DATE=1/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA / AUSTRALIA / FALUN GONG (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257919
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Australian Embassy in Beijing says three
Australian members of the Falun Gong exercise and
meditation movement have returned to Australia after
being questioned Sunday by police in the Chinese
capital. VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison reports the
three delivered a letter to Beijing's official news
agency appealing for an end to China's ban on Falun
Gong.
TEXT: Australian diplomats identified the three Falun
Gong members as Ana Caterina Turcu and twin brothers
Nicholas and Simon Vereshaka, all residents of
Melbourne. The diplomats said the three disappeared
Sunday after entering the headquarters of China's
state news agency, Xinhua, where they sought to
deliver a written appeal to Chinese President Jiang
Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji to reconsider their ban
on Falun Gong. China has labeled the movement an evil
cult and has vowed to wipe it out.
Miss Turcu and the Vereshaka brothers alerted foreign
journalists on Saturday that they would be delivering
the petition on Sunday morning. Photographers and
camera crews in front of Xinhua headquarters said they
saw the three enter the building but did not see them
come out.
The Australian embassy said Monday that, after being
questioned, the three were released and are now back
in Australia. It said the Foreign Affairs Department
in Canberra has been in contact with at least one of
the three.
Miss Turcu's mother was quoted by Australian news
media as saying her daughter and the Vereshaka
brothers were alarmed at Beijing's treatment of
Chinese Falun Gong members, thousands of whom have
reportedly been sent without trial to re-education
camps. Last month, four leaders of the group were
sentenced by a Chinese court to long prison terms.
China has accused Falun Gong of causing the deaths of
more than 14-hundred people by persuading them that
they need not seek medical attention for illnesses.
The country's Communist government was startled last
April when 10-thousand Falun Gong members staged a
quiet protest in front of the Beijing compound where
China's leaders live and work to demand official
recognition for their movement. The Communist Party
has made it clear it regards Falun Gong as a serious
threat to its monopoly on power. Falun Gong says it
is not a political movement and, therefore, poses no
threat to the government. (signed)
NEB/RW/GC
10-Jan-2000 04:46 AM EDT (10-Jan-2000 0946 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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