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VOA News: US Asks China to End Falun Gong Crackdown August 20, 2001 The United States is renewing its call on China to end its crackdown on
the
Falun Gong [spiritual group]. Nearly 50 members of the spiritual movement
have
been sentenced to prison by Chinese courts since last Friday. The State Department says it is disturbed by the reports of the latest
sentencing of Falun Gong followers, and it has again appealed to
Beijing to
end what it describes as serious violations of religious freedom. The comments follow reports in the official Chinese media of the
sentencing
Sunday of 45 members of the banned spiritual movement to prison terms
of up
to 13 years for a variety of protest activities, including making
leaflets
and banners. The sentences came after four Falun Gong practitioners were given terms
ranging from seven years to life last Friday, for allegedly helping
organize
the self-immolation of several [people] in Beijing's Tiananmen
Square in
January. Briefing reporters, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the
Bush
administration is monitoring the plight of Chinese Falun Gong adherents
with
concern. "We find those reports disturbing," Mr. Reeker said. " As
we've
said and noted many times before, China is a signatory to the
international
covenant on civil and political rights, which includes provisions on
the
freedom of expression. We've raised with China on many occasions our
concerns about the crackdown on the Falun Gong and reports of torture
and
mistreatment of detained and imprisoned practitioners, and we're going
to
continue to raise those issues." Mr. Reeker said China's failure to respect freedom of thought and
religion
has already caused that country to be listed as a country of
"particular
concern" under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act from the
U.S.
Congress. Elsewhere in Washington, ten U.S.-based members of Falun Gong continued
a
hunger strike they began late last week in a square opposite the
Chinese
Embassy. At a news conference, Falun Gong activists accused Chinese President
Jiang
Zemin of ordering a secret campaign to defame Chinese members of the
group,
break them financially and destroy them physically. They said they were rebuffed by embassy staff members, when they tried
to
deliver letters asking for a meeting with China's U.S. ambassador, Yang
Jeichi. http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?ObjectID=E456752A-95A8-11D5-842D00508BF97
12A&Title=US%20Asks%20China%20to%20End%20Falun%20Gong%20Crackdown&db=current Posting date: 8/22/2001 |