AP: Rights Group To Discuss Falun Gong With UN Officials

February 4, 2001 HONG KONG (AP)--A local human rights group said Sunday it will discuss the rights of the Falun Gong [group], which has been banned in mainland China, with visiting U.N. human rights officials this week. Law Yuk-kai, director of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, said he will express concern about allegations by pro-Beijing activists that Falun Gong is using Hong Kong as a base to subvert the Chinese government in talks Tuesday with U.N. officials P. N. Bhagwati and Christine Chanet. The five-day tour of Bhagwati and Chanet, organized by the Hong Kong government to examine civil and political rights here, will mark the first visit by members of the U.N. Human Rights Committee since the former British colony returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Falun Gong has come under fire from pro-Beijing groups in the territory since the Hong Kong government allowed it to hold an international conference last month at a public concert hall, where [group] followers openly attacked Beijing's crackdown. [...] Three human rights groups, including the Human Rights Monitor, expressed concern Sunday about the criticism, saying they "failed to see that the Falun Gong followers were doing anything other than exercising their fundamental freedoms." "To suppress Falun Gong on the ground of such activities will not simply be a matter for Falun Gong, it will become the first step to suppress all groups and individuals holding different views from those of the Central Government," said a statement issued by the three groups, which also included the Hong Kong Human Rights Commission and JUSTICE, the Hong Kong branch of the International Commission of Jurists. Although Falun Gong is banned in China, the group remains legal in Hong Kong, where citizens enjoy considerably more freedom than their counterparts on the mainland. Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers, most of them in China, [...]