By
The Associated Press
BEIJING - China launched a new propaganda attack on the Falun Gong spiritual group yesterday as Beijing prepared to fight U.S. efforts to have the U.N. Human Rights Commission censure its crackdown on the movement.
The state television evening news broadcast a report claiming Falun Gong had encouraged 136 followers to kill themselves. The official Xinhua News Agency carried a similar report calling Falun Gong heretical and a threat to public safety.
On Jan. 23, five people who the government said were Falun Gong followers set themselves on fire in Beijing. Falun Gong spokesmen abroad have denied that the five were group members.
Falun Gong was banned in 1999 as a threat to the Communist Party's grip on power. Thousands of people have been detained, and human rights groups say 112 people have died in custody.
The new government accusations come as the United States is preparing to propose a resolution for the U.N. Human Rights Commission to condemn the crackdown. China has defeated similar measures in the past.
The European Union said it would support the resolution at the commission's six-week session that began this week in Geneva.
Falun Gong draws on Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Chinese beliefs. It was founded by a former government clerk who now lives in the United States. Before the crackdown, official estimates of its membership ranged as high as 70 million.
China has often accused Falun Gong of causing the deaths of followers by encouraging them to refuse medical treatment or kill themselves.
The new campaign yesterday included a half-hour program broadcast after the news detailing what state television said were suicides by Falun Gong members. The broadcast included footage of people who it said burned themselves to death, threw themselves in front of trains or killed themselves in other ways.
