China today marked the one year anniversary of a mass suicide attempt by members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect by broadcasting denunciations of the sect by survivors of the grisly incident.
State television carried interviews with three survivors of the self-immolation bid in Tiananmen Square in which a mother and her daughter were burned to death.
The incident shocked the nation but also worked to greatly boost the government's three-year effort to smash the group. advertisement
Wang Jindong, 51, leader of the suicide group and now serving 15 years for "using an evil cult to organise homicide," said not a day has gone by when he doesn't feel responsible for the deaths of the mother, 36, and her 12-year-old daughter.
"The real image of Falun Gong is a group that kills and harms life, (exiled sect guru) Li Hongzhi is the biggest evil monster," Wang said.
Wang's face is heavily scarred from burns caused in the incident and he doesn't have the full use of his hands.
He said that without the government crackdown on the group, more Falun Gong followers would have performed similar acts.
Three other people were convicted for organising the self-immolation and sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven years to life imprisonment.
Former school teacher Hao Huijun and her 20-year-old daughter Chen Guo were still in hospital being treated for burns.
"Falun Gong, don't even raise that name," Hao told the cameras.
She expressed remorse over her daughter's condition.
Chen would have been a third year music student at the Central Academy of Music in Beijing this year if she had not participated in the mass suicide attempt. Several of her fingers have been amputated and she will not play music again, the report said.
Tomorrow's leading People's Daily will carry an editorial denunciating the dangers of evil cults, as Falun Gong has been called, and praising the government's efforts to eradicate the group.
The Chinese government banned the movement in July 1999, calling it the biggest threat to one party communist rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.
Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of Falun Gong followers have been sentenced to jail terms and tens of thousands sent to labour camps. The movement says as many as 300 followers have died from brutality in police detention.
Falun Gong combines Buddhist-based philosophy and slow-motion meditation exercises. It teaches the cultivation of a wheel of energy inside the belly of each participant which can bring health and spiritual well-being.