BEIJING (AP) - Authorities have arrested two men accused of organizing an attempted group suicide in Beijing by purported followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect, a Chinese newspaper said Thursday.
Five people doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves ablaze on Tiananmen Square in the Jan. 23 suicide attempt. One woman died and the others remain hospitalized.
Gory footage of the self immolations captured by security cameras has been repeatedly shown on state television, portrayed as proof of government claims that Falun Gong is an evil cult and justification for the often-violent 19-month crackdown on the group.
The China Daily identified those arrested as Liu Yunfang, a 57-year-old former factory worker and Falun Gong practitioner, and Xue Hongjun, another sect follower whom it did not further identify.
Neither Liu or Xue set themselves on fire and the paper did not say what crimes they were charged with.
The newspaper said Liu claimed that while doing the group's meditation techniques he saw his spirit setting itself ablaze on the square and ``his `Buddha body' spraying fire from the mouth.''
Xue told other followers in the central city of Kaifeng about Liu's vision and, with others, organized a group to carry out the group suicide on Lunar New Year's eve. However, Xue apparently changed his mind and remained behind, telling the others ``he would meet them in `heaven''' when they left by train for Beijing on Jan. 16, the newspaper said.
Details of the China Daily's report, attributed to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, clashed with earlier state media accounts.
Previous reports said a man, Wang Jindong, set himself on fire first and that four women followed soon after. State media also had said that the women doused themselves with gasoline to the north of a monument in the center of the vast square.
But the China Daily said the women doused themselves with gasoline in a nearby toilet and then ignited themselves on the square. It also said Wang, identified in the paper's report as a third planner, arrived by taxi about 10 minutes later and then set himself alight.
Falun Gong representatives in the United States, where group founder Li Hongzhi lives, claim the five could not have been genuine practitioners because the sect's teachings forbid all killing, including suicide.
They have urged Beijing to allow an independent investigation.
AP-NY-03-01-01 0444EST
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.