The Age: World must monitor China's promises: Falun Gong

Sunday July 15, 2:12 PM

CANBERRA, July 15 AAP - The international community must now monitor China's compliance with its own promises on human rights, the Australian chapter of the Falun Gong [group] movement said today.

Falun Gong, whose members have been hounded by authorities in China, said many people had died in the weeks leading up to the International Olympic Committee's announcement that Beijing would host the 2008 Olympic Games.

History has shown us that (Chinese [President]) Jiang Zemin's regime has taken advantage of every major international event to silence all dissenting voices, an unnamed Falun Gong Australian national said in a statement.

Falun Gong practitioners will most likely continue to bear the brunt of such political campaigns.

Many people, not only Falun Gong practitioners, have already died in the weeks leading up to the vote as Beijing began to rid itself of so-called undesirables.

Falun Gong has been banned in China for the past two years.

Beijing Olympic bid organisers promised last week to give the world's media complete freedom to report on all aspects of China if the capital won the 2008 Games.

The Falun Gong spokesperson called on the international community to monitor China's compliance with its own promises and ensure they are kept.

We hope that China will not see winning the Olympics as a licence to kill, the spokesperson said.

In just the past week, we have had two reports of mass killings of Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese labour camps. We do not want to see more.

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/07/15/FFXPIPAP5PC.html