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
.