Wednesday April 18

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of Falun Gong followers accused China of widespread torture of the movement's members on Tuesday and urged the world community to support a U.N. vote to debate China's human rights record.

Falun Gong combines meditation and exercise [...]. It was banned in China in October 1999 after supporters staged a 10,000-strong protest in April that year.

"We are here to appeal to the international community and all of the U.N. delegates to support the vote to proceed with this debate and join with the United States to condemn China's actions," Falun Gong follower Keith Ware said at a news conference.

The United States presented a resolution to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva last week accusing China of abuses, including repressing Falun Gong, and calling on Beijing to permit greater freedom of religion.

The U.N. Commission is due to convene on Wednesday to vote on whether to debate China's human rights record.

Falun Gong members are holding vigils in major cities Tuesday, including Hong Kong, Washington, Geneva, Paris, San Francisco and Toronto.

Beijing has described the Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, as an "[Chinese government's slanderous term omitted]," a label vehemently disputed by the movement's supporters.

Ware alleged 193 Falun Gong practitioners had been killed since the crackdown by China, many of those in the past few months. Recent deaths included an 8-month-old baby and his mother, 30-year-old Wang Lixuan, he said.

Ware said Wang and her baby died in a Chinese labour camp and that both their bodies were blackened with bruises. He said the woman's family was told Wang and her son committed suicide by jumping off a building.

"We urge China to stop the killing and torture," said Ware, adding that more than half of those deaths were women.

"China cannot hope to become a truly respected member of the world community unless it is willing to take steps to improve its human rights record," he added.

Falun Gong follower Amy Lee, who fled to the United States from China, said she had been persecuted and abused by Chinese authorities and her child was taken away from her because of her support for the movement.

Lee, speaking through an interpreter, said she was beaten unconscious by police who arrested her last May in Tiananmen Square. She said she went on a hunger strike to protest her treatment and was sent to a mental hospital and force-fed.

She said her husband divorced her and got custody of their child, whom she has not seen since. "In the past 19 months, numerous families of Falun Gong practitioners have been separated," she said, adding that she feared arrest if she returned to China.

Jimmy Zou, an American citizen who came from China several years ago, said he was arrested in Tiananmen Square during a visit to China last November.

He said he was detained for six days and was beaten while doing Falun Gong exercises. "I also witnessed police torturing old women for doing exercises," he said.