Radio Australia BBC Monitoring: Falun Gong claims victory in dispute over Canberra banners

August 8, 2006 Tuesday

[Announcer] The Falun Gong spiritual movement has been allowed to use large banners in its protests outside the Chinese embassy in the Australian capital [Canberra], four years after they were banned by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer.

Falun Gong says Mr. Downer has stopped signing prohibitive certificates for the first time. They claim he has failed to prove how their protests impair the dignity of the Chinese embassy.

Falun Gong spokesperson Kay Rubacek says the group has maintained a continuous presence outside the embassy since 1999.

[Rubacek] It's really important that this truth be known and that people who are protesting against massive killing happening over in China, we really feel we should be allowed to raise this in the public eye. And it's a very small base here at the embassy. We're not really hurting anyone at all.

Source: Radio Australia, Melbourne