Last Updated: Oct. 19, 2000 at 9:05:08 a.m.

HONG KONG - Two members of the Falun Gong spiritual [group] who were detained after suing Chinese President Jiang Zemin for banning the group have mysteriously disappeared, followers in Hong Kong said Thursday.

The Falun Gong adherents said they don't know what happened to Chu O-ming or Wang Jie, who were missing in mainland China.

Falun Gong followers and human rights groups have made numerous allegations of other adherents dying while in custody in China. But Sharon Xu, a spokeswoman for Falun Gong in Hong Kong, said sect members were not immediately assuming the worst for Chu and Wang.

``We don't know, but it's possible,'' Xu said. ``It is not very favorable for Mr. Chu or Mr. Wang. We're very concerned.''

Falun Gong is banned in mainland China but remains legal in Hong Kong, where citizens enjoy considerably more freedom under a largely autonomous local government.

Falun Gong said Chu, a Hong Kong resident who worked as a furniture dealer in Beijing, and Wang, who worked in a mapmaking bureau there, were illegally detained more than a month ago after they mailed their lawsuit against Jiang and two aides to the Chinese courts.

Xu said Chu's relatives in Beijing were notified Saturday that he had been released at 10 p.m. the night before from the Fang Shan Detention Center in southwestern Beijing and that they should come to the detention center to pick up his personal belongings.

But Chu did not contact his family, and when relatives went to the detention center asking what had happened, they were told only that he was no longer there.

The Falun Gong followers said they obtained their information from reliable contacts on the mainland, although they refused to elaborate out of fear those people would suffer retaliation.

Wang is also no longer at the detention center in Beijing, according to the Falun Gong adherents in Hong Kong. They said they were unaware of any contacts between the Chinese authorities and any relatives of Wang.

Falun Gong followers have said Chu and Wang received no response to the lawsuit they filed through the mail in late August. But on Sept. 7, police raided a home where they were staying in the Chinese capital and took them into custody.

Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers, most of them in China, with its combination of slow-motion exercises and its philosophy drawn from Taoism, Buddhism and the often unorthodox ideas of founder Li Hongzhi.

The Beijing leadership outlawed the [group] after being startled by the ability of its adherents to organize massive gatherings in China.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/intl/ap/oct00/ap-china-banned-se101900.asp