The remark was made by 32-year-old Wang Heqing, who used to be a devout Falun Gong practitioner from south China's Hainan Province. Wang received college education and used to be an insurance policy salesman with China Life Insurance Company, Hainan Branch.

He downloaded from the Internet a great number of "Falun Gong Scriptures" by Li Hongzhi and spread them among ordinary people even after Falun Gong was banned in China in July, 1999. Wang was put into a reeducation camp last August.

Upon viewing the suicidal blaze in which five Falun Gong practitioners set themselves on fire on television, Wang was shocked and could hardly fall sleep at night. "From the very beginning to the end, the farce staged by practitioners of the Falun Gong cult is absurd and astonishing," said Wang. "I cannot understand why I was so interested in Li Hongzhi and the cult created by him then." Hoodwinked by the evil fallacies of Li Hongzhi, ringleader of the Falun Gong cult, seven devout Falun Gong practitioners took part in a self-immolation attempt on January 23, just one day before the traditional Chinese lunar New Year, and one female Falun Gong follower was burnt to death and the rest of the group, including a 12-year-old girl, suffered severe burns.

"With the loss of life, Li Hongzhi, who preaches to be a savior of mankind, and his spokesman even said the self-immolation members had nothing to do with his group. Shame on Li Hongzhi," shouted Wang, who also called on other Falun Gong practitioners to stop following the cult created by Li.

Qiu Aiyou, aged 53 and also from Hainan, used to be a Falun Gong practitioner. She used to make repeated protests at the headquarters of Hainan Provincial People's Government and in Beijing in order to carry forward the cult Falun Gong.

On her return from a trip to Hong Kong in December 1999, Qiu brought back many leaflets and video discs on Falun Gong and spread them among common people. She practiced Falun Gong in secret, repeatedly participating in fasting and was prepared to seek "nirvana" after she was detained in March last year.

Qiu was astonished and awakened after she watched the televised program featuring the suicide attempts at Tiananmen Square.

"What a fool am I ! Recalling my experience. I feel I let down the Party, the people and my relatives," said Qiu, urging all Falun Gong practitioners to stop believing in the cult, be united and demand a repayment of the blood debt owed by Li Hongzhi.

"On viewing the TV programs on the suicide attempts of the seven Falun Gong practitioners and being informed about Li Hongzhi 's comments on the incident, I felt fooled by Li Hongzhi," said 35- year-old Li Linfei, who used to be a staunch follower of Falun Gong. "I really do not know what to do to repair the damage I caused to the state." Xiao Hanpeng, Xie Hui and Wu Xiao, all of whom are from Hainan and used to be devout followers of the cult, said the suicide attempts exposed the anti-humanity, anti-society and anti-science nature of Falun Gong. They vowed to break away from Falun Gong, stop believing in the cult and resume their normal life.

Thirty-five-year-old Qu Yanli, an associate professor with the Foreign Languages College of Fujian Overseas Chinese University, used to be a follower of Falun Gong.

After watching the suicide attempts on TV, Qu wrote a letter of regret urging Falun Gong practitioners to wake up and stop being involved in the cult.

A group of former Falun Gong practitioners from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region also said the tragedy made them know better about the evil nature of Falun Gong.

"Using deceptive tricks, Li Hongzhi lets people plunge into a formidable abyss; he is in fact very cruel," they said, urging other Falun Gong practitioners to keep away from the cult created by Li Hongzhi.

A group of workers from Angang Company Group based in northeast China's Liaoning Province condemned Falun Gong for causing the tragedy and pledged to fight against the cult through to the end.

(People's Daily 02/04/2001)