Fires ruin Chinese holiday celebrations

The Washington Post

BEIJING - Five people set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square yesterday on the eve of the Chinese New Year festival, apparently to protest an intensifying crackdown on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. Four survived with serious burns and one woman died, according to the official New China News Agency.

The agency described the group, four women and one man, as Falun Gong adherents from Kaifeng, about 350 miles south of Beijing, and said they had been "hoodwinked by the evil fallacies" of the sects U.S.-based leader, Li Hongzhi. But Falun Gong leaders in Hong Kong immediately denied the sect was involved, insisting that their belief system forbids violence and suicide and noting past reports of disgruntled workers or farmers setting themselves afire in other parts of China.

A producer and cameraman for CNN witnessed the incident, which occurred about 2:40 p.m., but police immediately confiscated their videotape and detained them. CNN said the two journalists saw one man sit down, pour gasoline on himself and set himself ablaze. Then, as they were being detained, they saw four others on fire, staggering forward with their hands raised. One person was carried into a police van with severe burns on his face, while the four others lay on the ground, shielded from onlookers by a screen erected by police, CNN reported. Police quickly increased their already heavy security presence at the square, systematically stopping passersby and inspecting their bags.

There was no obvious sign that the individuals who set themselves on fire were Falun Gong members, but other sect members staged scattered protests in the square before and after the incident. Believers in the group's breathing and meditation exercises often descend on the capital in larger numbers around such holidays as Chinese New Year.

"I was very upset when I heard this news, but these people are certainly not Falun Gong members," said Yee-han Hui, a spokeswoman for the group in Hong Kong. "We are taught to be compassionate to everyone, including ourselves. We would never do such a thing. All of our protests against the government have been peaceful and nonviolent."

Tiananmen Square, in the center of the Chinese capital, has been the site of almost daily peaceful protests by Falun Gong followers from various parts of the country. The protesters usually unfurl a banner or distribute leaflets before police spot them and swoop in, often kicking and punching followers as they arrest them.

In recent weeks, the Communist Party appears to have escalated its crackdown on Falun Gong, which it considers an evil cult and a threat to its authority. The state-run media launched another public relations campaign against the movement earlier this month, blaming it for dozens of suicide attempts in various cities and hundreds of deaths.