Fifteen female Dafa practitioners died due to "brutal...

Fifteen female Dafa practitioners died due to "brutal torture" in the Wanjia Labour Camp, the Falun Gong said. The meditation movement accused the authorities at the Wanjia Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province of beating female Dafa practitioners to death on June 20 and trying to cover up the incident.
The group quoted reports from "reliable sources" relating that female practitioners determined to continue practising Falun Dafa were subjected to "all kinds of inhumane and despicable torture". Fifteen were reported dead, and many others were said to be receiving emergency treatment.
The labour camp said the victims "had committed mass suicide by hanging themselves with ropes made of bed sheets" according to the Falun Gong. A statement released by the Falun Gong's US spokesperson Gail Rachlin rebutted this claim saying that there are only beds in cells in the camps, and there is no place from which to attach ropes.
Of the fifteen women reported dead, only four were identified: Zhang Yulan, Shao Ying, Zhao Yayun and Li Xiugin. Another two practitioners from the Lishu district were also tortured to death, the group said, adding that the details were still being investigated. The Falun Gong said all it had were three ash boxes.
The group said that "according to sources, after the incident happened, around June 20, the related parties blocked any news of the event and all the staff members and guards from Wanjia were not allowed to go home; no visitors were allowed to go there either. All the staff had to turn off their mobile phones and pagers, and the telephones were sealed off to prevent any possible information from leaking out. Moreover, in order to block the news, the labour camp did not notify the family members of the death of their loved ones. Some local police stations later informed the family members upon receiving the news but they were blamed by the labour camp for leaking information."
Before this incident, the Falun Gong had reported the deaths of 224 followers in police custody since China launched a crackdown on the group nearly two years ago. Other independent sources say more than 100 have died.