AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Tuesday, April 25, 2000

Falun Gong called for international help yesterday as it saw "no end in sight" to its persecution by the communist authorities. "In the one year since the gathering, we have come to witness the Chinese Government execute one of the largest, harshest and most arbitrary of persecutions in modern history," Gail Rachlin, a New York-based spokeswoman for Falun Gong, said.

"Chinese leaders turned their country upside down by banning the group," Ms Rachlin said.

In the year since the first mass protest, public securities' maltreatment of Falun Gong supporters had included beatings with electric batons and cattle prods, forced abortions and sanctioned rape and the forced consumption of anti-psychotic drugs, according to the group.

Police had detained 35,000 practitioners, while 15 members had died in police custody, mostly as a result of torture, the group said.

Some Falun Gong followers have been sentenced for up to 18 years in prison while others have been forced into mental hospitals, it said.

The central Government said last week courts had heard 91 Falun Gong-related cases involving 99 people, resulting in prison sentences for 84 of the defendants.