'Falun Gong Leads My Brother to Commit Suicide'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 18, 2002

'Falun Gong Leads My Brother to Commit Suicide'

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Peng Yan believes her elder brother Peng Min committed suicide due to his support for Falun Gong because they had once discussed this issue.

"I also banged my head violently against the wall in an effort to kill myself in order to follow suit," she said.

Peng Min's story begins with his detention for producing and disseminating evil thought of Falun Gong cult. While in custody, Peng Min, in response to taunts with respect to Falun Gong from other detainees, began to throw himself violently against his cell's iron door in an apparent suicide attempt, resulting in a serious neck fracture and paraplegia. He was reported dead on April 5, 2001 at a hospital.

Pen's mother, also a Falun Gong practitioner, died of a cerebral haemorrhage soon after learning about her son's death.

The family tragedy was used to the advantage of the Falun Gong cult, which subsequently sued a Chinese government official from central China's Hubei Province. During the legal proceedings in anAmerican court, the cult claimed that Peng and his mother had diedas a result of the persecution of the Chinese government.

"Actually, it's Falun Gong and its leader Li Hongzhi who destroyed my brother and mom," Peng Yan told Xinhua from her prison cell in Wuhan city, capital of Hubei Province. She was sentenced to three years imprisonment for obstructing law enforcement through organizing and utilizing cults.

All of the members of the Peng family, including Peng Yan, her parents and her two brothers were once Falun Gong practitioners. In 1999, Peng Yan, Peng Min and their father Peng Weisheng traveled to Beijing in response to Li Hongzhi's call for support.

"According to Li's decree, making the trip to Beijing and Tian'anmen Square was crucial to achieve self-realization," says Peng Yan. She claims she did not know that they were being summoned to besiege the Zhongnanhai compound of the Communist Party of China until she arrived in Beijing.

Peng Yan, a high school graduate who tried and failed to enter college, is quite familiar with Falun Gong's teachings. She can recite Li Hongzhi's quotes at length and remembers when and where they were made.

At a gathering of Falun Gong followers, Peng Yan and Peng Min learned about an episode in which a practitioner banged his head against the wall to prevent others from insulting Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong. "At that time I believed that action was correct and that practitioners should sacrifice their lives if necessary to support Falun Gong," says Peng Yan.

When a Xinhua reporter asked her if the sacrifice of her brother's life was made for a noble cause, she remained silent for several minutes and then said, "He died at just 27."

"It's Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong who killed my brother," Peng Yan said, adding that her brother was a very assiduous follower, who usually practiced Falun Gong five to six hours every day.

Upon hearing of her brother's death, Peng Yan, still a stubborn believer, tried to kill herself because she felt responsible for her brother's death and wanted to follow him in his sacrifice to Falun Gong. The female wardens, in the end, persuaded her to abandon the attempt.

"They behaved like warmhearted friends and helped me survive this family tragedy," Peng Yan says, "I was cheated by Li Hong Zhi,but still blindly wanted to support him. It's unfair."

Peng Yan told Xinhua that conversations with the female wardens and with reformed former practitioners made her feel better, and gradually, she was able to escape the spiritual hold of Falun Gong.

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