DATE=2/14/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA - FALUN GONG (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259125
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  A Hong Kong-based human rights monitor says 
140 members of the banned Falun Gong exercise and 
meditation movement have staged a hunger strike while 
under detention in northeastern China.  VOA 
correspondent Roger Wilkison reports the human rights 
group says at least two of the detainees have not 
eaten for nine days.


TEXT:  The Information Center for Human Rights and 
Democratic Movement in China says most of the detained 
Falun Gong members began their hunger strike on 
February 4th, the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.  
The Center -- which keeps a close watch on dissident 
activities in China -- says the Falun Gong followers 
declared the hunger strike to protest their detention 
and demand that they be released for the New Year 
holiday.

The Center says the hunger strikers are being held at 
the Daguang detention camp in the northeastern city of 
Changchun.  It says some refused to eat for three 
days, others for five days.  But it says that -- as of 
Monday -- at least two people were still observing the 
hunger strike.

The human rights monitor quotes one follower, who was 
released after refusing to eat for eight days, as 
saying the Falun Gong members at the camp were 
detained for two reasons.  It says some were picked up 
for going to Beijing to protest the government's 
crackdown on the movement or for practicing Falun Gong 
exercises publicly.  Others were packed off to the 
camp after admitting to police who visited them at 
home that they still believed in Falun Gong.

The government banned the group last July, three 
months after 10-thousand of its members staged a sit-
down -- in front of the compound where China's leaders 
live -- to demand official recognition.  Despite the 
crackdown and a government-sponsored re-education 
campaign, Falun Gong members continue to stage bold 
public protests.

The Information Center says two thousand Falun Gong 
adherents have been arrested since the Lunar New Year 
began and that more than five thousand members have 
been sent without trial to labor camps.  It also says 
about 300 followers have been tried and sentenced to 
prison for belonging to what Beijing calls "an evil 
cult".

Falun Gong members say their movement helps to promote 
health and moral living.  (signed)

NEB/RW/FC 



14-Feb-2000 03:59 AM EDT (14-Feb-2000 0859 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.