September 11, 2001

TAIPEI, Sep 11, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) A group of 20 Falun Gong followers Tuesday embarked on a two-week walk in support of fellow practitioners being suppressed in China.

Some 400 Falun Gong followers rallied behind the walkers outside the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in downtown Taipei, where photos showing Chinese suppression of the [group] were also on display.

The protest group wore white T-shirts bearing Chinese characters reading "SOS emergency rescue of Falun Gong members in China."

"The purpose of the activity is to highlight our belief that people should not live amid sentiments of terror and bloodshed," a spokesman for the organizers told AFP.

[...]

The walk will stretch several hundred of kilometers along the western part of the island. Another group of five people are to begin a second walk later this week along the eastern coast.

The two groups are expected to be joined by other practitioners along the routes, before they eventually assemble in the southern city of Kaohsiung.

It is not clear how many Falun Gong followers there are on the island, but organizers said the group has been expanding at a rapid pace and now numbers an estimated 100,000 people.

The movement is banned in China where thousands of practitioners have been detained, with core leaders given jail terms of up to 18 years for protesting and refusing to denounce their beliefs.

Beijing considers Falun Gong the biggest threat to communist rule since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations crushed in Tiananmen Square.

Since then at least 260 Falun Gong followers have been killed, 500 others illegally sentenced, 20,000 sent to re-education camps, and 100,000 arrested and jailed, according to the [group].

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