BEIJING has claimed that almost 240 Falun Gong members have committed suicide - out of a total of 1,660 sect followers who have died from practising the spiritual movement's teachings.
According to ``very incomplete statistics'', 136 Falun Gong members had committed suicide before the government banned the movement in July, 1999, Liu Jing, the head of the State Council's new Office for the Prevention and Handling of Evil Cults, said in Beijing.
``And a further 103 members [have] committed suicide since the ban,'' he added, without explaining why the figures had not been released before.
Including those who had committed suicide, at least 1,660 ``innocent people'' had died because of their beliefs in and practice of Falun Gong, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Mr Liu as saying.
``They were driven to death by the heretical fallacies of [Falun Gong founder] Li Hongzhi and by spiritual control exercised over them by the cult,'' he said.
At the government's second only news conference on the crackdown against the sect, Mr Liu also handed out copies of The Whole Story of the Self-Immolation Incident Created by Falun Gong Addicts in Tiananmen Square, with glossy pictures and details of the January 23 incident.
One woman died and four others, including her young daughter, were severely burned in the accident.
They were still in critical condition and fighting for their lives in hospital, Mr Liu said. He defended the government's crackdown on the sect, denouncing Falun Gong as ``an evil cult'' which was ``the same as a spiritual drug''.
``The harm done to practitioners, especially the devout practitioners, is the same as the harm of drugs on addicts,'' Mr Liu said. Beijing has blamed the sect for encouraging its members to shun medical treatment.
Mr Liu further blasted Monday's decision by the United States to raise an anti-China resolution at an international human rights meeting, saying the move was based on ``wanton accusations'' aimed at interfering in China's internal affairs.
``It is not surprising that the US government is going to raise an anti-China resolution at the UN Commission on Human Rights and that ... the Falun Gong is an important component of this,'' he said.
Mr Liu's statements came after UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson raised concerns over the crackdown on the Falun Gong during meetings with officials in Beijing. He said Mrs Robinson's condemnations showed she ``knows too little about the Falun Gong''.
The mainland maintains that international opposition to its 19-month crackdown is being organised by ``hostile Western forces''.