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
.