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)
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Source: Voice of America
.