WASHINGTON: United States lawmakers condemned China's intensifying crackdown on the Falun Gong on the eve of the second anniversary of the crackdown, as more than 1,500 of the [group's] practitioners from around the world held a mass rally on the west steps of the US Capitol.

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More than 30 members of the House of Representatives co-sponsored a resolution introduced on Thursday calling on China to ``cease its persecution'' of the Falun Gong and urged the Bush administration to push for the release of all Falun Gong detainees and the end to torture.

Some 50 Hong Kong Falun Gong members were among the throng that filled the west lawn of the Capitol, hoping that the event would help them fend off action by the SAR administration against them.

The rally should have an ``indirect'' influence on Hong Kong, Hui Yee-han, secretary of the Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa, told Hong Kong iMail. It should help in Hong Kong ``because we are asking for the immediate stop of the persecution'' she said.

``In fact, things happening in Hong Kong are like an extension of the persecution in China. I think [Chief Executive] Tung [Chee-hwa] is toeing Beijing's line in his persecution against us,'' Ms Hui said.

Half a dozen US Representatives and Senators spoke at the rally. ``I am deeply distressed by the violation of human rights, religious repression, arrests, torture, rape and murder of peaceful Falun Gong practitioners in China,'' said Benjamin Gilman, a New York Republican and former chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

Mr Gilman tied the Falun Gong with the award to Beijing of the 2008 Olympic Games.

``How does it make sense to award the thugs who have unleashed state-supported brutality and repression on peaceful Falun Gong practitioners and other people,'' he said.

In Hong Kong yesterday afternoon, more than 150 Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated for an hour at the SAR Government Headquarters in Central before staging a sit-in protest at the Central Government Liaison Office in Western.

They later held a candle-light vigil in Chater Garden.

21 July 2001 / 01:10 AM

http://hk-imail.singtao.com/inews/public/searcharticle_v.cfm?articleid=26040&intcatid=2

Category: Falun Dafa in the Media