E/CN.4/1995/91/Add.1 page 9 helplessly while all his personal effects were pillaged. It is said that, on about 1 January 1993, Ma Shuishan was again arrested and that his family has had no news of him. On 27 March 1993, in Shaanxi province, five Protestants from the village of Taoyuan, in Xunyang county, were allegedly persecuted and tortured after attending a religious service, one of them, Lai Manping, aged 22, dying from his injuries. According to the sources, eight or nine members of the Public Security Bureau interrupted the ceremony, seized three men and two women and stripped them of their clothing in front of the other worshippers. Twenty-six of them were allegedly forced by threats to beat these five persons with bamboo canes, each of them receiving 100 strokes. Half-conscious, the three men were reportedly strung up by their feet and beaten again. When the guards realized the seriousness of Lai Manping’s injuries, they reportedly called in a physician who gave him only minimum care. Then, realizing that he was at death’s door, they apparently released him. It is said that Lai Manping dragged himself along for 10 kilometres before collapsing and being taken in by some villagers. He reportedly died a day and a half later. The two women, who had also been severely beaten, apparently fainted. On regaining consciousness, they were reportedly stretched out on a stove with a 130-pound millstone across their backs and violently beaten on the sensitive parts of their bodies. They were also allegedly strung up by their feet and beaten in that position. A 12-year-old child is said to have been violently struck on the head and then tossed around like a balloon. The next day, according to reports, the victims were taken to the Taoyuan police station and then to the Public Security Bureau before being sent back to Taoyuan, where they were allegedly detained for a week in harsh conditions. 2. Harassment of Catholics in China Father Joseph Chen Yungtang, aged 75, of Shanghai, was allegedly sentenced on 22 March 1983 to 11 years’ imprisonment for his loyalty to the Vatican and for having maintained contacts abroad and organized independent religious activities, including the distribution of underground religious literature. Apparently he had already been arrested in 1955 and sentenced in 1960 to 15 years’ imprisonment, but not released until 1979. At that time, it is said, he was authorized to take up residence in Shanghai and receive foreign visitors, a fact which was to contribute to his subsequent rearrest. Father Joseph Chan Rongkui, aged 28, of the Yixiang diocese, Hebei province, was reportedly arrested at Dingxian railway station on 14 December 1990. In March 1993 he was still being detained. Charges unknown. Father Peter Xingang Cui, a priest serving in the village of Donglu, Qingyuan county, Hebei province, was allegedly arrested on 28 July 1991.