DATE=3/21/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA - HUMAN RIGHTS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260411
BYLINE=STEPHANIE MANN
DATELINE=BEIJING
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: China has called on the United States to
abandon its plan to criticize Chinese human rights
practices at a United Nations meeting in Geneva. But
the Chinese foreign minister told a visiting U-S
diplomat, Beijing is ready to fight if Washington goes
forward with such a plan. VOA Correspondent Stephanie
Mann reports from Beijing.
TEXT: Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told U-S
Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke
China will fight to the finish if the U-S side is bent
on confrontation.
The two officials met in Beijing and discussed several
issues, including the current session of the U-N Human
Rights Commission in Geneva.
The Xinhua news agency reports Foreign Minister Tang
said the United States should correct what he called
its erroneous decision to try to get the commission to
consider an anti-China resolution. Mr. Tang said the
two sides should deal with their differences over
human rights through dialogue, with a long-term
perspective, and pull back from the brink of a
precipice.
Nearly every year for the past decade, the United
States has sponsored a resolution critical of China's
human rights practices. However, each time, the
measure was either blocked from coming to a vote or
was defeated.
In Washington Monday, a senior U-S official said the
situation may be different this year and China may not
be able to get enough support to keep its human rights
record off the agenda at the Geneva meeting. The
official said some of the 53-member countries of the
Human Rights Commission are troubled by China's
deteriorating human rights situation and may change
their votes this year.
At the regular Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing
Tuesday, spokesman Sun Yuxi dismissed those remarks
and said any effort to condemn China's human rights
practices at the U-N body is doomed to fail.
Outside the U-N building in Geneva Monday, a few
hundred members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement
staged a silent demonstration. China has banned the
group as a dangerous cult. Mr. Sun did not comment
directly on the demonstration but, speaking through a
translator, he defended China's crackdown on the
movement.
// SUN ACT / TRANSLATOR //
Falun Gong is a cult that damaged people's health and
mentality and also damaged the society. China's
handling of the Falun Gong in accordance with law is
specifically (for) the protection of fundamental human
rights and freedom of the Chinese people.
// END ACT //
A U-S based spokeswoman for the Falun Gong says China
has sent about five-thousand Falun Gong adherents to
labor camps without trial and given others prison
terms. The group, which combines meditation and
exercise, says it has more than 70 million adherents
around the world and accuses the Chinese government of
arresting 35-thousand members since the Communist
Party banned it last July. (Signed)
NEB/SMN/FC
21-Mar-2000 06:34 AM EDT (21-Mar-2000 1134 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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