Hoaxer executed

Press, 11 June 1980, Page 9

Hoaxer executed

NZPA Peking One man has been executed and five others sent to prison for up to 15 years for dressing up as . gods and demons, frightening and cheating superstitious peasants, and raping women, a Canton newspaper has reported. The paper also criticised local Communist Party officials for not acting more quickly to stop activities based on superstitions, which it said seriously interfered With farm work. Further education was needed in rural Guangdong (Kwangtung) , province to combat superstition and pro-

mote atheism, the paper added. An earlier account in the paper said the defendants began rites on February 23, in the busy spring planting season, to call down the “god of fire.” Then, it said, a Communist Party member Chung Shihfa dressed up as the god, leaped out. Chung later was sentenced to 15 years. For four consecutive days, it said, the defendants had led parades through various areas with drums and gongs, frightening peasants into killing and presenting hundreds of chickens, ducks, and pigs to seek good fortune from the gods. Thousands of pea-

sants were dragged into the activities, it added. The defendants also agitated the “deluded masses” into dissatisfaction with, the Government, the paper said. It said Chung had played the role of the ‘‘supreme god’” and affirmed that some land that had belonged to the Chung family before land reform should be returned as the territory of a local deity. On February 28, the defendants forced peasants, including young children, to join in a day of superstitious worship at which some suffered scraped knees from kneeling too long and some fainted from hunger, the paper reported.