NEW YORK, August 30, 2001 (Falun Dafa Information Center) - Five more female Falun Gong practitioners in China have been murdered by authorities, according to family members of the victims and eye witnesses. The victims died in police custody under suspicious circumstances, with multiple accounts pinning torture and beatings as the cause of death.

Several of the victims were arrested simply on grounds of having Falun Gong materials in their possession, or for posting information about the persecution. Their deaths fit into an alarming pattern of violence and murder following government directives, issued this past May, to "punish more severely" anyone caught disseminating information on Falun Gong or the persecution.

The five murder victims are:

• Ms. Chen Qiulan, of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province. According to family members, Chen was tortured to death around midnight on August 14, following nearly two months of abuse in custody of the Daqing City Detention Center. Chen was arrested in July for disseminating information on Falun Gong. Chen was beaten unconscious multiple times while in detention, but denied medical attention.
  
  
• Ms. Yang Ruiyu, of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. Yang died of torture and maltreatment on July 22, following three days in police custody. Witnesses report that Yang's body at the time of death had a gaping hole in the waist area, the size of a fist. Fuzhou Public Security Bureau officials hurriedly cremated Yang's body, and blocked acquaintances from viewing the corpse; family were pressured heavily not to disclose her death. During her three days in captivity Yang was denied any sleep.
  
  
• Ms. Zhang Fengyun, of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. On August 10, family were notified that Zhang had died in police custody at the Xiguoyuan Detention Center in Lanzhou. Zhang appears to have died from injuries sustained while being force fed; she had been on hunger strike since July 28. Zhang is said to have been beaten cruelly during her detention.
  
  
• Ms. Zeng Xianmei, of Dalian City, Liaoning Province. Zeng is believed to have died on August 13, following four days of abuse in custody. Zeng was imprisoned on August 9 after Xigang Public Security Sub-Bureau police raided her home and found Falun Gong books. Witnesses report that Zeng's corpse was covered with wounds; authorities have tried to dismiss her death as a "suicide."
  
  
• Ms. Wu Lianjie, of Baicheng City, Jilin Province. Wu died under suspicious circumstances on August 19 or 20 in custody of the Gongzhuling Public Security Bureau. Authorities have tried to dismiss her death as a suicide, alleging that Wu "jumped off a building." According to one first hand account, what appeared to be a woman's corpse was thrown off a building on the morning of the 20th.

This brings the known number of Falun Gong practitioners murdered in China to 272; tens of thousands more languish in prisons, jails, mental hospitals, and labor camps where they are illegally held and routinely tortured, abused, and subjected to brainwashing.

The Falun Dafa Information Center demands that China's officials allow independent investigation into these five deaths, rather than simply issuing blanket denials and monotonously dismissing all deaths as "suicides."

We once again call for the immediate, unconditional release of all detained Falun Gong practitioners in China, and urge the support of the international community as we seek to rescue these wrongfully imprisoned persons.