English Minghui.org

January 31, 2001

Hong Kong iMail: Spokesman denies Xinhua claims of group suicide attempt

January 31, 2001 A SPOKESMAN for the Falun Gong qigong movement in Hong Kong said yesterday the stories carried by Xinhua News Agency about an attempted group suicide in Tiananmen Square in Beijing last week were "fabricated'' Kan Hung-cheung also urged an independent body to investigate the alleged attempted suicides. "Falun Dafa explicitly requests followers not to kill. Real followers will not engage in such behaviour,'' Mr Kan said. "They are not Falun Gong followers, no matter what the government says.'' The official media had fabricated stories slandering Falun Gong since the government banned the sect more than a year ago, he said. "I hope an independent third party could investigate the case without any official interference.''

Apple Daily: The Self-Immolation Incident of Falun Gong Practitioners Is Dubious

[Minghui Net] Apple Daily January 30, 2001. The voice of the Chinese Commuist Party (CCP), Xinhua News Agency, reported during prime time the incident of five Falun Gong followers self-immolation on the afternoon of January 23, 2001 - Chinese New Year' Eve. In view of the fact that the voice of the CCP is usually slow in releasing news or sometimes even blocks the release of suicide news, but because it suddenly changed its behavior this time, people could not help feeling dubious about their report. The news and the scene reported by Xinhua Agency are indeed quite questionable. The Chinese Communist Party Is Number One in Framing A Case First, the demonstration of Falun Gong in Tiananmen Square follows a specific procedure; standing and unfurling a banner or chanting slogans of Falun Dafa to identity themselves. However, the news released from Xinhua News Agency lacked such details. This inevitably arouses people' suspicion that the Chinese authorities may have gotten the idea to create such an incident, of committing suicide on Tiananmen Square, from those people who are driven to frame Falun Gong. CCP is number one in framing a case against someone. In the past, everything bad was, said to be, caused by capitalism, rvisionism and counter-revolution. There have been numerous examples pertaining to this. In terms of suicide cases on Tiananmen Square, the CCP always attributed them to mental patients in order to cover up any social problems. Now, they attribute these things to Falun Gong in an attempt to shirk their own responsibility and at the same time smear Falun Gong, trying to achieve the consequence of killing two birds with one stone. Second, supposedly it was the self-immolation of Falun Gong practitioners. Now that the Chinese Communist Party wants to "expose and criticize Falun Gong", the photo taking and reporting of the foreign media would be the best way to provide more objective and concrete evidence of Falun Gong practitioner' self-immolation. However, when a CNN reporter was taping the scene, why did the police destroy his videotape and detain him for 90 minutes? Is it because they feared these foreign reporters might gather evidence proving that the self-immolating people were not Falun Gong practitioners? Is this what has made them so nervous? Third, the police and public security personnel in Tiananmen Square are usually well trained and quick to respond. They will round up a person from all directions as soon as that person acts "abnormally. How could the suicide victim unhurriedly douse themselves with gasoline and then self-immolate? Fourth, Xinhua Agency connected clumsily the incident of self-immolation to Li Hongzhi. After a death case occurrs, it usually requires a careful judiciary investigation before a conclusion can be drawn. Now, the media has hastily reached a conclusion. Is this not ridiculous? CCP got started with lies, and relies on lies to rule the country. That is why they have suppressed the freedom of the press, kept the public away from the truth, and even severely punished, as a crime of "leaking state secrets", the people who exposed the true story of CCP. Without freedom of the press, no matter how many human rights treaties CCP has signed, it will not change the Fascist nature of the CCP.

CNN: Mr. Li Hongzhi Nominated for 2001 Nobel Peace Prize

January 30, 2001

The deadline for submitting nominations for this year' Nobel Peace Prize recipient is due to close.

According to CNN report, among the nominees for the 100th Nobel Peace Prize are Li Hongzhi, the founder of China' banned Falun Gong spiritual movement Nominations for the annual prize, first awarded in 1901, have to be postmarked before February 1 to qualify.