Friday, July 21, 2000
'Foreign forces' still
backing sect
VIVIEN PIK-KWAN CHAN
Authorities have warned that "strong political forces" are still
manipulating the banned Falun Gong sect as police picked up dozens
of members trying to protest in Tiananmen Square yesterday, the
first anniversary of the ban on the spiritual movement.
More than 90 members of the sect were detained in the Beijing
square. Most demonstrated individually or in small groups -
unfurling banners, sitting in the lotus position or meditating.
Police snatched banners away from protesters within seconds after
they were unfurled at different corners of the square. Some
protesters who refused to co-operate were punched in the chest,
stomach and face.
Most of those detained at the square were middle-aged and female
Falun Gong practitioners, witnesses said. Several thousand had left
their homes in other parts on the mainland to come to Beijing to
mark the ban, said Frank Lu Siqing, director of the Hong Kong-based
Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
"From Monday to Wednesday, 150 people were detained at the
Changsha railroad station," Mr Lu said. Sect sources said scores of
followers were detained yesterday in the northern city of Changchun,
Jilin province, as they practised in a park.
Despite the fact that the Communist Party yesterday declared a
"decisive victory" in its crackdown on the movement, sources close
to the party said leaders had warned of a prolonged struggle.
Publicly, the Government claimed the banned group had not had
more than two million members and put its membership now at only
40,000.
But at meetings, cadres have been told tens of thousands are
resisting.
"At internal meetings, party cadres were urged to keep up the
struggle with the movement as tens of thousands of defiant members
remained active though most of the activities had gone underground,"
sources said.
"The purged group remained active because of backing from strong
political forces," the sources quoted officials as saying.
The banned spiritual movement was accused of having strong links
with dissident groups and hostile forces in the United States.
Some 450 leaders of the group had been sent to prison for up to
18 years, 10,000 practitioners sentenced to labour camps for up to
three years without trial and 24 had died while in police custody in
the year-long purge, said the information centre.
Another 25,000 people remained in detention centres, where they
were kept for up to a month. Human rights groups said 600
practitioners with no serious mental problems had been forced into
psychiatric hospitals since the group was branded an evil cult.
The movement alarmed authorities in April last year when 10,000
demonstrators gathered near the leadership compound at Zhongnanhai
in Beijing to protest against the arrests of members.
Beijing has blamed Falun Gong for 1,500 deaths by suicide or
refusal to accept medical care in favour of faith in the teachings
of America-based founder Li Hongzhi. |
