【美联社 2005年1月21日，作者：Audra Ang】法轮功是一项精神运动，在中国因其“邪恶”而被取缔。
3年前，他是一个顽固的法轮功学员，以法轮功的名义试图自焚而被判处无期徒刑。今天，由于他在狱中的良好表现，刑期缩短至19年。刘云芳，一个另类转化分子，也是中国急于展示的一个成功“转化”例子。
刘云芳在接受记者采访时说：“我错了。应该受到法律的制裁。”中国政府组织记者在他所在的监狱进行为期一周的访问。
这个监狱位于河南省中部。刘云芳作为2001年天安门自焚案的策划者之一，与另外两名男子关押在那。当时他用汽油把自己浇湿，在点燃前被警察及时制止。
不过，一位母亲和她12岁的女儿死了，她们的身体被火焰吞没，焦如黑炭。这些画面在国家电视台播出，用以强调中国政府的立场：法轮功是一个危险的邪教。
刘云芳因制作小册子教导法轮功信徒通过自焚可能达到精神圆满被判刑。海外法轮功成员否认该组织鼓励自杀的教义，取而代之的是法轮功重视生命的哲学体系。
自从1999年取缔法轮功，北京经常传播反对法轮功的宣传，并在严格控制的环境中，通过允许记者采访转化者来证明其正在进行的打击工作是正当的。这个持续运动说明了执政的共产党坚持认为法轮功是一种威胁。
20世纪90年代，法轮功把体操动作、佛道教教义和创办人李洪志，一个前政府粮油公司职员的观点相结合，吸引了上百万信徒。直到2001年自焚事件发生前，法轮功信徒们抗议中国政府取缔法轮功的行为，几乎每天都在中国首都北京精神和政治心脏——天安门广场上演。
当与记者分别会面时，刘云芳和其他两名转化者王进东和薛红军，身着统一蓝白相间的条纹制服和帽子，对过去深感懊悔，表示与法轮功及其创始人彻底绝裂，并对政府优待他们表示感谢。
监狱长于晓明介绍：“这三名犯人在服刑期间对自己进行了深刻反思，最终他们都认清了邪教法轮功的本质。”由于“积极改造”，王进东和薛红军的刑期分别减少了两年半和两年。
修炼者声称中国法轮功成员在监狱和劳教所遭到虐待和拷打，并有数百名成员被杀害。中国当局否认虐待指控，但没有透露他们如何转化法轮功成员。
在2002年政府组织的一次记者采访中，刘云芳仍然坚定他的信念，甚至当场表演了法轮功修炼动作。
现在，这个前工厂工人似乎变了。刘云芳拖着步子走进一个光线充足的会议室。谈到以前的生活时，他语无伦次，声音颤抖，泪水从眼眶中涌出。监狱官员说，他患有高血压和其他疾病。
刘云芳说2003年9月27日，他停止相信法轮功。
“当时我比其他人更痴迷，所以我给国家和政府造成的伤害也更大。”60岁的刘云芳弯着腰坐在座位上。“上一次记者来采访我时，我仍然想要坚持法轮功，现在我知道我错了。”
他在监狱官员搀扶下离开了。
54岁的王进东是唯一一个自焚后入狱的。他的脸上没有眉毛，满是斑驳的疤痕，部分手指被截。
“是政府给了我第二次生命。”王进东说：“我已经完全醒悟了。我想要说服仍然沉迷于法轮功的人们也赶快醒悟。”
“在我心中，对于李洪志只有一个字‘恨’。因为他杀死了那么多我们的爱人，我们的同胞。”
王进东在一张桌子上摆放着他的照片：微笑着的妻子和女儿，而自己是一个英俊的小伙子。
“相信法轮功让我觉得惭愧。”他说，“是法轮功和李洪志毁了我。”
开封，位于这个监狱的东北处，是一个繁华的城市。在一个小巷深处一个单人间里，同为前法轮功成员的王进东的妻子和女儿与他的女婿及孩子生活在一起。房间内挤着张床、一堆棉被、手提箱和碗柜，墙上挂着一张世界地图。
“这些年来，我们感觉到上当受骗，坚定的信念也破灭了。”王进东26岁的女儿王娟说，“我父亲的转变是真诚的，我们对未来充满希望。”
51岁的郝惠君和她23岁的女儿陈果住在几分钟路程外一个通风的福利院内，在天安门集体自焚参与者中，她们的身体遭受破坏最严重。烈火烧掉她们的鼻子、嘴唇、耳朵和头发，她们的脸部和头骨与疤痕和移植的皮肤一起闪着光泽。郝惠君，一名前音乐教师，仅在她眼窝处保留着一块皮肤，右眼一个细小的缝隙残存着微弱视力，手掌短而秃，右耳失聪。
“我已经意识到给政府和社会制造了许多麻烦。”郝惠君边说边落下泪。她的女儿睡在隔壁房间，正生病发烧。“我们已彻底转变。”
原文网址：http://www.cesnur.org/2005/falun_01.htm
AP: Chinese show off repentant Falun Gong
Three years ago, he was a die-hard Falun Gong follower, serving a life sentence for trying to set himself afire in the name of the spiritual movement banished by China as "evil."
Today, with his prison term drastically cut to 19 years for good behavior, Liu Yunfang is a convert of a different sort - and one Beijing is eager to showcase as a successful "rehabilitation."
"I was wrong," Liu told reporters who made a government-organized visit to his prison in central Henan province this week. "I should be punished by law."
Liu is one of three men imprisoned for orchestrating a group self-immolation in Tiananmen Square in 2001. Liu doused himself with gasoline but was grabbed by police before he could ignite himself.
However, a mother and her 12-year-old daughter died, and images of their bodies engulfed in flames - and later charred and blackened - were aired on state television to underscore China's position the sect is a dangerous cult.
Liu was sentenced for producing pamphlets teaching that Falun Gong followers could reach spiritual fulfillment by burning themselves. Falun Gong members abroad have denied the group's teachings encourage suicide, saying instead its philosophy values life.
Since banning the group in 1999, Beijing regularly disseminates propaganda against it and justifies its ongoing crackdown by allowing reporters to interview converts in tightly controlled settings.
The persistence of that campaign illustrates the ruling Communist Party's continued perception that Falun Gong is a threat.
Falun Gong drew millions of followers in the 1990s with its mix of calisthenics and doctrines drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the ideas of its founder, Li Hongzhi, a former government grain clerk. Until the 2001 self-immolations, followers staged near-daily protests of the government ban in Tiananmen Square, the spiritual and political heart of the Chinese capital.
Liu and two other converts, Wang Jindong and Xue Hongjun, wore matching blue-and-white striped uniforms and caps when they met reporters individually this week. In contrite tones, they renounced their faith in Falun Gong and its founder, and expressed their gratitude to the government for treating them well.
"These three criminals have deeply reflected upon themselves while in prison," warden Yu Xiaoming said. "Finally, they are clear about the nature of the Falun Gong cult."
Their sentences were reduced because they were "active in rehabilitation," Yu said. Wang's 15-year term was lessened by 2 1/2 years and Xue's by two.
Practitioners claim they have been abused, tortured and killed by the hundreds in Chinese prisons and labor camps. Chinese authorities deny mistreatment but have not disclosed how they rehabilitate Falun Gong members.
When reporters visited the prisoners in a government-organized trip in 2002, Liu was steadfast about his beliefs and even demonstrated the slow-moving exercises that Falun Gong followers practice.
Now, the former factory worker seems changed.
Shuffling into a fluorescent-lit meeting room, Liu mumbled incoherently at times to reporters, his voice shaking and eyes welling with tears as he spoke of his former life. Prison officials say he is ill, suffering from high blood pressure and other maladies.
Liu said he stopped believing in Falun Gong on Sept. 27, 2003.
"I was more addicted than (the rest) so I caused more harm to the country and the government," said Liu, 60, who sat hunched in his seat. "Last time when reporters came to me, I still wanted to uphold Falun Gong, but now I know I was wrong."
He was supported by prison officials on either side when he left.
Wang, 54, is the only one in prison who set fire to himself. His face, devoid of eyebrows, is mottled with scar tissue. Some fingers have been amputated.
"It is the government that has given me a second life," Wang said. "I have totally woken up and I think I should persuade people still addicted to Falun Gong to wake up, too.
"To Li Hongzhi, I have only one word in my heart - hate - because he killed so many of our beloved and our compatriots."
Wang placed a half-dozen photos on a table: his wife and his daughter smiling, himself as a handsome young man.
"I feel ashamed about believing in Falun Gong," Wang said. "It is Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi who have ruined me."
In Kaifeng, a bustling city northeast of the prison, Wang's wife and daughter - both former Falun Gong members - live with the daughter's husband and baby in a single room tucked in a maze of alleys. The room is filled with a bed, piles of comforters, suitcases and cupboards. A map of the world hangs on the wall.
"We feel so cheated to have our deep beliefs shattered after all these years," said Wang Juan, Wang's 26-year-old daughter. "My father's change is sincere. We are filled with hope for the future."
Minutes away, Hao Huijun, 51, and her daughter Chen Guo, 23, the most physically destroyed of the Tiananmen group, live in an airy welfare home.
Flames burned off their noses, lips, ears and hair, leaving their faces and skulls shiny with scars and grafted skin. Hao - a former music teacher - has only a patch of skin over her eye sockets, with a tiny slit allowing blurry vision out of her right eye. Her hands are stubs and she is partially deaf in her right ear.
"I realized that I made a lot of trouble for the government and society," Hao said, weeping as her daughter, ill with a fever, slept in the next room.
"We are thoroughly rehabilitated."
(AP, January 21, 2005)
Original text from: http://www.cesnur.org/2005/falun_01.htm
