April 25, 2002

Asia Briefs

Authorities have detained 2,000 [practitioners] of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group in a northern Chinese city after a defiant television broadcast by the group, a rights organization said Thursday.

áMore than 150 followers in Changchun have been sent to "re-education through labor" camps, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. Changchun's women's labor camp alone has admitted 80 Falun Gong [practitioners] over the last six weeks, the Hong Kong-based center said.

Authorities have already announced the arrest of seven Falun Gong [practitioners] blamed for orchestrating the March 5 incident, during which cable TV broadcasts in Changchun and nearby Songyuan were interrupted to show programs attacking government propaganda against the group. The information center said those could go on trial as early as next month.

In Beijing, the third anniversary of a 1999 protest that eventually led to the ban on Falun Gong passed uneventfully Thursday. Only tourists were in evidence on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, where dozens of [practitioners] were beaten and detained last year for protesting. No one was arrested, police said. The Changchun broadcasts was among the boldest acts by Falun Gong amid the [persecution] against it.