[[Xinhua]]newsNews agencyAgency]] has alleged several times that practitioners of [[Falun Gong]] engage in "cult suicide". The most noteworthy allegations came in January 2001 when the Chinese government claimed that at least six Falun Gong practitioners immolated themselves on the [[Tiananmen square]].
Falun Gong practitioners have disputed this and insistaffirm that the practice teaches against suicide. They believe that the self-immolators were never practitioners, or possibly were killed by the authorities. This was independently verified by theThe United Nations organisation' International Education Development (IED) at the UN Human Rights Commission in August 2001,whohas agreed these allegations and stated: "weWe have obtained a video of that incident that in our view proves that this event was staged by the government."
A documentary film entitled "False Fire" has been released to question the official claims of the Chinese Communist Party.[http://www.faluninfo.net/tiananmen/immolation.asp] Outside observers tend to side with Falun Gong practitioners and reject the idea that the group engages in cult suicide, and have instead cricizedcriticized the Chinese government for its supressionpersecution of the Falun Gong movement (among other aggravated human rights violations).
