| The Tragedy of Falun Gong Practitioners |
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| Liu Siying, a 12-year-old girl, soaked herself with gasoline and set herself on fire on January 23. She suffered severe burns to her face, head and hands. Doctors said all her fingers may have to be amputated, according to the latest issue of the Beijing Review.
She was nicknamed happy-nut.”But now her severely burned face and hands tell people that she might never be happy again.
On January 23, the fifth-grade primary school pupil from Henan Province was taken by her mother, Liu Chunling, to Tian’anmen Square, believing she would enter the “Falun world.” There, the mother and the daughter set themselves on fire. Her mother died of the fire on the spot.
The girl said she was told“the flames cannot hurt you. They will only pass through your body and you will reach paradise in the twinkling of an eye. It is a wonderful world, you could become a‘religious queen’and many people will serve you.”
However, the flames, pain and fear made the young girl cry out for help.
Liu said she set herself alight because she was “going to paradise,”which was a“wonderful worldwith gold everywhere and the road to paradise is also built with gold.”She said she learned about Falun Gong from the book Zhuan Falun（turning the wheel of law）and her mother.
“The suicide incident completely demonstrates that the leaders of the Falun Gong cult have embraced the overseas anti-China cliques. Li Hongzhi, ringleader of the Falun Gong cult, intended to damage social stability and the auspicious atmosphere of the Chinese Spring Festival at the cost of the lives of his followers.”
FU TIESHAN Chairman of the China Catholic Patriotic Association
“The televised suicidal act by seven Falun Gong practitioners from Henan Province, who set themselves on fire, further exposes the fact that Falun Gong is a cult, not a religion, nor health-enhancing qigong exercises, because Falun Gong followers, with their minds controlled by the fallacies of Falun Gong, usually lack the rational capabilities and the sense of normal people. ”
YU PINHUA Member of the China Human Rights Society
“Falun Gong instigates the diehards to go to extremes, from refusing to see doctors or take medicine after falling ill, to eventually participating in self-destructive activities in groups in accordance with the‘great scriptures’of Falun Gong in order to realize the fallacies of ‘ascending to heaven’and‘eternal completion,’which is certainly not accepted by a civilized society.”
ZHANG TONGLING Doctor with the Mental Hygienics Institute attached to Peking University
“The recent suicide attempts by a group of Falun Gong practitioners in Tian’anmen Square in Beijing once again demonstrates that Falun Gong is no different than any other cult in the world, whose genuine purpose is to destroy the lives of innocent people.”
WANG HEQING Former devout Falun Gong practitioner from Hainan Province
Chen Guo, a 19-year-old college undergraduate studying music in Beijing, can no longer play the pipa, an ancient flat stringed instrument, because her fingers were too badly damaged by the fire she herself set in Tian’anmen Square. She suffered burns to 80 percent of her body, of which 50 percent were third-degree burns. She is being treated at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, China’s leading hospital for burn patients.
“I regret it very much,” Chen managed to say. “I want to play the pipa in the future.”
Chen soaked herself in gasoline and set herself on fire on January 23, the eve of China’s lunar new year. She is one of seven Falun Gong addicts who came from Henan Province and set themselves on fire in Tian’anmen Square.
“When people talk about globalization, what we see is a global world that is divided into two. There is a structural fault of poverty. On one side of that fault are the powerful and the wealthy； on the other side are the powerless and the poor.”
THABO MBEKI South African President
“Responsible scientists should always bear in mind the importance of letting their research results leave the laboratory.”
HUANG BOYUN Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
(Xinhuanet 02/13/2001)
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