SCMP: Falun Gong supporters rally in U.S. capital
(SCMP) Adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement marched through Washington on Thursday to demand international help to stop repression of the group in China, an issue which has soured U.S.-China relations.
Some 2,000 members and supporters, carrying signs extolling the Falun Gong virtues of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" and pictures of followers they say have endured repression, rallied near Congress two years after Beijing banned the movement.
"We came here to try to send out an urgent call to rescue Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China," said organizer Lisa Nappi, a Falun Gong follower in Washington.
[...]
About a dozen members of the U.S. Congress, where voices have been raised in protest against China's human rights record, expressed their concerns at the rally.
Among them was Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives on Wednesday condemning China's treatment of Falun Gong followers.
'ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK'
"It is our homework on behalf of those who cannot speak," she said, urging protesters to campaign for its passage.
At the rally, human rights groups at both ends of the political spectrum -- including the feminist National Organization for Women and the conservative Family Research Council -- called for an end to Chinese persecution.
Amnesty International's T. Kumar, director of advocacy in Asia and the Pacific, urged Bush to demand the release of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.
"President Bush, you have a responsibility and obligation to take the case of Falun Gong immediately before President Jiang Zemin before you visit China in October," he said.
[...]
Mengyang Jian, a high school senior and follower of Falun Gong who walked from Boston to Washington for the rally, said she believed raising awareness for the movement was the most important activity she could participate in this summer.
Jian's journey took her and three others more than three weeks and she was joined by dozens of supporters along the way. "It's important to everyone, really," she said. "It's liberty. It's freedom. I think everyone deserves that."
http://breakingnews.scmp.com/Reuters/Front/fulltext.asp?ArticleID=Asia-51966
Charles Snyder in Washington
An estimated 3,500 Falun Gong members gathered on the National Mall for a mass march from the base of the Washington Monument to the west lawn of the Capitol to protest at China's persecution of their movement ahead of today's second anniversary of Beijing's crackdown on the movement.
Participants came from around the nation and 30 other countries, march organizers said. Some 500 flew in from Taiwan, and several came from Hong Kong, local organizer Jing Su said. Groups of 15 from New York and four from Boston also arrived after marathon month-long marches from home to attend. A bikers' group came from Orlando, Florida.
They will hold continuous vigils and rallies outside the Chinese Embassy, on the outskirts of downtown Washington, conduct breathing exercises, conferences and ''experience sharing,'' organizers said.
The mall march started last night at 10.30pm (Hong Kong time) and was scheduled to arrive at the Capitol at around midnight, when the Falun Gong members were to be met by a number of Representatives and Senators for a rally condemning Beijing for the Falun Gong crackdown and its human rights record.
Group spokesmen say they have received support from the Bush administration. It was unclear whether they would meet administration officials in Washington.
A spokesman for the US Park Police, which is responsible for the federally-owned mall, said no special police preparations or precautions were planned for the march.
[...]
20 July 2001 / 12:40 AM
http://hk-imail.singtao.com/inews/public/searcharticle_v.cfm?articleid=25966&intcatid=2
WASHINGTON, Jul 20, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Several thousand Falun Gong adherents massed at the U.S. Capitol Thursday, calling on China to "stop the killings, stop the torture" exactly two years after Beijing banned the movement and branded it an [Slanderous word used by Jiang's regime omitted].
Members of Congress and human rights activists denounced China's communist rulers at a rally beneath the creamy bulk of the Capitol on the West terrace, where U.S. presidents are sworn into office every four years.
Activists started the day with a march through the streets of Washington, carrying banners bearing slogans including "SOS, Rescue persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China."
"Two years is too long. We urge a universal appeal to the Chinese leadership in Beijing and throughout China to stop the abuse," said Mark Palmer, a non-practitioner but member of the Board of the Friends of Falun Gong.
"Stop the arrests. Stop the killings. Stop the torture. Stop the imprisonment. Stop the intimidation."
U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone drew cheers from the crowd when he condemned the International Olympic Committee for handing the 2008 Olympics to Beijing.
"The world will be watching and we will over and over and over again call on the government in Beijing to respect the rights of its people," he said.
Since the Chinese government banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement in July 1999, practitioners say 253 adherents have died in police custody, some from torture, and 10,000 have been sentenced to "reeducation" in labor camps.
[...]
http://www.europeaninternet.com/china/news.php3?id=552229oion=default
Dow Jones Newswires
BEIJING (AP)--Police detained at least six people on Tiananmen Square in central Beijing Friday, the second anniversary of the start of China's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual group.
It wasn't immediately clear whether those detained were Falun Gong members, but the square has been the site of repeated protests by the group, especially on key anniversaries.
Reporters saw one man chased, tackled and dragged into a police van. A man who was with him was wrestled to the ground and taken away.
In a different part of the square, police took away more people in a van. Bystanders there said they saw four people detained.
Officers were stationed throughout the square, which was packed mostly with tour groups and schoolchildren on field trips. Blue and white police vans wove their way through the crowds, honking loudly. Busloads of officers stood by.
Last year, police broke up scattered protests and rounded up more than 90 people on the square. Most had demonstrated in small groups, using small banners, by sitting in the lotus position or by raising their arms to form an O-shape over their heads - a popular meditation pose for the [group].
Friday was the second anniversary of the arrests of 70 leaders of the group, which prompted protests by tens of thousands of followers in Beijing. It was followed two days later by a ban on the group, which the government labeled an [Slanderous word used by Jiang's regime omitted].
[...]
China's crackdown has drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups. They say detainees are denied sleep, sexually abused, beaten, shocked with electric batons and exposed to extreme cold by guards under pressure to make them renounce the group.
"During the past two years, the suppression hasn't stopped but has escalated and gotten worse," said Kan Hung-cheung, a Falun Gong spokesman in Hong Kong, where followers issued a plea Friday for an end to China's efforts to eradicate the group.
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/