AFP: Practitioners Visit Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct 2, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Falun Gong practitioners will tour Thailand this week to explain their group's principles and boost its image in the wake of a crackdown in Beijing, group members said Monday.

Hong Chih-hong, and 60 other members have arrived in Thailand, where they will embark on a public relations tour to defend their group against accusations it is a cult, Falun Gong member Noppadol Ekbutr told AFP.

Hong Chih-hong "comes to Thailand because we have few Falun Gong trainers here" who can adequately explain what the group does, Noppadol said.

After a stop in Bangkok, the Falun Gong leaders will travel to the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chaing Rai, the Nation daily said Monday.

Noppadol told AFP that Falun Gong had no intention of damaging Thai-Chinese relations.

"I don't think we will have a problem here because we don't do anything wrong and we won't violate any Thai laws," he said.

He did however express concern over the arrested members of the group in Beijing.

Falun Gong was banned in China after the National People's Congress passed a resolution in July 1999 labeling it an "illegal organization" and an "evil cult," terms which are ill defined in Chinese legal parlance and open to wide interpretation.

The resolution has served as the legal basis to ban the group, which maintains a following of up to 70 million, despite guarantees in the Chinese constitution for freedom of religious belief.

According to the group's own estimates, there are 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Bangkok.

( 2000 Agence France Presse)