BEIJING (Reuters) - Six more adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement
have died in Chinese custody following severe abuse, the group's U.S.-based
information centre said on Wednesday.
The four women and two men were held in labour camps or police custody around
China during or before their deaths, the Falun Dafa Information Centre said in
a statement.
Police and government officials in most of the six cities where the deaths were
reported to have occurred were not available for comment.
"When you ask about these matters, nobody is ever quite clear," said
a police officer in Daqing city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang,
where the statement said one woman was reported by police to have jumped off a
train.
"You would need to find your own way of getting information," the
officer told Reuters.
Relatives of the six reported they had been beaten or tortured, although the
bodies of three of those who died had still not been recovered, the information
centre said.
The information centre said local government officials gave 30,000 yuan
($3,625) to the family of a woman from the eastern province of Shandong in a
cover-up attempt.
The family of the woman -- whose spine was broken and lower limbs paralysed --
was forced to sign a statement saying: "Li Mei died of suicide. Her death
has nothing to do with others", the information centre said.
Chinese authorities have acknowledged several deaths of Falun Gong members in
custody, but say most resulted from suicide or illness.
One of the victims was arrested for circulating Falun Gong material and the
others for their beliefs, the centre said.
Falun Gong has said more than 50,000 practitioners have been sent to prisons,
labour camps and mental hospitals since China banned the group in 1999.
The information centre says it has details of 278 Falun Gong adherents who have
died from torture during detention in China and estimates the actual death toll
exceeds 1,000.
Falun Gong, branded an "evil cult" by Beijing, was banned in 1999
after stunning top leaders with a mass protest around the Zhongnanhai
leadership compound to demand official recognition of their faith.
China says the group is trying to overthrow the Communist Party and has caused
the death of at least 1,800 people by suicide or refusal of medical treatment.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, follows a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist
beliefs and traditional Chinese physical exercises.