01/07/2002

Excerpt from report in English by Czech news agency CTK

Prague, 7 January: Senate Deputy Speaker Jan Ruml (Freedom Union, [US]) expressed his protest against the detention of Chinese [spiritual] movement Falun Gong adherents to the Chinese ambassador in Prague, Ruml's aid Jan Holub told CTK today.

Ruml said he considered the ambassador's reaction, according to which the detainees breached Chinese law and Falun Gong was a [term omitted], a "tragic comedy evidence" of an unchanged perception of human rights in China.

Ruml is also a deputy chairman of an international committee whose aim is to help improve human rights observance in China before the summer Olympics to be held in Beijing in 2008...

á