Tuesday April 9, 2002

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin, focusing on educational and cultural links, held talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Tuesday as demonstrators protesting against Beijing's human rights record were kept well away.

[...]

The protesters were kept several hundred metres from the chancellery, nearly out of sight of the arriving motorcade.

Scores of Falun Gong members meditated en masse outside the grand Adlon hotel in central Berlin. Wearing yellow jerseys, they performed exercises and meditated beneath banners reading, "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance", "Stop the persecution of Falun Gong".

"We have two goals -- to show the public that Jiang Zemin is responsible for the oppression of the Falun Gong and for Jiang to stop torturing practitioners," said member Zhihong Zheng.

"This oppression is an issue for everyone. If China has to oppress us, then it's the whole world's problem," she said.

[...]

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-99218.html