1/14/1 21:43 (New York) Hong Kong, Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Falun Gong spiritual movement blamed Chinese President Jiang Zemin for a crackdown on the group, calling it ``evil persecution,'' news reports said. About 1,000 members from more than 20 countries met Sunday in Hong Kong City Hall, taking advantage of the former British colony's autonomy within China. Falun Gong is banned in the rest of the country, where authorities have cracked down on the movement they call [] While pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong, including Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao, predictably condemned the meeting, others said it underlined the city's tolerance and independence from the mainland's leadership, as promised by Beijing. ``The fact that an organization so vehemently repressed by Beijing could gather so freely in Hong Kong and criticize mainland leaders so strongly is evidence that `one country two systems' has meaning,'' the English-language Hong Kong iMail newspaper said in an editorial. While religious freedom is guaranteed under Hong Kong's constitution, the Basic Law, Falun Gong demonstrators were expelled from Macau, which enjoys the same guarantee, during a visit by Jiang in December 1999. On Saturday, police permitted a march on the Beijing official press liaison office by several hundred followers, wearing Chinese funeral costumes and yellow t-shirts. Still, at least 12 practitioners were barred from entering Hong Kong to attend the two-day conference of whom four are still in custody and are on a hunger strike, Reuters reported. The Hong Kong Immigration Department said it had turned people away for visa irregularities, not Falun Gong membership. The Asian Wall Street Journal said he fact that 12 members were denied entry for the meeting suggested the Hong Kong government is becoming less tolerant of the movement. China Followers at yesterday's meeting accused Jiang of having ``undeniable responsibility'' for the crackdown, which began after some 10,000 followers gathered in central Beijing in April 1999. The group said thousands of its members have been arrested and 120 have died in police custody, Reuters reported. ``Over 100 of our great Falun members have lost their lives to spread the truth,'' Associated Press quoted John Hu as telling the conference, the first time the group has met in a Hong Kong government building. Falun Gong, whose members follow a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist doctrines and practice meditation and exercise, says it isn't a political organization. The conference coincided with fresh criticism by Chinese authorities of the movement and its exiled leader Li Hongzhi. ... --Nick Wells in Sydney or at nwells3@bloomberg.net, through the Sydney bureau (612) 9777-8601 and David Saunders in Hong Kong/ jf