Age: Falun Gong members protest at Chinese consulate

Tuesday June 5, 1:28 PM

About 15 members of the Falun Gong meditation movement protested outside Melbourne's Chinese consulate today to highlight the Republic of China's imprisonment of fellow believers.

Falun Gong members staged a peaceful protest outside the inner-suburban Toorak consulate this morning, practising [...] exercises before delivering a letter of protest.

Group member Kati Vereshaka said the letter called for the release of six non-Chinese residents - living permanently in the United States, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Ireland - who had been detained illegally by the Chinese government and whose whereabouts were unknown.

Ms Vereshaka, who presented the letter to consular officials, said similar demonstrations were being held in Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and throughout the United States and Canada.

Falun Gong Melbourne spokesman Michael Smith said the group was non-political but concerned over the imprisonment of the six, who had been arrested for their involvement with the movement, which was seen as a national threat to Chinese ideology.

He said Falun Gong opposed China's human rights record, which had seen at least 216 people die in labor camps over the last two years.

"We are obviously concerned tens of thousands of people in labor camps and mental hospitals which is a particular ploy of totalitarian governments," he told AAP.

Mr Smith said Falun Gong, a worldwide meditation movement, was based on the Chinese principles of "zhan, fhan, ren" (zhan, fhan, ren) which loosely translated meant "truthfulness, compassion, forebearance".

There are an estimated 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners across Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/06/05/FFXD8RXJKNC.html