Reuters: Reported Falun Gong Sentences 'Disturbing' to U.S.

August 20, 2001

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it was disturbed at reports that Chinese courts had sentenced 45 alleged Falun Gong (news - web sites) organizers to prison terms of up to 13 years.

The official Beijing Daily said on Sunday that the 45 were sentenced in Beijing over the past few days for organizing protests, making banners and printing leaflets in defiance of a government campaign against the spiritual movement.

''We find those reports disturbing. As we've noted many times before, China is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which includes provisions on the freedom of expression,'' State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told a daily briefing.

''We've raised with China on many occasions our concerns about the crackdown on the Falun Gong and reports of torture and mistreatment of detained and imprisoned practitioners. We're going to continue to raise those issues,'' he said.

He noted that the United States had designated China as a country of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act and that the State Department's annual human rights report was critical of China on freedom of religion.

''We'll continue to call upon China to end its crackdown on the Falun Gong and to respect the fundamental rights of citizens,'' Reeker said.

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