brutally force-fed and tortured him. This prisoner also said that he had seen Mr. Peng's body being taken to a car.

Mr. Xu Linshan, a fifty-seven-year-old practitioner, never stopped believing in the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and strove to be a good person. Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, he was arrested seven times, detained, sentenced to forced labour, sentenced to prison, and tortured many times. On April 25th, 2002, the Qiqihar police arrested him, ransacked his home and he was sentenced to five years in prison. Mr. Xu Lishan was subjected to various brutal torture methods there, such as being stabbed with a needle and force-fed with highly concentrated salt water. He then developed the following symptoms: oedema, liver cirrhosis, liver ascites, renal failure, and meningitis. Mr. Xu's family took him home in December 2005. He was bedridden until his death on February 11th, 2008.

A few days ago, I learned that Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhou Huimin passed away at Qingyang People's Hospital in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, on March 15th, 2008. My heart broke, and tears ran down my face. She was a good person and was very kind and considerate to others. She died after 198 days of brutal torture. She hoped for the persecution to end soon and for everyone to have a bright future. She lost her precious life because she guarded her beliefs and strove to be a good person.

In 2001, Guo Hanpo, 56 years old, was arrested by police because he practises Falun Dafa. He was held for more than one year before finally being sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment. He was detained in the Baoding Prison. Guards and "transformed" people tried to brainwash him. Several prisoners watched him around the clock. He was often confined to his cell for long periods. He was not allowed to have a full meal while doing heavy labour. Several years of torture forced his blood pressure up to 200. Under mental and physical torture, he became emaciated, losing the very healthy and strong body he earlier had. He looked totally different. Later on, although the guards did not force him to do labour, they tortured him mentally. Last year, his family members went to the prison to ask for his release. The prison did not release him until he died.

On August 8th, 2007, police arrested Mr. Qirimailatu, 72, for the third time while he was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. They had him sentenced to forced labour again, but the camp refused to admit him due to his advanced age and the physical tests that he failed, so he was detained in Inner-Mongolia Detention Centre. He went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution on December 6th, 2007. He died after detention centre administrators rushed him to the prison hospital on January 5th, 2008. Information revealed he was as thin as a skeleton and was unable to speak during the time he was detained.

Ms. Ye Zhanfen was a Falun Gong practitioner in her 60s. In November 2000, she was taken into custody by the Linqiong Town Police Station for copying Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. In the station, four to five police officers beat her cruelly, kicking her lower abdomen, electric-baton-shocking her head, and causing her to pass out due to an extreme headache. They tortured her for nine hours, resulting in her becoming incontinent and fracturing her left wrist. There was blood in her stool the entire time she was detained. On June 5th, 2001, she was sentenced to five years in prison. She was released in 2005, but local 610 Office agents still harassed her and she could not live in peace. She died after enduring the persecution for over eight years.

Ms. Chen Jinfen, 68, was a Falun Gong practitioner living in Hebei Province. On February 4th, 2008, she was taken into custody by the Heru Township Police Station. The police ransacked her home and detained her in Changli County Detention Centre. On February 13th, 2008, she felt pain in her leg and discomfort in her chest, and was very weak. Thus, she was released. However, the weakness and aches continued. She died on March 24th, 2008.

On March 15th, 2007, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Minli was arrested and tortured. She was later taken to the Jilin City Detention Centre, where she was subjected to additional torture. Her family went there on many occasions to request her release, but the guards told them that she was in good health. Shortly before her death, after returning from her last interrogation session, Ms. Wang suffered from incontinence. Every day, she would lie on the floor of the ward, where she was given injections. At noon on June, 19th, 2007, Ms. Wang was tortured to unconsciousness with electric batons. There was a water shortage at the detention centre, but the guards used their entire supply - thirteen basins in all - to pour over Ms. Wang, yet they were unable to revive her. On June 19th, 2007, however, her family was notified that Ms. Wang had passed away.