Chinese House Church Leaders First Time Testify at UN, Video Testimony from Tortured Women Believers Released
(April 02, 2004)CAA (Philadelphia) – April 2, 2004
(boxun.com)
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For the first time in the history of the United Nations, the oppressed Chinese House Church leaders testify at Geneva during the 60th annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. Mr. Joseph M. C. Kung, President of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, submitted a written remark on the Persecution of the Roman Catholic Church in China
The renowned human rights campaigner Mr. Harry Wu, a Catholic, also speaks on the issue of religious persecution in China. The briefing sponsored by A Woman’s Voice International, a UN recognized NGO for human rights, is held for two hours on April 2, 2004
“First of all, on behalf of over 80 million members of the Chinese house churches, I want to extend our deep gratitude to A Woman’s Voice International for inviting us here for the first time in UN history to speak for this previously voiceless group” said Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association and a former house church pastor in Beijing, “We have so many stories to brief you about and so many voices that need to be heard”. Then he focuses on the case of the persecution of the evangelical South China Church. In the past 10 years, 8,903 believers were arrested or detained. At least three believers were tortured to death, many men and women believers were tortured and many, especially women, were sexually abused and molested during their interrogation to obtain the false evidence against Pastor Gong.” In the first trial, Pastor Gong was accused of having raped 15 female members of his church. In the retrial, the so-called rape victims were reduced to four, and their first names were not even mentioned, and some of the so-called “hard” evidence against Pastor Gong mysteriously disappeared. Then a video containing testimonies from recently released women prisoners is presented, it shows more evidence of how coerced confessions were taken from these female members in extreme and inhuman torture including numerous cases of sexual abuse. Bob Fu stated that one lady, Mrs. Yu Zhongju, was tortured to death, and one other lady lost her ability to give birth due to such extensive sexual abuse and torture. The video contains the testimonies of three female leaders, Ms. Cao Hongmei, Ms. Liu Xianzhi, and Ms. Meng Xicun. These three leaders who were among the 15 women who were originally interrogated were coerced into accusing Pastor Gong of these false rape charges. (These leaders’ backgrounds and transcripts are attached in this press release.)
China Aid also released a recently obtained government document which was issued by the RAB (Religious Affairs Bureau), of Qingdao City, Shandong province in November 2003. Though it is only a regional document, it provides chilling and irrefutable evidence that the Chinese government has intensified their campaign against innocent, unregistered churches and their believers since the end of 2002. It suggests that “Those who are deeply affected by self-proclaimed preachers, oppose patriotic religious bodies and defy the government’s administration shall be “educated” and “transformed” through compulsory study of the government’s religious policy and regulations.”(see the attached document).
Pastor Peter Xu Yongze, founder of one of the largest Christian movements in China, referred to as ‘the Billy Graham of China’, also delivers a passionate remark. After talking about his experience as a Christian prisoner who was arrested and imprisoned five times for over seven years on in China and who experienced severe torture and persecution, he concludes that “Christians in China desire to live respectful and law abiding lives. Christians have been recognized as being a force for social stability and respect fort the law. Yet they continue to be persecuted for simply adhering to their faith according to their consciences. We do not seek confrontation and we are patriotic to our nation. All we ask is to be able to practice our faith freely. “
Pastor Peter Xu calls upon Chinese government to stop all kinds of religious persecution for all believers. Release all prisoners of conscience including the Chinese House Church historian Mr. Zhang Yinan”. Zhang was arrested on September 26, 2003 and sentenced for two-year re-education through labor on October 27, 2003 by the authority of Pingdingshan City, Henan province. He was charged to “attempt to subvert the national government” with the so-called evidence all quoted from his personal diary and devotion notes. Recently, after the local People’s Court decided to stay with the decision made by the Re-education through Labor Commission of Pindingshan City on the first trial, Zhang decides to continue to appeal to the Intermediate Court of Pingdingshan city.
The meeting is chaired by Lord Chan of Oxton, Member of the British Parliament, House of Lords, Chairman of Chinese in Britain National Forum and Chairman of the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission.
NEWS RELEASE
China Aid Association, Inc.
PO Box 263
Glenside, PA19038
(267) 205-5210
Fax: (215) 886-1668
www.ChinaAid.org
Contact: Bob Fu
(267) 205-5210
April 2, 2004
Transcript of the South China Church Members’ Testimonies
Cao Hongmei
• Female, 35, Zhongxiang City Hubei Province, South China Church member.
• Arrested on Aug.8, 2001. First trial on Dec.25, 2001, charged with “intentionally harming others,” received a three-year sentence.
• Second trial on Oct.9, 2002, the same charge by the Jingmen City Intermediate Court but the sentence was reduced to two years.
• Released on Aug. 8, 2003.
“They questioned me for about a month. When I didn’t answer them, they would use different kinds of ways to torture me. For instance, they hung my two hands up on the door frame, and my feet couldn’t touch the floor. My hands and shoulder became numb. They used a sharpened bamboo stick to beat my hands and shoulder. I couldn’t bear this tremendous pain any more so I began to scream, but they didn’t allow me to do so. They threatened me, “If you keep on shouting, we will stuff your mouth and make you shut up.” Every time they hung me, it would last at least half an hour, sometimes even one hour. All together, they have hung me about a whole day.
They also threatened me, saying, “We can beat you to death, and throw you into the Han River, or dig a hole somewhere to bury you. Who will question us about that? You count for nothing. They went on to say, “Don’t you know? A South China Church believer has been beaten to death by the police in Zhong Xiang, just because she kept silent and didn’t confess. After her death, nobody has come to us asking for an account. So we also can beat you to death, because you little believers count for nothing.”
All they wanted from me was a false testimony. They said, “If you just confess according to what we tell you, I will release you and let you go.”
I kept silent. They saw this didn’t work, so they tried another way to torture me. They used handcuffs to pound my fingers. One of them would hold my elbow, and the other one used a pair of handcuffs to hammer my fingers. My fingers began to bleed and my fingernails began to break but they were not fully satisfied. Then they used a cigarette lighter to burn my fingers. All my fingernails had been burned, and you still can see the scars here. My middle fingernail was totally broken, and this is the newly grown one.
Not only did they burn my fingernails, they also use the lighter to burn my ears, my face, and my lips. They used all these tortures forcing me to confess that I had sexual relationship with Pastor Gong Shengliang.
Liu Xianzhi
• Female, 33, Tianmen City Hubei Province, South China Church member.
• Arrested on May 27, 2001. First trial on Dec.25, 2001, charged with “organizing and using evil cult organization to obstruct the implementation of the law,” received a two-year sentence.
• Second trial on Oct. 10, the charge was dismissed and Liu Xianzhi was proclaimed innocent by the Jingmen City Intermediate Court but was immediately taken away by the Jingmen police to Shayang labor camp to be re-educated through labor.
• Released on Feb.1, 2004
“I was taken to Zhongxiang Police Training Center. 6 or 7 male policemen started to question me in their dormitory. One asked me, “Do you know why we arrest you?” I said, “Because I believe in Jesus.” He slapped my face when he heard this. He said, “Do you know what age we are in today? And you still believe in Jesus?” I didn’t answer him back.
I was put in shackles and the policemen ordered me to walk before them in the room. The shackles were heavy; after a little while I had to slow down, but they wouldn’t let me. They pushed me from this side to the other side while laughing at me. I was so exhausted and ended up laying on the ground. The shackles also cut deeply into my flesh, and my ankle began to bleed. You can see the scar here.
They also picked me up by my hair, so the weight of my whole body was held up by my hair. I could hardly breathe, then they put me down, but kept on pressuring me to confess I had sexual relationship with Pastor Gong. When I told them I didn’t have any improper relationship with him, they pulled my hair again, later I lost my consciousness.
When I refused to read the confession that they had prepared for me beforehand, they threatened me by saying, “Now, I can beat you to death, and pull you out and bury you somewhere, that even your family wouldn’t know where you are. Now your South China Church is in our hands, including your pastor. He was also arrested!”
When I told them I had no sexual relationship with Pastor Gong at all, they used an electrical rod to beat me, on my head, my breast, and my buttock. I was knocked to the floor, then they pulled me up and tore my clothes open. They even pulled my bra, and I cried.
Meng Xicun
• Female, 29, Taiqian County Henan Province, South China Church member.
• Arrested on May 28, 2001. First trial on Dec.25, 2001, charged with “organizing and using evil cult organization to obstruct the implementation of the law,” received an eight-year sentence.
• Second trial on Oct. 10, the charge was dismissed and Meng Xicun wasproclaimed innocent by the Jingmen City Intermediate Court but was immediately taken away by the Jingmen police to Shayang labor camp to be re-educated through labor.
• Released on Feb.1, 2004
“They interrogated me for five days and nights. During this time, they didn’t allow me to eat or sleep. I was ordered to stand all the time, but I was so tired and fell asleep, they would beat me and woke me up.
During the interrogation, they also used nasty ways to insult me. They flicked their cigarette ash into my collar. Later they untied my shirt, and flicked the cigarette ash to my breast. I felt so humiliated. I didn’t understand why they treated me like this.
Several of them took turns to beat me and kick me. All my body became bruised.
The second time they interrogated me was ten days later. They didn’t even ask one single question but started with beating me with a high- voltage electrical rod. I felt like I couldn’t stand it any more, so I told them, “I have told you everything that I knew of, but if there was no such a thing, I couldn’t make up a story for you.” Then they told me, “You just repeat what we tell you and admit you had sexual relationship with Gong Shengliang, then we will release you and let you go home right away.
When I said “No” to them, the chief police officer went out. Right after that, several policemen came in and pushed me to the ground, beating me and kicking me. They dragged me around in the room by pulling my hair. One police kicked me on my stomach and my waist. Even today I still feel the pain. I lost my consciousness seven times. One time when I re-gained consciousness, I heard one police talking to another saying, “Don’t waste our time. After all, the South China Church is in our hands, we will make sure Gong Shengliang gets a death sentence. Why don’t we just get her fingerprint now?” But the other police said, “This won’t work. Let’s use cold water to wake her up.”
Once again, the police asked me to give a false confession. They even prepared a written testimony by themselves, asking me to repeat words by words. When I refused, they said, “You have tasted the good treatment minutes ago, now we will have better ones for you.” Then they started another round of torturing me. This time, they tore my clothes and bra, using electrical rod to touch my breast and jab my other private place. I couldn’t bear this kind of humiliation. How could I? I could bear other kind of tortures, but not this one, I felt like I had broken down.
Then they said, “If you choose to die like this, you will die in vain, because nobody knows where you are, and we can just bury you somewhere, even your family won’t know. You know, we can just make you disappear, and we don’t have to take any responsibility for that.”
At that time, I was thinking to myself, “If I kept a breath, there would be hope for justice someday.” So I told them I would follow their instruction. But I still didn’t know what to write, because I am an honest person, and I don’t know how to make up stories. Then they said, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to think at all, just write down whatever we tell you.” My hands were trembling at their dictation, and my heart was struggling, because I knew this would be the so –called evidence which the police would use to accuse Pastor Gong Shengliang. It’s not fair to him at all.
But I had no other choice in that situation, I kept on writing down what the police instructed me. When I finished, I couldn’t stand still, I lost consciousness. It was too painful for me to accuse an innocent man, because Pastor Gong is a good man, he has never done such a thing... But the police were determined to put him to death as a rapist based on the coerced testimony. After I finished, I had no desire for life any more. I felt like I had already died by doing this. But it is too late, the police had already got what they wanted to accuse Pastor Gong.”
_(博讯自由发稿区发稿) (boxun.com)
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