Victims:

There are six Soldier Falun Gong practitioners who were sent to the Mental Hospital, among them are:

1.      Zhao Xinli, 37, male, an in-service military officer, Lieutenant rank, of the 89605 army Equipment Headquarters

2.      Li Qiuqia, 52, female, an in-service military officer and a pharmacist from the Navy Headquarters Hospital

3.      Wang Ning, 46, female, an employee from the Navy Headquarters Hospital

Location of Detention and Torture:

No. 261 Hospital of the Liberation Army (a mental hospital), Beijing

Perpetrators:

Doctors and nurses in No. 261 Hospital of the Liberation Army, Beijing

A Brief Report of the Incident:

In February 2000, on Chinese New Year's Eve, Lieutenant Zhao Xinli was arrested at Tiananmen Square because he appealed against the official persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Since he refused to renounce his practice of Falun Gong, he was then detained in the Mental Hospital, where he was tortured to disfiguration. Lieutenant Zhao was injected daily with drugs that harmed his nervous system, leaving him physically weak and muddled. The doctor also beat him up and verbally abused him. He was given excruciating shocks with an electric probe. The torture had made him become extremely weak, as a guard said: “Now he can not run away!”

Ms. Li Qiuxia and Ms. Wang Ning had also both been forced to give up their practice of Falun Gong many times. From August 2, 1999, the two were detained and sent to brainwashing class. They were not released until just before New Year's Day. On February 20, 2000, they were arrested again while merely practicing Falun Gong exercises in one of the open public parks in Beijing. They two were sent to Jiangxi province for detention.

On June 2, 2000, under high pressure from the authority, Ms. Li's working unit and her husband had her committed to the Mental Hospital. The doctor told her that she would be administered punitive drug treatment as long as she refused to formally denounce the practice of Falun Gong. From the start she refused to take the drugs, so the nursed tried to pry open her mouth, then inserted a nasal tube into her stomach. They even applied electrical torture. Once when Ms. Li was reciting a collection of poems by Mr. Li Hongzhi, the nurses asked her what she was doing. After her answer, they became quite angry. They bound her to a post and pricked two electrical needles to her temples. As the needles penetrated into the flesh sending her muscles into shock, it was excruciatingly painful. She was even forced to take drugs that affected her central nervous system. Nobody was allowed to visit her.

On May 30, 2000, Ms. Wang was expelled from her post, and had her Communist Party membership revoked when she merely traveled back to Beijing. She had also been sent to the Mental Hospital in Beijing.

Three other Falun Gong practitioners from the PLA (People's Liberation Army) were also incarcerated at the hospital during this period

News Reports:

1.      “PLA Officer Drugged in Mental Hospital for Falun Gong Beliefs”, Agence France-Presse (AFP), June 28, 2000

BEIJING, June 28 (AFP) - A People's Liberation Army (PLA) lieutenant general who refused to renounce his beliefs in the outlawed Falungong spiritual movement is being forced to take drugs every day at a mental hospital, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Zhao Xinli is one of more than 400 sane Falungong adherents who have been thrown into psychiatric hospitals in the government's continuing crack down on the group, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Zhao, who worked in a military supplies and equipment unit of the PLA, was arrested last month after joining a New Year's Eve protest on Tiananmen Square.

He was placed in a PLA mental hospital in Beijing and injected daily with a drug which harmed his nervous system, leaving him physically weak and muddled, the center said.

An official in the PLA department where Zhao worked confirmed he had been put there because of his affiliation with the Buddhist- based group.

Before the official could answer more questions, his colleague grabbed the phone and said: “We don't have any information to provide.”

Five other PLA members and Falungong believers are also incarcerated at the hospital, the center quoted sources saying.

On Sunday, the rights group and a family member of another Falungong adherent reported the man died after being forced to take medication in an eastern Chinese mental hospital, becoming the 22nd known Falungong -related death due to maltreatment by police.

Su Gang, a computer engineer and college graduate, died on June 10 after receiving twice daily injections for seven days at the Changle Mental Hospital in Changle city, Shandong province, his father, Su Dean, had told by phone.

In the past year, practitioners and human rights groups have reported several cases of practitioners being locked in mental hospitals.

In the biggest case, more than 50 practitioners living in the countryside just outside Beijing were put in a hospital for about a month to keep them from protesting during the return of Macau to Chinese sovereignty on December 20.

The 400 practitioners placed in mental institutions nationwide include mid-ranking PLA officers, judges and police officers, the center said.

Frank Lu, director of the center, believes locking normal Falungong people into mental hospitals is a policy of the central government. The government has considered the movement the biggest threat to social and political stability since the 1989 Tiananmen Square student-led demonstrations.

2.      “Report: China Commits Army Officer”, AOL/AP, June 28, 2000

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese army officer has been committed to a psychiatric

hospital for refusing to renounce his belief in the banned Falun Gong sect, a

rights group said Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Zhao Xinli was sent last month to an army psychiatric hospital in

Beijing where at least five other Falun Gong adherents from the military are

being held, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and

Democracy said.

The group said Zhao took part in a New Year's protest by Falun Gong followers on

Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

[...more...]

type=Group, Psychiatric; type = Case, Psychiatric; type=Case, Women; location= Beijing