DATE=2/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-FALUN GONG (L-O)
NUMBER=2-258848
BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Chinese police have again detained a large
number of followers of the outlawed Falun Gong
spiritual movement. V-O-A's Stephanie Ho reports
Falun Gong followers have demonstrated in Beijing, as
China celebrates the Lunar New Year.
TEXT: Defiant Falun Gong followers marked the Year of
the Dragon with one of their biggest demonstrations
yet, on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
As Lunar New Year's revelers looked on late Friday
night and early Saturday morning, authorities swooped
across the vast plaza and detained hundreds of people.
Witnesses say police kicked and punched some of them.
In one incident, witnesses report police beat one man
unconscious and continued kicking him, even as he lay
motionless.
The French Press Agency quotes an official at a
detention center as confirming that Falun Gong
followers are being held. But the official refused to
say how many.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights
and Democratic Movement in China says at least 300
Falun Gong members have been rounded up.
The Center's Frank Lu says this number includes
members from the United States and Australia. He says
they came to Beijing during the Lunar New Year
festival to protest the government's ban on the quasi-
religious group.
Officials from the U-S and Australian embassies were
not immediately available for comment.
Mr. Lu says China has already sent more than five
thousand Falun Gong members to labor camps, without
trial, and sentenced another 300 to jail. The
stiffest Falun Gong-related prison sentence, so far,
is 18 years.
The Chinese government officially outlawed the group
last year, calling it an evil cult and accusing it of
causing the deaths of 14-hundred people who did not
seek medical treatment.
But the Lunar New Year demonstration is the latest
evidence the ongoing nationwide crackdown has failed
to crush Falun Gong -- which combines traditional
breathing exercises and meditation with Buddhism and
Taoism. (signed)
NEB/HO/PLM
05-Feb-2000 05:11 AM EDT (05-Feb-2000 1011 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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