Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL February 28, 2001 BEIJING -- China staunchly defended its crackdown on the spiritual group Falun Dafa, but indicated the effort has met with mixed results at home and abroad. In a rare news conference called amid growing international criticism about the methods used to stamp out the group, Liu Jing, who heads the State Council Office for Prevention and Handling of Cults, said the recent self-immolation of six people shows that the ban is justified. Five tried to commit suicide in January and one earlier this month, focusing attention on the government's handling of Falun Dafa, which is also known as Falun Gong. ... Mr. Liu spent much of the news conference dodging questions about Falun Dafa practitioners who, according to human-rights and United Nations officials, have died in police custody. He refused, for example, to say how many Falun Dafa practitioners are in so-called reform-through-labor camps. Instead, he gave a long defense of labor camps, saying the government cares for inmates like a parent looks after a child, or a doctor a patient. He also refused to answer two questions on deaths in police custody, while refusing to say that no deaths had taken place. Although Mr. Liu's answers were elliptical, they hinted at problems facing the government. He said 103 people have committed suicide since the government banned the group in July 1999, but that 136 had killed themselves in the seven years previous to the ban -- implying that the suicide rate had increased dramatically since the ban, and that the government's professed efforts to protect its people from an evil organization weren't working. The numbers also seemed to discredit longstanding government claims abut the group's fanatical nature. Officials have long stated that 1,660 people have died as a result of the group's practices, which combine traditional light calisthenics, known as qigong, with moral precepts ... and ideas of the group's founder, Li Hongzhi. In the past, that figure was used to suggest that many people had committed suicide. Now, it appears that suicides accounted for 239 deaths, out of two million people the government says practiced Falun Dafa. It also implies that most of the 1,660 died from refusal to take medicine, a practice common to many religions. Mr. Liu said the government feels it is in a no-win situation in the battle for international public opinion. When the five set themselves on fire in January and police responded quickly with fire extinguishers, some critics said this showed that the government had expected the self-immolations -- otherwise how to explain the presence of fire extinguishers on the public square? Similarly, when China quickly reported a subsequent suicide, it was criticized for jumping on the chance to expose the group as dangerous. Mr. Liu said no matter what the government does, it is criticized. "What is the [government's] correct way out?" he asked. Mr. Liu also assailed a U.S. State Department report released Monday that charged China's human-rights record had deteriorated in the past year, based largely on its handling of Falun Dafa. ... The U.N.'s top human-rights official, Mary Robinson, said Tuesday that she has raised concerns about China's treatment of Falun Dafa followers during her current visit to Beijing. Her office has received "many" complaints of ill-treatment, torture and heavy sentences, she said in an interview with the Associated Press. "My message is they have human rights that must be respected," she told the Associated Press. "The issue I want to focus on is actual treatment of individuals." Mr. Liu said Ms. Robinson was ill-informed. "I think her problem is that she really doesn't understand the Falun Gong ..." he said of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. ... Mr. Liu said his office was formed in August and is small, simply "coordinating" work by other government offices. When queried on whether his office succeeded Office 610, the government bureau that has coordinated the security crackdown that has sent thousands of adherents to jail without trial, he said: "I don't know why you have such a keen interest in 610."