7/07/01, 19:55:21 AEST

Followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have begun a two-week trip across the United States to protest against their persecution in China.

Vans carrying 11 members of the [group], which is outlawed in China, have left California for Washington, D.C, after attending rallies in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Organizers say as many as three thousand people are expected to attend the Washington rally on July17th.

Speakers have given personal accounts of mistreatment in China - while blaming the deaths of 15 practitioners last month on beatings by guards at a labor camp.

[...]

Falun Gong claims 250 practitioners have died from police brutality since July 1999.

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newsdaily/s325199.htm