AFP: Falungong protestors urge Europe to get tough with Beijing

STRASBOURG, July 4 (AFP) - Around thirty followers of the outlawed Chinese Falungong movement demonstrated outside the European Parliament here on Wednesday, calling on the body to denounce Beijing's crackdown on the group.

"We want the European Union to denounce Beijing's repression of the Falungong more strongly," one of the demonstrators, Li, a former history teacher, told AFP, adding that he would run into problems if he gave his surname.

"We are not a sect. That's a rumour spread by the Chinese regime," he insisted.

"Over 230 people have been tortured and killed in China in the last two years because they were members of our movement," another demonstrator, Patrick Gianquinto, said.

The peaceful protest lasted several hours and was mainly attended by European-settled Chinese and Europeans who have converted to the movement and who sat on a lawn opposite the parliament and practiced gymnastics.

China banned the Falungong movement three months after a silent demonstration by 10,000 of the group's followers around a Chinese leadership compound in the centre of Beijing.

Since then, hundreds of Falungong followers have been sentenced to prison terms and tens of thousands sent to re-education camps.

Human rights groups say more than 100 have died in police detention.