Another `evil cult' banned

Hong Kong iMail and Agence France-Presse/June 2, 2001

Police in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing have outlawed a newly uncovered "evil cult" and rescued 32 teenagers who were found chanting bizarre mantras.

Four adults at a boarding school run by the Falanhui - or Society of Orchid of Budda's Law - sect were arrested at the end of last month in Chongqing, a police official said yesterday.

He confirmed a Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News report that 32 children aged between 10 and 17 were "saved" by police and sent back to their families.

Several of the children were orphans from Chongqing and neighbouring Hubei province.

Family members said they sent their children to the school because Falanhui members had convinced them they would get a good education for free. Everything, including tuition and living costs, would be covered by the school.

Some of the teenagers were street children and others were even kidnapped, the report said without elaboration.

Yangcheng Evening News said police in Yunyang County received a tip-off on May 16 that the sect had set up a boarding school in the town of Longjiao, in a mountainous area beside the Yangtze River.

"The children were chanting strange and incomprehensible mantras aloud in class. Police launched an undercover operation which found out the group was an evil cult," the paper said.

The phrase "evil cult" has been used by the authorities to describe the outlawed Falun Gong movement, which has been subjected to a brutal crackdown over the past two years. Since the movement was banned in July 1999, hundreds of followers have been given stiff jail terms while tens of thousands have been packed off to "re-education through labour" camps.

The police official said he believed the Falanhui could have members around China, although he was unsure of the group's size.

"Some followers managed to run away and we are now looking for them," he said.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in China estimates there are 17 sects the mainland authorities consider "evil cults."

While the Falun Gong has been publicly vilified, other qigong groups such as Zhong Gong, Xiang Gong and the Guanyin Famen have been more quietly repressed along with Christian groups, the centre said.