WASHINGTON: US has strongly condemned China's intensification of the already "harsh repression" of the Falun Gong movement in China.

"The US is deeply disturbed by reports that China has further intensified its harsh repression of the Falun Gong. The June 20 deaths of over a dozen Falun Gong practitioners in the Sonjia [editor's note: it should be Wanjia] labour camp in Harbin city was particularly troublesome. Our sympathies go out to the families of the victims," state department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Boucher said there are conflicting accounts of what actually occurred in the camp but "the reports of violence and torture against these Chinese Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of Chinese authorities are chilling."

In the past, he said, the US has conveyed its strong concern to the Chinese government of their crackdown and it will continue to do so. "We call on China to respect freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to allow all persons to practise their religious faiths freely, and to end the cycle of repression on the Falun Gong."

US efforts on human rights in China, he said, have been consistent and have been very strong. "We have consistently looked for the kind of changes in China that would allow us to say the human rights situation had improved, which we were not able to report in our human rights reports in January."

However, he refused to link the repression of the Falun Gong with China's fitness or otherwise to host the Olympics -- an issue on which the US has decided to be neutral. (PTI)

http://www.timesofindia.com/today/06woru7.htm

Posting date: 7/7/2001
Original article date: 7/7/2001
Category: News & Media Reports

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