China Man Held in Mental Hospital

By The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese military instructor who belonged to the fanned Falun Gong sect has been sent to a mental hospital and force-fed psychiatric drugs, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Li Qun is one of five sect members held at the Nanjing Psychiatric Hospital in the eastern city of Nanjing, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

She was sent to the hospital Feb. 20, the Information Center said in a fax to reporters.

China's leaders banned the widely popular sect last July as a threat to communist rule. They appear to be especially worried that the group, which draws on Buddhism, Taoism and the traditional Chinese doctrine of qigong, attracted members from the military that protects the communist grip on power.

Li was given drugs that left her ``slowwitted and seriously injured her brain,'' the Information Center said. It said a nurse at the hospital reported that she was unable to receive telephone calls or visits from relatives.

A police official was sent to the same hospital in November, the Information Center said.

Ding Jianhua, a female senior member of the Public Security Bureau in Nanjing, was sent to the hospital Nov. 3 and held for more than four months, it said.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-China-Banned-Sect.html