URGENT ACTION: FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS TORTURED
By Amnesty International
Falun Gong practitioners Wang Xiuqing and her daughter Qin Hailong (pictured left) have been tortured in Harbin’s Qianjin Re-education through Labour (RTL) camp, Heilongjiang province, China. They have been detained without trial at the camp since January.
Information from former inmates has revealed that Wang Xiuqing and her daughter, Qin Hailong, have been tortured during their detention in the Qianjin RTL camp. On arrival at the camp the two were held incommunicado for more than one month. On 18 August, Qin Hailong’s older sister, Qin Rongqian, visited the RTL camp to see
them. She first visited Wang Xiuqing , who told her that Qin Hailong had been tortured and ill-treated after Qin Rongqian’s last visit to the camp on 3 August, and that this had continued until 17 August. The torture included being beaten with electric batons, being punched and kicked all over her body, and thrown to ground so hard she was unable to breath. She named two officials actively involved in the torture as Huo Shuping and Wu Baoyun, the head and deputy head of the camp’s Number Two Brigade, one of two brigades into which all inmates are divided. Wang Xiuqing said that Qin Hailong was tortured because she refused to sign a document recognizing her “guilt”, asking for “help” in her “re-education”, and promising to reject her beliefs. Her mother had earlier signed the document because she “couldn’t stand it any more”, referring to her torture.
The RTL camp officials initially refused to allow Qin Rongqian to meet Qin Hailong after she had met with her mother despite her having the right to do so under RTL regulations. Qin Rongqian persisted in her demand to see her sister, saying she would not leave until she had done so, and eventually was allowed the visit. Qin Rongqian reports that Qin Hailong had scabs resulting from the electric shocks, was unable to stand up straight, walked with difficulty, held her waist with her arm, and had a look of pain on her face.
Qin Hailong and Wang Xiuqing were assigned to 18 months RTL last November after the family’s extensive efforts to seek legal redress for the death of Qin Hailong’s father and Wang Xiuqing’s husband, Qin Yueming, in JiamusiPrison in February 2011, despite warnings from authorities to stop their legal efforts. Qin Yueming was imprisoned for his religious beliefs, and is believed to have been tortured to death. His family state they found his body covered with extensive bruises with blood coming from his nose. The prison authorities reported the cause of death as a heart attack. A petition movement in support of the family gathered over 15,000 signatures.
Please write immediately in Chinese or your own language:
Call on the authorities to immediately release Qin Hailong and Wang Xiuqing as they have been detained solely
on the basis of exercising their rights to freedom of expression
Urge them to ensure that Qin Hailong and Wang Xiuqing are not tortured or ill-treated while in detention
Urge them to immediately provide any medical assistance that Qin Hailong may require.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 3 OCTOBER 2012 TO:
Minister of Justice
WU Aiying Buzhang
Sifabu, 10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyangqu, Beijingshi 100020
People’s Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 65292345
Email: pfmaster@legalinfo.gov.cn
Secretary of Political and Legal
Committee of Heilongjiang Province
DU Jiahao Shuji
Qianshanlu 99-1
Nangangqu, Harbinshi 150090
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Dear Secretary
And copies to:
Director of Qianjin Re-education Through Labour Camp
WANG Yaluo Suozhang
Daoliqu
Xinnongzhen
Harbinshi 150078
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Dear Director
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation pease check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 208/12. Further information:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/024/2012/en
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Falun Gong is a spiritual movement which gained large numbers of supporters in China during the 1990s. After it staged a peaceful gathering in Tiananmen Square in July 1999, the government outlawed the group and launched a long-term campaign of persecution. Individuals are imprisoned for their religious beliefs and for exercising their rights to freedom of expression by distributing materials about the group. They are sentenced to long prison terms, held in psychiatric hospitals, re-education through labour (RTL) facilities (a form of administrative detention imposed without charge, trial or judicial review), and held in specialized detention centres whose mission is to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners via coercion into renouncing their spiritual beliefs, often through the use of torture and ill-treatment. Torture and other ill-treatment are routine in all forms of detention, despite China’s ratification of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1988. Amnesty International has documented numerous deaths in custody, believed to have been caused by torture and other ill-treatment, and torture and ill-treatment of practitioners leading to permanent disability.
Name: Wang Xiuqing (f), Qin Hailong (f), Qin Rongqian (f) Qin Yueming (m)
Further information on UA: 208/12 Index: ASA 17/031/2012 Issue Date: 22 August 2012
Note: the picture of Qin Hailong is courtesy of The Epoch Times.