By HOLLY HUFFMAN, Eagle Staff Writer

As many as 3,000 followers of Falun Gong, a [group] outlawed in China, could descend on the Bush Library & Presidential Museum Center next week to protest their persecution during a visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

The demonstrators plan to gather at the library to meditate, said Dianna Roberts, spokeswoman for a Houston-based Falun Gong organization. During the sit-in, Roberts said, they will peacefully concentrate on clearing and purifying the atmosphere, occasionally standing to perform the group's five prescribed exercises.

"We hope that if [the Chinese dictator] senses beauty and positivity and benevolence, it will rub off on him," she said. "Maybe not, but we can hope."

The movement was banned in July 1999 by the Chinese government, which contends that Falun Gong is a cult that threatens Chinese law.

But Falun Gong adherents say that their practices only serve to promote mental and physical well-being, and that thousands of followers have been imprisoned and hundreds more tortured and killed because of their beliefs.

"All we want is for the persecution to stop," Roberts said.

Jiang is scheduled to tour the museum and then meet with former President George Bush on Thursday.

University Police Director Bob Wiatt said he has been working since last week with local police agencies, as well as the U.S. Secret Service and Chinese security, to prepare for the protesters.

Wiatt is expecting between 1,500 and 3,000 Falun Gong followers and another 300 Jiang supporters to converge on the library.

Wiatt said the two groups will be allowed to protest on the library grounds at separate designated free speech areas that will be apart from each other and sectioned off by barriers.

The heightened police presence should rival the security in place at the library's opening in 1997, Wiatt said. It will include members of the College Station, Bryan and University police departments, the Brazos County Sheriff's Department, the Department of Public Safety and a mounted patrol consisting of police officers from A&M, Galveston and San Antonio.

But all the extra troops are more of a precautionary measure, as Wiatt said he expects a peaceful demonstration.

"We want to make this a pleasurable instance, but give everyone an opportunity to express themselves," he said.

Posting date: 10/20/2002
Original article date: 10/19/2002
Category: News & Media Reports

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