AP: Chinese show off repentant FalunGong
Three years ago, he was a die-hard Falun Gong follower, serving alife sentence for trying to set himself afire in the name of thespiritual movement banished by China as "evil."Today, with his prison term drastically cut to 19 years forgood behavior, Liu Yunfang is a convert of a different sort - andone Beijing is eager to showcase as a successful"rehabilitation."
"I was wrong," Liu told reporters who made agovernment-organized visit to his prison in central Henan provincethis week. "I should be punished by law."
Liu is one of three men imprisoned for orchestrating a groupself-immolation in Tiananmen Square in 2001. Liu doused himselfwith gasoline but was grabbed by police before he could ignitehimself.
However, a mother and her 12-year-old daughter died, andimages of their bodies engulfed in flames - and later charred andblackened - were aired on state television to underscore China'sposition the sect is a dangerous cult.
Liu was sentenced for producing pamphlets teaching that FalunGong followers could reach spiritual fulfillment by burningthemselves. Falun Gong members abroad have denied the group'steachings encourage suicide, saying instead its philosophy valueslife.
Since banning the group in 1999, Beijing regularlydisseminates propaganda against it and justifies its ongoingcrackdown by allowing reporters to interview converts in tightlycontrolled settings.
The persistence of that campaign illustrates the rulingCommunist Party's continued perception that Falun Gong is athreat.
Falun Gong drew millions of followers in the 1990s with itsmix of calisthenics and doctrines drawn from Buddhism, Taoism andthe ideas of its founder, Li Hongzhi, a former government grainclerk. Until the 2001 self-immolations, followers staged near-dailyprotests of the government ban in Tiananmen Square, the spiritualand political heart of the Chinese capital.
Liu and two other converts, Wang Jindong and Xue Hongjun, worematching blue-and-white striped uniforms and caps when they metreporters individually this week. In contrite tones, they renouncedtheir faith in Falun Gong and its founder, and expressed theirgratitude to the government for treating them well.
"These three criminals have deeply reflected upon themselveswhile in prison," warden Yu Xiaoming said. "Finally, they are clearabout the nature of the Falun Gong cult."
Their sentences were reduced because they were "active inrehabilitation," Yu said. Wang's 15-year term was lessened by 2 1/2years and Xue's by two.
Practitioners claim they have been abused, tortured and killedby the hundreds in Chinese prisons and labor camps. Chineseauthorities deny mistreatment but have not disclosed how theyrehabilitate Falun Gong members.
When reporters visited the prisoners in a government-organizedtrip in 2002, Liu was steadfast about his beliefs and evendemonstrated the slow-moving exercises that Falun Gong followerspractice.
Now, the former factory worker seems changed.
Shuffling into a fluorescent-lit meeting room, Liu mumbledincoherently at times to reporters, his voice shaking and eyeswelling with tears as he spoke of his former life. Prison officialssay he is ill, suffering from high blood pressure and othermaladies.
Liu said he stopped believing in Falun Gong on Sept. 27,2003.
"I was more addicted than (the rest) so I caused more harm tothe country and the government," said Liu, 60, who sat hunched inhis seat. "Last time when reporters came to me, I still wanted touphold Falun Gong, but now I know I was wrong."
He was supported by prison officials on either side when heleft.
Wang, 54, is the only one in prison who set fire to himself.His face, devoid of eyebrows, is mottled with scar tissue. Somefingers have been amputated.
"It is the government that has given me a second life," Wangsaid. "I have totally woken up and I think I should persuade peoplestill addicted to Falun Gong to wake up, too.
"To Li Hongzhi, I have only one word in my heart - hate -because he killed so many of our beloved and our compatriots."
Wang placed a half-dozen photos on a table: his wife and hisdaughter smiling, himself as a handsome young man.
"I feel ashamed about believing in Falun Gong," Wang said. "Itis Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi who have ruined me."
In Kaifeng, a bustling city northeast of the prison, Wang'swife and daughter - both former Falun Gong members - live with thedaughter's husband and baby in a single room tucked in a maze ofalleys. The room is filled with a bed, piles of comforters,suitcases and cupboards. A map of the world hangs on the wall.
"We feel so cheated to have our deep beliefs shattered afterall these years," said Wang Juan, Wang's 26-year-old daughter. "Myfather's change is sincere. We are filled with hope for thefuture."
Minutes away, Hao Huijun, 51, and her daughter Chen Guo, 23,the most physically destroyed of the Tiananmen group, live in anairy welfare home.
Flames burned off their noses, lips, ears and hair, leavingtheir faces and skulls shiny with scars and grafted skin. Hao - aformer music teacher - has only a patch of skin over her eyesockets, with a tiny slit allowing blurry vision out of her righteye. Her hands are stubs and she is partially deaf in her rightear.
"I realized that I made a lot of trouble for the governmentand society," Hao said, weeping as her daughter, ill with a fever,slept in the next room.
"We are thoroughly rehabilitated."
(AP, January 21, 2005)
Originaltextfrom:http://www.cesnur.org/2005/falun_01.htm