Reuters: Falun Gong Protest at China's World Cup Debut


By Paul Holmes

Tue Jun 4, 1:22 AM ET

KWANGJU, South Korea (Reuters) - Falun Gong [practitioners]

protested against a Chinese [suppression] on their spiritual movement on Tuesday in full view of thousands of Chinese soccer fans attending their team's World Cup debut.

About 15 South Korean practitioners held up red and yellow banners saying "Falun Gong is good...China should stop its persecution" at a traffic intersection a few hundred yards from the entrance to Kwangju's World Cup stadium.

The banners, in Korean, were clearly visible to Chinese supporters heading to the ground for China's opening group C match against Costa Rica in coaches that stopped at the traffic lights.

Many of the supporters waved back at the [practitioners] or took souvenir photos. Some, apparently unaware of what they were accepting, got off the coaches to take plastic sunshades and hand-held fans that the [practitioners] were giving out for free.

The giveaways carried Falun Gong symbols and, in Chinese, the slogan "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Falun Gong is good."

South Korean police allowed the group to demonstrate but moved on another three Falun Gong [practitioners] who had unfurled a large yellow banner along the route that China's soccer team took to the stadium before the team bus passed by.

[...]

Between 25,000 and 40,000 Chinese fans are expected to visit South Korea to follow group C matches against Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey in China's first World Cup finals.

A spokesman for the official ticket distributor in China said last week that authorities had ordered travel agencies to watch out for Falun Gong [practitioners] among fans traveling to the tournament, who are also being screened by Chinese police.

Sung Gwan-hae, a 46-year-old South Korean Falun Gong practitioner, said he had come from the capital Seoul to join Tuesday's protest.

He said about 200 Falun Gong [practitioners], in distinctive yellow T-shirts, were spread out around the stadium.

"This is China's first game at the World Cup so we are letting them know that Falun Gong is good and Chinese persecution is wrong," he said.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020604/wl_nm/soccer_world_china_falun_dc_1

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