Police shield final National People's Congress' session from Falun Gong protests

Thursday, March 16, 2000

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Police swarmed around the NPC's closing session yesterday to prevent Falun Gong members from formally registering complaints about the banning of the spiritual movement. Police in and out of uniform blanketed Tiananmen Square in front of the Great Hall of the People and were seen questioning and searching people seemingly going about their normal tourist and daily activities.

The police presence was particularly heavy in West Jiaomin Alley, just west of the square, where the NPC has its complaints bureau.

"During the past two days there has been a constant stream of Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested while trying to file appeals with the NPC complaints bureau," said Hannah Lee, a Falun Gong member from New York, who is now in Beijing.

Practitioners were calling on the NPC to open a fair, public and objective debate on the crackdown and to release Falun Gong members jailed for their beliefs, she said.

Ms Lee was indignant at the detention by police of Falun Gong members who have tried to exercise their constitutional right to petition the Government.

Before being banned, the spiritual group practised public group meditation and breathing exercises, while advocating clean living and moral standards based on traditional Buddhist and Taoist values.

Journalists in Beijing have seen police lead small groups of people from the alley, but could not independently confirm they were sect members.

After the group was banned last year, signs pointing the way to the NPC complaints bureau were removed from the building, as were signs showing the location of the State Council complaints bureau.

Followers say the signs were removed so that Falun Gong followers coming from outside Beijing could not find the offices.

One practitioner from Beijing, Niu Jingping, had been held by Beijing police since Tuesday and threatened with "immediate arrest" if he kept trying to petition the NPC, Ms Lee claimed.

Other Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing had been rounded up and put in "education centres" or "education courses" at their work units to stop them protesting during the NPC meeting, sect sources said.