Zhang Yuqin, 50, killed herself by cutting her throat.
Zhang had retired from the Qidong Garment Factory, Jiangsu Province. Her husband Lu Xingchong said that his wife retired in 1993, because of a problem with her cervical vertebra. She began practicing Falun Gong in October 1995, having bought some books, and video and audio tapes. Other Falun Gong practitioners told her that Master Li Hongzhi would help her to regain her health; if she felt pain sometimes, that meant she was "expelling karma" and paying debts. They told her not to consult doctors or take medicine. On January 23, 1998, she was found dead in her bathroom, having cut her own throat. Before her death she often said that she was an evil spirit stopping others to practice Falun Gong.
Voice from her husband
The evil cult Falun Gong posed real threats to women's rights, including the right to life and the right to health, Lu Xingchong, husband of a woman victim of the evil cult, said in Geneva Tuesday.
"My wife, Zhang Yuqin, died from the practice of Falun Gong, " Lu told the 56th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
"As far as I know, more than 1,000 people in China have died from committing suicide or refusing medical treatment due to Falun Gong. There are even more people who have become distraught due to their infatuation with the evil cult," Lu added.
Earlier the United States called for international support for a motion condemning China's human rights record at the session, with China's stance on Falun Gong as an excuse. The Chinese delegation to the session strongly rejected US' motion, saying the evil cult had spread fallacies and endangered the life and health of the Chinese people.
"What I cannot understand is why representatives from certain NGOs made incitement with distorted stories and shameless slander in the name of protecting human rights", Lu Xingchong said.
"What I cannot understand even more is that the government of the United States not only shelters Li Hongzhi, head of the evil cult Falun Gong, but even uses such an evil cult as an excuse to attack my country. This has caused indignation among the 1.2 billion Chinese people including me," he added.
In October 1995, Lu recalled, his wife, for the sake of regaining her health, began to practice Falun Gong upon others' advice. At the beginning, she still went to see her doctor regularly because she had a cervical problem. Later, those who taught her Falun Gong warned her not to see the doctor once she began practicing.
"They told her that Master Li Hongzhi would help her regain her health," Lu said. "If she felt pain sometimes, they explained, that meant she was 'expelling karma' and 'paying debts', which was an inevitable process. If she consulted doctors or took medicines, her karma would not be expelled and she would not reach a higher level and ascend to the heavenly kingdom."
Following their advice, his wife had often locked herself in her room, refusing to let her children and husband in after September 1997, Lu said.
"She became indifferent to daily life and cold to people. She was deprived of kinship, love and friendship," Lu said. "She blindly believed in the doomsday theory by Li Hongzhi and was convinced that the planet would be totally destroyed at eight o'clock on Mid-Autumn Day of September 1998."
Lu said that he had tried many times to persuade his wife to stop the practice but she was so infatuated that she refused to take any medicine or receive any treatment in spite of terrible pain. Finally she was physically and mentally exhausted.
"On January 23, 1998, my wife committed suicide by cutting her throat in the bath room while I was out," Lu said. "Now my children are deprived of their dear mother and I am deprived of my beloved wife. My family is torn to pieces. The past days of joy and happiness are gone forever."
(Xinhua 1999/04/11)
