HONG KONG, Dec 14, 2000 -- (Reuters) Followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have asked Macao's government to allow them to stage "peaceful appeal activities" in the former Portuguese-ruled territory on the anniversary of its reversion to Chinese rule.

The campaign is planned to take place in the presence of Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who will be in Macao on December 20 for the first anniversary of the 1999 handover.

Just hours before the transfer of rule, Macao police had seized about 40 adherents of Falun Gong, which is banned in China but not in Macao. Most of them were foreign passport holders practicing Falun Gong outside Macao's biggest casino.

A group of practitioners from Hong Kong and overseas said in a statement on Thursday they had sent a letter to Edmund Ho, the Beijing-anointed leader of Macao, to ask to be allowed to enter the enclave to appeal peacefully for their movement.

In the letter dated Wednesday, the practitioners also asked to be allowed to submit a petition to Jiang urging Beijing to stop the persecution of Falun Gong.

Macao authorities had already refused entry to three Hong Kong practitioners this month but gave no reason, the statement said.

Macao government officials do not comment on individual cases as a matter of practice.

Falun Gong, which combines meditation and exercise with a doctrine loosely rooted in Buddhist and Taoist teachings, is legal in Hong Kong.

Both Macao and Hong Kong are autonomous administrative regions of China.

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