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TODAY o February 1, 2001
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Falun Gong video criticized by members
Saeed Ahmed - Staff
Thursday, February 1, 2001
Calling it yet another attempt to discredit their movement, members of the Falun Gong faith in Atlanta
have denounced the broadcast of a graphic police video on Chinese television this week that showed
Falun Gong adherents setting themselves on fire.
The 20-minute tape showed close-ups of five Falun Gong followers immolating themselves in
Tiananmen Square on Jan. 21. The tape also included an interview with a badly charred 12-year-old girl
who said she was told her suicide would lead her to heaven.
Becky Yao, a Falun Gong practitioner in Atlanta, said the Tuesday night prime-time broadcast was
aimed at pitting public opinion against the group by portraying its members as "brainwashed."
"The desperation and the frustration of the Chinese government are really beginning to show," said
Yao. "When imprisonment, intimidation and torture didn't work in stemming the rising number of
Chinese who have embraced Falun Gong, they resort to exploiting a tragedy."
Yao said there's no proof the people in the video were Falun Gong followers because the movement's
teachings "strictly prohibit any form of killing, including suicide."
There are about 200 Falun Gong devotees in metro Atlanta and they are a close-knit, active
group. Their activism was on full display last year when the group launched a massive public relations
campaign that led to the release of an Atlanta engineer, Xiaohua Du, who was detained in China for
possession of Falun Gong materials.
Du, who is now back in Atlanta, said the Tuesday night broadcast was carefully orchestrated to undermine the work practitioners have done in the United States to turn the world's attention to the plight of Falun Gong devotees in China.
China, which considers the movement an "evil cult," has sent thousands of practitioners to jail and committed hundreds more to mental institutions for "re-education." According to human rights groups, at least 125 have died while in police custody.
Du said that with the International Olympic Committee slated to visit Beijing this month to inspect it as a possible site for the 2008 Olympics, "it's not surprising that China will now try to vilify Falun Gong practitioners as 'irrational' to justify its continuing cruel crackdown."
"But give it time and people will see through the Chinese government's fabrications," Du added. "They always do."
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