Conflicting reports have emerged about the deaths of up to 15 female members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement in a labour camp in north-eastern China last month.
A Hong Kong-based Human Rights organisation has claimed that 10 women died in a group suicide in Wanjia Labour Camp in Harbin in Heilongjiang Province. However, the Falun Dafa Information centre yesterday denied the suicide claim and said 15 female practitioners were tortured to death in the camp in and around June 20th last.
The allegations could not have come at a worse time for China with just eight days to go before the decision on the 2008 Olympics.
A local government official yesterday denied both accounts and said three Falun Gong followers at the camp had tried to commit suicide, but nobody had died.
According to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong, 16 Falun Gong adherents tried to hang themselves at the camp in protest after their sentences were extended for staging a hunger strike. Ten of the group died.
The Falun Dafa Information Centre said the dead include a 55-year-old woman, Mrs Zhang Yulan, who had been held in Harbin labour camps for about two years. They claimed Mrs Zhang's family rushed to Harbin on June 20th upon hearing of her death, but were not allowed to see her body until June 23rd. They noticed deep strangulation or rope marks on her neck.
The dead also included an elderly woman, Ms Li Xiuqin. Her family only received a box containing her ashes.
Falun Dafa said another alleged victim, Ms Zhao Yayun (54), had black-and-blue swellings around the eyes and one light and one heavy strangulation or rope mark on the neck when seen by her family. The Falun Dafa Information Centre claimed members are being subjected to various tortures.
Falun Gong claims the movement does not sanction killing of any sort, including suicide. They say more than 200 Falun Gong adherents have died in police custody since Beijing banned it in July 1999.
China says the group is an "evil cult" responsible for the deaths of 1,660 people by suicide or refusing medical treatment. It says a handful of Falun Gong followers have committed suicide or died from illnesses while in police custody.
Declan Fahy adds:
About 10 practitioners of Falun Gong protested outside the Chinese Embassy in Dublin yesterday over what they say was the death by torture of 15 members of the movement at the Chinese camp.
The protesters were also highlighting the situation of a Trinity student, Mr Zhao Ming, who was arrested and had his passport confiscated on a trip home in December 1999.