January 9, 2005 / Agence France-Presse /

Thousands of Falun Gong members staged a protest in Taipei yesterday against the Chinese government's treatment of the banned spiritual movement's followers on the mainland.

About 3,000 Falungong members from across Taiwan linked hands to form a six-kilometer long "Great Wall of Justice," holding photos and paintings depicting alleged torture.

"As of January 2, there were 1,247 reported cases of Falun Gong members tortured to death in China but a lot more victims were unaccounted for," said Chang Ching-hsi, head of the Falun Gong branch in Taiwan.

China outlawed the Falun Gong [...] in mid-1999 and practitioners have subsequently faced often brutal repression.

Chang said the repression of the Falun Gong continued after Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as Chinese president, as new cases of abuse and torture have been unearthed.

The group claims at least 1,247 its followers have been killed, 6,000 others illegally sentenced, 100,000 sent to re-education camps and more than 7,000 jailed.

"The scary thing is that none of those people showed violent behavior, and yet they still suffered repression by the state," Chang said.

He indicated that the group had filed 47 suits in 28 countries against 18 Chinese officials on a variety of charges, including genocide, torture, libel, and bullying.

He said the group had won two legal victories in Canada and the United States.

There are an estimated 300,000 Falungong members in Taiwan.

Source http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/Society/2005/01/09/1105240863.htm