Sunday, October 1, 2000

HONG KONG - Some 200 Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong protested on China's National Day on Sunday against Beijing's crackdown of the spiritual movement.

The Falun Gong followers called on China to stop "the criminal act of brutal suppression".

The protesters went through slow-motion exercises and then sat quietly meditating outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the venue where Britain handed the territory back to China in a ceremony in 1997.

Beijing-anointed Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa and hundreds of guests attended a reception at the convention centre to mark the national day.

Under a "one country, two systems" formula, Hong Kong has a large degree of autonomy from Beijing and has not followed mainland China in outlawing the religious movement. Witnesses in Beijing said that hundreds of Falun Gong followers marred China's National Day celebrations on Sunday with huge protests in a packed Tiananmen Square. The square was the scene in 1989 of a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, thousands of whom were killed or wounded when Chinese troops opened fire.

China officially banned the Falun Gong movement, which combines elements of Buddhism, Taoist teachings and meditation, on July 22 last year, after Falun Gong members demanded official recognition for their faith in a series of protests.