Falun Gong : 14 Die in Mass Suicide in China

BEIJING (AP) - Fourteen imprisoned followers of the banned Falun Gong sect committed suicide in a north China labor camp, making ropes from sheets and hanging themselves from bunk beds, a government official said Wednesday.

Another 11 followers were rescued by labor camp guards in the June 20 mass suicide, said Lan Jingli, a judicial official in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
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However, in a statement released Tuesday, Falun Gong said that at least 15 female practitioners were tortured to death around June 20 in Wanjia labor camp in Heilongjiang province, casting doubt on the government's claim of a mass suicide. An unspecified number of Falun Gong members were undergoing emergency treatment for injuries, the statement added.

The purported suicide was the most deadly involving Falun Gong practitioners to be confirmed by the government since it banned the spiritual movement in July 1999.

Lan accused Falun Gong practitioners overseas on having a hand in the suicide.

"Those organizations are using all possible channels to pass on the so-called `instructions' to the practitioners in the reform camp in order to make them believe that going to heaven after their death is the highest level of practicing," Lan, office director for the judicial bureau of the Heilongjiang government, said in a telephone interview.
"The mass suicide of June 20 could also be caused through this way," he said.
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