DATE=5/11/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-FALUN GONG (L)
NUMBER=2-262218
BYLINE=LETA HONG FINCHER
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Chinese police have arrested dozens of
followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in
Beijing's Tiananmen Square. As VOA's Leta Hong
Fincher reports from Beijing, protesters gathered to
mark the birthday of their movement's founder.
TEXT: The Falun Gong followers were protesting
peacefully in Tiananmen Square to mark the 48th
birthday of the leader of their sect, Li Hongzhi.
They appeared individually or in small groups waving
yellow banners above their heads, inscribed with words
from their spiritual movement. Some tried to strike
poses from their meditation. But plainclothes
policemen
ran across the square to shove protesters into waiting
vans only seconds after they appeared.
Police vans drove back and forth continually to keep
an unusually close watch on the thousands of tourists
in the area. Security was also
tightened around roads and underground walkways to the
square, as policemen checked identification papers of
anyone who looked suspicious.
Thursday's protest resembled the situation on April
25th, when more than one hundred Falun Gong followers
were arrested on the first anniversary of a mass sit-
in outside the headquarters of the Communist Party.
Last year, ten-thousand followers gathered quietly to
demand official recognition of their group. But the
government responded three months later by banning
Falun Gong, calling it an evil cult and a threat to
society.
The group claims a global membership of between 70 and
100-million and says more than 35-thousand of its
followers have been arrested since the ban.
Human rights groups say at least five thousand Falun
Gong members have been sent to labor camps without
trial and many have been tortured.
China's state-run Xinhua news agency is claiming
victory in what it calls the struggle against the
group. The official media says that 98 percent of all
Falun Gong followers have now broken off all ties to
the group. (SIGNED)
NEB/LHF/FC/PLM
11-May-2000 06:04 AM EDT (11-May-2000 1004 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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