07/23/2001

VALLETTA, July 23 (Reuters) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Malta on Monday for a three day visit, sparking protests from members of the banned Chinese religious movement Falun Gong against China's human rights record.

Six members of the movement had to be removed by police from Malta's war memorial just outside the capital shortly before Jiang arrived, amid tight security, to lay a wreath on the site.

The protesters wore t-shirts and displayed a banner decrying China's non-observance of human rights.

A small Maltese political grouping, Alternattiva Demokratika, also said it would hold a candlelight vigil outside the Chinese embassy in St Julian's, four miles north of Valletta on Monday night, to protest over China's human rights record.

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