A two-day international roundtable "Information Extremism: The Truth and Falsehood of Falun Gong Cult" ended on Tuesday, or October 14, in Kiev, Ukraine. Participants from various countries were unanimous in the view that the "Falun Gong" is a well-organized evil cult with great destructive power, which has wrought havocs to society and general public; it is a cult organization with an intrinsic tendency of potential violence.

More than 30 scholars or representative from seven countries, comprising the United States, Australia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and China, analyzed, appraised and verified the character and salient features of the Falun Gong cult as well as grave harms it had done to society and people from such aspects as theology, the science of law, political science, psychology, sociology and the science of information transmission.

Griss Fridrih, president of the Federation for European Sectarian Research and Information Center, noted that cult and religion have a strict and rigorous divide and the former is of a totalitarian nature, adores individual cult, and imposes the personal will upon others to the detrimental of personal values and in violation of human rights and personal freedom. Some tenets of the Falun Gong cult are evidently stamped with the above-mentioned hallmarks.

Meanwhile, Markovic Arnold, director of the Superstition Hotline Clinic in New York City, the U.S., pointed out that some newly-emerged religious sects are invloved in illegal activities. For example, patriarches are bent on amassing a fortune and use the money they have cheated from believers for personal treats. So, it is imperative to enhance education among people so as to help them tell legitimate sects from illegal ones.

In his speech, Bokin, director of the Russian State Religion Relations and Law Studies Institute, said the Falun Gong cult incites the hatred among religions, mass organizations and citizens, and this violates the relevant Russian laws, such as the "Criminal Law" and the "Law against the Ultra-extremism".

Lipovskaya Natalya Anatolevna (f), a doctor of national management from the Ukrainian Academy of Customs Science, said that activities of a few Falun Gong practitioners have disrupted the normal life for most people. On the form of their activities, they use stage props or instruments and slogans with strong terrorist stimulations; with regard to gathering venues, they prefer hustling and bustling sites and even venues crowded with more minors and, as for the content they propagate, it is absolutely the falsehood, bad and ugliness instead of the truth, good and tolerance.

Vershinin Mihail Valerevna, an expert from the State-owned Samara University in Russia, said he had studied the Falun Gong cult website in Russia language for a long time. It targets against the Chinese government if you judge the main content it is released, he acknowledged, and it is based on nothing but lies and engaged in "information terrorism"
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In term of tactics for promotion, Leshinskaya Elena Albertovna (f), a researcher from the Ukrainian Academy of Education Sciences, said Falun Gong practitioners take up illusions or imaginations, infiltrated and spread them via media channels, and repeat them to form an information chain from varied aspects, so that recipients could believe in what he has repeatedly come across. Hence, it is northing but an information war, or information aggression, she said.

In a final resolution it adopted, the roundtable sets forth a series of measures to stem disruptions of the Falun Gong and other evil cults, such as efforts to arouse experts for a study of new ways or mechanisms, to formulate appraisal norms on damages done by destructive cults and to appeal to the European Commission to draft the all-Europe collective information psychological principles.

Moreover, the roundtable appealed, among others, for the Ukrainian Justice Ministry to set up a social committee to delve into illegal superstition activities, suggested it make judgments on activities the Falun Gong cult has initiated or organized on the basis of experts' independent judgments and organize a special committee in parations for the next roundtable to be held in Moscow in the year 2010.

The roundtable gave a press briefing about the meeting itself and a resolution it adopted at the Ukrainian Independent news agency on Monday afternoon, or October 14th, which was attended by about 10 Ukrainian media agencies. On the sideline of the conference, the Ukrainian ICTV also interviewed some roundtable participants.

(People's Daily Online, October 17, 2008)

Original text from: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90780/91342/6517068.html