Saturday January 13

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Defying vehement criticism from Beijing, about 900 Falun Gong followers from around the world protested in Hong Kong on Saturday against China's crackdown on the movement.

But immigration authorities barred the entry of 12 overseas Chinese adherents who were to attend the meeting in the former British colony, now a ''special administrative region'' of China, a human rights group said.

Some 900 practitioners, about half from overseas, kicked off a two-day gathering with a mass exercise in a public park, their largest in Hong Kong since Beijing began its crackdown on Falun Gong in July 1999.

Dressed in uniform-style yellow tee shirts, the group sat silently meditating for an hour to the sound of soft music playing through loudspeakers.

They then marched silently to Beijing's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, holdings placards which read ''Stop Persecuting Falun Gong.'' Police presence was light.

Leading the procession were 120 people dressed in white -- a mourning color for Chinese -- and holding photographs of 120 Falun Gong adherents that the group claimed had died of torture during custody in Mainland China.

Falun Gong is a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese physical exercises.

Mainland China has outlawed the movement which it labels an [slanderous word]. But Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong.

Twelve Barred From Hong Kong

''It was a shock to me when I heard about the ban,'' said Adam Montanaro, who flew in from New York to attend the conference. ''I think it is very brave of the Hong Kong government to host an event like this.''

The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement in Beijing that Hong Kong had barred the entry of 12 overseas Chinese followers.

Seven were from Japan, three from Australia and two from the United States, it said. Most were detained on Friday.

An Australian resident and a U.S. resident had already been put on aircraft home on Saturday morning but the rest were still being held, the group said.

It said authorities had given no explanation for the action and were preparing to deport the rest. The Immigration Department said it would not comment on individual cases.

''The high profile refusal of entry for Falun Gong practitioners shows the Hong Kong government is feeling pressure from Beijing,'' the human rights group said.

Sophie Xiao, a Falun Gong spokeswoman in Hong Kong, said the adherents believed those held had been detained or arrested in China before and had been blacklisted by Chinese authorities.

Pro-democracy legislator Emily Lau expressed concern over the reported detentions.

''If there are no good reasons, then I think it should be a source of very deep concern. Is Hong Kong going to abandon the practice that we used to adopt? Are we introducing new rules of the game whereby the freedoms that the people enjoy will be increasingly curbed?'' Lau said.

The Hong Kong government has not appeared to put pressure on Falun Gong in the past.

''Organizations in Hong Kong can continue their operation as long as they abide by the laws,'' the administration said in a statement on Saturday.

On Friday, China's official Xinhua news agency said [slanderous sentence].

A Chinese official lashed out at the Hong Kong rally and accused organizers of having political motives.

''I think their behavior in Hong Kong will show the people in Hong Kong that they are the group that will bring great harm to the security and public order of Hong Kong,'' Liu Xiaoming, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, told CNN.

Apart from Hong Kong, the demonstrators came from countries including China, the United States, Australia, Britain, Taiwan, Vietnam, Canada, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark.