DATE=4/13/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA FALUN GONG (L)
NUMBER=2-261263
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A Hong Kong-based human-rights monitor says at
least 200 members of the Falun Gong exercise and
meditation group have been arrested for staging a
protest at Beijing's Tiananmen Square. As we hear
from Correspondent Roger Wilkison, the reported
protest comes a week before a key U-N vote on China's
human rights record.
TEXT: The Information Center for Human Rights and
Democratic Movement in China - which reports on
dissident activities - says several-dozen Falun Gong
members unfurled banners protesting the treatment of
the group by Chinese authorities.
The Center faxed a statement to news agencies saying
police quickly moved in on the demonstrators and
hauled them away. It says some of the protesters were
beaten.
The Information Center says the demonstrators Thursday
called for the U-N Human Rights Commission to look
into the persecution of the Falun Gong. The
Commission is scheduled to vote next week on a U-S-
sponsored resolution criticizing China's human rights
situation.
Falun Gong has been illegal since the middle of last
year, after 10-thousand of its members staged a quiet
sit-down in front of the Beijing compound where
China's leaders live and work. Thousands of the
group's members have been arrested, and Falun Gong has
been officially branded an evil cult.
Police, who deny knowing anything about the
demonstration reported by the Information Center, are
on alert in Tiananmen Square and other areas of
Beijing before the first anniversary of the original
sit-in 12-days from now.
Despite the fierce crackdown on its activities, Falun
Gong adherents gather sporadically in Beijing to stage
protests against the government's treatment of the
group.
China says Falun Gong has caused the deaths of 14-
hundred people because it urges its members not to
consult doctors and to rely on meditation. The
government says that by cracking down on the group it
is protecting the human-rights of China's citizens.
(SIGNED)
NEB/RW/FC/RAE
13-Apr-2000 08:25 AM EDT (13-Apr-2000 1225 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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