-Caveat Lector-
China has a "red and blue map" problem too.
In late afternoon, as a middle-aged man in a worn padded jacket
tried to unfurled a small yellow banner, only to be escorted away
by police officers, an onlooker said, "Another one from the
countryside."
5 Protesters Set Fire to Themselves In Beijing
Elisabeth Rosenthal
New York Times Service
Wednesday, January 24, 2001
Falun Gong Member Dies in Immolations In Tiananmen Square
BEIJING Five members of the Falun Gong spiritual organization
doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves on fire
Tuesday afternoon in the middle of Tiananmen Square, a dramatic
act of protest on the eve of China's most joyous holiday, the
Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year.
One woman died and the four other people were severely burned "in
two suicidal blazes," according to a report by Xinhua, the
official press agency.
The self-immolation and very public suicide is the most dramatic
act so far in the escalating 18-month war of wills between the
Chinese government and members of Falun Gong, which the
government has labeled an "evil cult" and outlawed in July 1999.
While small acts of defiance by individual Falun Gong members
have become a daily occurrence in the square over the past year,
they have been mostly silent affairs that passed in the blink of
an eye as police officers snatched banners and hustled protesters
into vans.
Such protests pale in comparison to the chilling scene Tuesday,
in which witnesses described Falun Gong members staggering across
the vast expanse of the square, arms raised in the organization's
meditative pose and flames streaming from their bodies.
Police officers rushed to douse the flames and erected a shield
to keep onlookers from seeing the injured and dead protesters,
according to a CNN television crew that witnessed the event and
was detained. One man was seen being carried to a police van with
serious burns on his face.
Such scenes are certainly anathema to the Chinese leadership,
which is going all out to win the 2008 Summer Olympics for
Beijing, over the objections of human rights organizations;
Tiananmen Square, the political epicenter of Beijing, is expected
to be the setting for beach volleyball.
Falun Gong spokesmen in New York and Hong Kong immediately
distanced the organization from the self-immolation, expressing
skepticism and disbelief that the dead and injured were Falun
Gong adherents.
"In Chapter 7, the first sentence says it is forbidden to take a
life - that includes to take your own," said Gail Rachlin, a New
York-based spokeswoman for the organization, referring to the
writing of the organization's founder, Li Hongzhi. "So when the
Chinese government talks about all these people committing
suicide, it's not true. It's totally against what we believe."
The Chinese government had clearly been bracing itself for the
potential of intensified protests by Falun Gong, both during the
Chinese New Year celebration this week and again when the Olympic
Selection Committee visits Beijing at the end of February.
They had hoped to head off spectacles like those that took place
in the holiday period last year, when small organizations of
Falun Gong members were constantly popping up in Tiananmen
Square, unfurling small banners or adopting meditation poses.
Most protesters were poor middle-aged people from the
countryside.
Hundreds, at least, were arrested during that period. And a
number were pushed and kicked as they were herded into police
vans, sometimes with foreign television cameras rolling. Some
were sent to labor camps, but most were sent back to their
provinces for "education," the policy at that early stage of the
government's battle with the organization.
Since then both sides have become more intransigent.
On Jan. 1, Mr. Li sent out a message on the organization's Web
site suggesting that the organization's cardinal principle of
"forbearance" might not be appropriate in all situations. And
protest activity has become increasingly defiant in the last few
months as members have started covertly pasting up the
organization's leaflets in subway stations and slipping them
under apartment doors.
Since late 2000, the numbers of protesters arrested in Tiananmen
Square have been rising, often dozens a day, and the government
has become increasingly frustrated with an organization that will
not give up. In addition, some protesters are arriving in Beijing
without identification papers and have refused to tell the police
where they are from, making their ready disposal a vexing
problem.
This month, a high-level circular instructed the leaders of
government work units that they would be held personally
responsible for employees who protested in Tiananmen. Since the
organization was banned in 1999, hundreds of thousands of
followers have been detained by police, at least briefly.
Thousands are in labor camps, according to human rights
organizations, which have confirmed that about 100 have died in
custody.
In the past few weeks, the Chinese state media has stepped up
propaganda against the organization, calling it a tool of foreign
anti-Chinese forces and defending the government ban as "the will
of the Chinese people."
Xinhua said, "The people have expressed their deep concern over
the cult's harmful effect on families, the health of the Falun
Gong practitioners themselves, China's social stability as well
as its illegal profits."
Last week several newspapers published long accounts about
hundreds of Falun Gong members who had been released from labor
camps or whose sentences had been reduced, generally after giving
up their practice and denouncing the spiritual organization.
Referring to the self-immolation, a brief state media report
released by Xinhua said the five "cult members," who were all
from the city of Kaifeng, had been "hoodwinked by the evil
fallacies of Li Hongzhi." The incident was not reported on the
television news, which focused mostly on feel-good stories
related to the Chinese New Year.
Tiananmen Square remained open late Tuesday into the evening but,
on a freezing day, police officers in uniform and in civilian
clothes generally outnumbered the usual array of strollers and
tourists. After the self-immolation, there were at least a few of
the more commonplace Falun Gong protests, which are by now
regarded with only mild curiosity by Beijing residents.
In late afternoon, as a middle-aged man in a worn padded jacket
tried to unfurled a small yellow banner, only to be escorted away
by police officers, an onlooker said, "Another one from the
countryside."
Still, there were signs of the fiery protest that had come
earlier in the day: Fire extinguishers had been added to the
array of police vans and other equipment that have become a
routine presence on the square. Officers frisked and checked for
identity papers, giving extra scrutiny to those who carried water
bottles, smelling the contents to check for gas.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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