CHINA: MEMBERS OF FALUN GONG SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT PROTEST AGAINST BEIJING CRACKDOWN.
Record ID:
636780
CHINA: MEMBERS OF FALUN GONG SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT PROTEST AGAINST BEIJING CRACKDOWN.
- Title: CHINA: MEMBERS OF FALUN GONG SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT PROTEST AGAINST BEIJING CRACKDOWN.
- Date: 2nd October 2000
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (OCTOBER 1, 2000) (REUTERS) GV/PAN: MEMBERS OF FALUN GONG ARRIVE THE CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE CU/TILT/GV: BANNER AND PROTESTERS GV: POLICEMEN ARRIVE MV/CU: VARIOUS FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS DOING EXERCISE (4 SHOTS) MV/TILT: PICTURES OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS ALLEGEDLY TORTURED CU: SOUNDBITE (English) SOPHIA XIAO FALUN GONG PRACTITIONER SAYING: "We are here today to show support to the practitioners in Beijing and all the practitioners in China. There have been already more than a thousand practitioners arrested in Tiananmen Square alone and more people coming into the capital. And this is not happening just today, it's been happening since the crackdown last July, 1999." MV/CU: VARIOUS FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS DOING EXERCISE (3 SHOTS0 MCU: SOUNDBITE (English) SOPHIA XIAO SAYING: "Inside China people are suffering. What they believe in, whatever they uphold their beliefs, they have been tortured to death, they have been sent to labour camps and we have the voice, we have to pass it out to other people." MV/GV: MORE FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS DOING EXERCISE (3 SHOTS) GV/LV: MEMBERS OF THE APRIL FIFTH ACTION GROUP ARRIVE (2 SHOTS) SCU/GV/PAN: MV/SV: VARIOUS OF APRIL FIFTH ACTION GROUP SCUFFLE WITH POLICE (5 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 17th October 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
- Country: Hong Kong
- Topics: General,People
- Reuters ID: LVA4EUSCTHAHTS0LQEB6DU2W6AJG
- Story Text: Some 200 Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong
protested against Beijing's "brutal suppression " of the
spiritual movement on China's National Day.
Some 200 Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong held
protests on Sunday (October 1) against Beijing's crackdown of
the spiritual movement.
Earlier, a dozen of pro-democracy activists held a noisy
protest and scuffled with police during a flag raising
ceremony on the waterfront marking China's 51st birthday.
No one was hurt.
The Falun Gong followers called on China to stop "the
criminal act of brutal suppression".
The protesters went through slow-motion exercises and
then sat quietly meditating outside the Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre, the venue where Britain handed the
territory back to China in a ceremony in 1997.
"We are here today to show support to the practitioners
in Beijing and all the practitioners in China. There have been
already more than a thousand practitioners arrested in
Tiananmen Square alone and more people coming into the
capital. And this is not happening just today, it's been
happening since the crackdown last July, 1999," said Sophia
Xiao, a Falun Gong practitioner.
She added that the sufferings and torture that the China
people are facing has to be made known to the other people
around the world.
Beijing-anointed Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa and
hundreds of guests attended a reception at the convention
centre to mark the national day.
Under a "one country, two systems" formula, Hong Kong
has a large degree of autonomy from Beijing and has not
followed mainland China in outlawing the religious movement.
Witnesses said that hundreds of Falun Gong followers
marred China's National Day celebrations on Sunday with huge
protests in a packed Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
The square was the scene in 1989 of a crackdown on
pro-democracy protesters, thousands of whom were killed or
wounded when Chinese troops opened fire.
China officially banned the spiritual movement, which
combines elements of Buddhism, Daoist teachings and
meditation, on July 22 last year, branding it an "evil cult",
after Falun Gong members demanded official recognition for
their faith in a series of protests.
(MVB/ - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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