02/19/2002

IRRELEVANCE is what comes to mind when I'm reading your article about the homecoming of Bay Area Falun Gong practitioners who selflessly appealed on Tiananmen Square to stop the escalating killings in China ("Bay's Falun outlaws," The Examiner, Feb. 15).

Without realizing it, you are on the leash of the lies fabricated by the Chinese government in an attempt to be neutral.

The story is disrespectful to the people who have been tortured to death under the supervision by Chinese authorities because it labels peaceful appealers "Falun outlaws" as well as holding the Chinese government's lies on a par with documented facts of suppression.

You should emphasize to your readers that the only reason anyone would want to go to Tiananmen Square to appeal for the Falun Gong is because all other options have been closed out by the Chinese government.

People are being killed on a daily basis. Appealing is allowed according to International law. Period.

Peter Towers Oakland

http://www.examiner.com/opinion/default.jsp?story=op.letters.0219w