Falun Gong members begin march to U.S. capital - Falun Gong followers meditate during a protest in Hong Kong on June 26. Falun Gong members have started on July 3 a two-week march from New York to Washington to mark the second anniversary of Beijing's crackdown on the movement. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Reuters: Falun Gong members begin march to U.S. capital

Wednesday July 4, 2:41 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Members of the Chinese meditation movement Falun Gong started Tuesday a two-week march from New York to Washington that will culminate in a rally July 19 to mark the second anniversary of Beijing's crackdown on the spiritual group.

"There has been an alarming escalation on the crackdown on Falun Gong," said spokeswoman Feng Yuan. "This walk is a call for help from the American public and everyone who cares about what is going on inside China."

The 250-mile march on Washington will be the first such march for the group that Beijing has branded an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted] with a political agenda.

Chinese authorities banned the group in July 1999, after 10,000 Chinese practitioners staged a sit-in in April in front of Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound protesting against attacks by some of China's state-controlled newspapers.

[...]

Falun Gong, which has repeatedly disavowed any political aims, has said that 223 practitioners have been tortured to death in China so far this year versus 22 in the same period last year.

Prior to the start of the march, about 300 members, some clad in yellow T-shirts, gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in New York for an exercise and mediation session.

Group members then joined the marchers through the streets of Manhattan for the start of the journey.

One marcher, Jane Chen, 73, said she is making the journey to show support for fellow practitioners she said were being persecuted in China.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010703/3/18dul.html

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Fox News: Falun Gong Begins Walk to Washington

Tuesday, July 03, 2001

NEW YORK - Falun Gong members began a 250-mile walk Tuesday to Washington, D.C. to protest the Chinese government's crackdown on the [group].

"Today in the People's Republic of China, tens of millions of ordinary people who practice Falun Gong are being treated ruthlessly," said Adam Montanaro, a spokesman for the [group]. "Human rights groups report that these practitioners are being illegally jailed, beaten, tortured, raped and even killed. All this for simply doing a traditional spiritual practice that includes exercise and meditation."

Falun Gong supporters say they have recently learned that 15 women were fatally tortured last month in a Chinese labor camp for following the movement. China has said that some followers commit suicide in custody, but denies abuses.

Two hundred Falun Gong members went through the [group]'s graceful motions before holding a news conference across the street from the Chinese Consulate on Manhattan's West Side.

Amy Lee said she was detained stripped, beaten unconscious and force-fed by authorities in her native Guangzhou, in southern China.

Speaking through an interpreter, she said her husband was forced to divorce her and she has not seen him or her 5-year-old daughter for six months.

"I miss my family, and I hope to be reunited with them," she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,28723,00.html