Hong Kong iMail: Spokesman denies Xinhua claims of group suicide attempt

January 31, 2001 A SPOKESMAN for the Falun Gong qigong movement in Hong Kong said yesterday the stories carried by Xinhua News Agency about an attempted group suicide in Tiananmen Square in Beijing last week were "fabricated''. Kan Hung-cheung also urged an independent body to investigate the alleged attempted suicides. "Falun Dafa explicitly requests followers not to kill. Real followers will not engage in such behaviour,'' Mr Kan said. "They are not Falun Gong followers, no matter what the government says.'' The official media had fabricated stories slandering Falun Gong since the government banned the sect more than a year ago, he said. "I hope an independent third party could investigate the case without any official interference.''