Around 70 Falungong On Hunger Strike In Beijing Detox Center(AFP)

BEIJING, Mar 9, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Some 70 members of the Falungong group are on hunger strike in detention at a drug detoxification center near Beijing as part of a major clampdown on the movement, an activist told AFP Wednesday.

The authorities have launched a huge security operation in the capital to prevent members of the outlawed group protesting during the annual session of parliament, the National People's Congress.

But despite blanket security the Falungong have held sporadic protests in and around Tiananmen Square in the past five days, as they have done since they were banned on July 22 last year and labelled an "evil cult".

Hannah Lee, a Falungong member from New York, told AFP the detained people had been refusing food since their detention seven days ago at the center which used to house a mental asylum.

She said 52 of those detained at the Huang Shan Dian detox center in Beijing's Fangshan district had previously been put in a mental hospital and released last December after undergoing "education" aimed at ending their belief in the spiritual teachings of the group.

"Most of these people are from the Fangshan district, but some come from other parts of the country, like Jiangsu province," Lee said.

Pictures of the detained practioners taken with a camera smuggled into the center show the detainees doing their regular Falungong meditation exercises.

Other Falungong practioners in Beijing have also been rounded up and put in "education centers" or "education courses" at their work units to prevent them from holding demonstrations during the parliamentary meeting, other Falungong sources in Beijing said.

A heavy police presence has been present around the Great Hall of the People bordering Tiananmen Square since the 11-day NPC opened on March 5.

The Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said on Monday that four US passport holders and four US residents carrying Chinese passports had also been detained over their connection with the group.

US embassy officials have refused to comment, citing privacy laws protecting US passport holders.

A Hong Kong Falungong practitioner told AFP her 61-year-old mother was among 17 detained for 24 hours from Sunday near her home in Beijing's western Haidian district.

"They were forced to write statements promising not to practice or to go to Tiananmen Square during the NPC," she said, on condition of anonymity.

"It is ironic that the NPC is supposed to represent people from many districts and represent a wide variety of ideas, but we are not allowed to say anything," the Hong Kong practitioner said.

Police have detained thousands of Falungong members, while scores of alleged "core leaders" of the group have been tried and sentenced to up to 18 years imprisonment.

((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)