Canberra Times (Australia): Falun Gong on hunger strike at embassy

Thirteen hunger strikers have mounted a protest outside the Chinese Embassy against the imprisonment of 130 practitioners of Falun Gong in a Chinese labour camp. Falun Gong, regarded as a [term omitted] by China's authorities, has been banned since July 1999.

Sleeping in cars parked outside the embassy in Yarralumla, the 13 members have not eaten anything since noon on Wednesday.

Sitting on the grass for most of the day, reading the works of Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, they are on an indefinite hunger strike to free the 130 prisoners imprisoned in the Masanjia Labour Camp, Liaoning Province.

The Chinese prisoners have been on a hunger strike for 22 days.

The 13 hunger strikers in Yarralumla are refusing food as part of a coordinated global hunger strike, with strikes in Germany, Britain, New York and Washington.

Canberra has about 25 Falun Gong practitioners, according to Daniel Clark, the spokesman for the local group.

But the hunger strikers, all volunteers, are from Sydney.

"The hunger strike is an act of solidarity for the prisoners in the Masanjia Labour Camp," Mr Clark, an electrical engineer, said last night.

Falun Gong combines meditation and exercises, and has the motto, Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance.

Since July 1999, China has launched a massive crackdown on the group, imprisoning practitioners and pursuing them through the media. China's ruling [party's name omitted] party regards Falun Gong as [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous terms omitted].

Apart from torture and beatings, many Falun Gong members are forced to recant their beliefs through signed confessions, reminiscent of the days of the Cultural Revolution.

The hungers strikers in Yarralumla have an album of photographs of victims allegedly bashed and tortured by what they say is the secret group charged with cracking down on practitioners, the 610 Office.

Mei-ling Dai, an Australian citizen jailed for 45 days when she returned to China in March last year, said yesterday she was arrested four times when she went home, and was only released from prison when the Australian Consul helped her.

Watched closely by the embassy, the hunger strikers are photographed and video-taped when they meet visitors to the protest site.

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