Thursday June 13, 2002

SEOUL (Reuters) - [Practitioners] of the Falun Gong spiritual movement protested against the Chinese government's crackdown on their faith as thousands of China fans arrived at Seoul's World Cup stadium to watch their team play Turkey on Thursday.

About 200 Falun Gong members from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the United States and a few from China lined a section of road leading to the stadium, waving, shouting "Falun Gong is good!" and handing out plastic fans advertising their cause.

"We want to show Chinese football supporters that Falun is good and that people in other countries are allowed to practice Falun Gong freely," said Li Zheng, 50, a Chinese construction worker who has been in South Korea for the last two years.

[...]

Some Chinese fans arriving for the Turkey game, their country's last in group C, waved and smiled at the protesters, apparently mistaking them for fellow supporters, while others took photographs.

A few even accepted the Falun Gong plastic fans, which bore the [words] "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance."

Falun Gong staged a similar but smaller demonstration before China's first match against Costa Rica in the southern city of Kwangju and some Falun Gong banners were seen lining streets before their second game against Brazil on the island of Cheju.

Kwangju police allowed the demonstration but moved on three Falun Gong protesters who had unfurled a large yellow banner along the route China's team took to the stadium. The Seoul protesters said they had been given permission by South Korean police but were not allowed to protest within one kilometre of the stadium or to practice Falun Gong exercises on the street.

"We wanted to get to the stadium but FIFA rules do not allow it," said organiser Suk Jung-choi, 45, an office worker from Seoul. "We are cooperating with the authorities and they have been very supportive."

"There are so many foreign tourists and media in Seoul for the World Cup so we want to tell them all Falun Gong is good and hopefully stop the persecution in China."

Between 20,000 and 30,000 Chinese fans have travelled to South Korea to watch China's matches against Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey on their debut at a World Cup finals. The official ticket distributor in China has said the Chinese authorities ordered travel agencies to watch out for Falun Gong followers among fans travelling to the tournament, who are also being screened by Chinese police.

But there have been no signs yet of unrest among Chinese fans in South Korea and organisers of Thursday's protest said the Chinese among them were all living overseas.

China lost their opening game 2-0 against Costa Rica and a 4-0 defeat by Brazil in their second match knocked them out of the tournament ahead of their last group game against Turkey.

http://asia.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=F4DXPHGL0KHEGCRBAEZ SFFAKEEATIIWD?type=topnews&StoryID=1084241#

Posting date: 6/14/2002
Original article date: 6/13/2002
Category: News & Media Reports

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