PRACTITIONERS of the Falun Gong exercise and meditation technique have retuned to Cyprus, a week after being blasted by the Chinese embassy as an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted].

Vassilios Zoupounidis from the Greek Falun Gong Association and Dr Li Shao, a Director of Falun Gong Association (UK), are visiting the island as part of a European campaign to highlight the plight of practitioners in China and to drum up support against their treatment by the Chinese government.

Yesterday, a Canadian and an American were arrested in Beijing after unfurling a yellow banner in Tiananmen Square accusing the Chinese authorities of staging self-immolations by followers of the group a year ago. Falun Gong says the immolations were set up to discredit the group.

Falun Gong is an ancient oriental exercise and meditation system based on insights into the human mind, body and spirit. Its practitioners insist it is peaceful and promotes the traditional values of Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance).

However, the group has for years been suppressed by the communist authorities in China. In 1999, when the number of practitioners reached 70- 100 million, Falun Gong was banned.

Practitioners say they were then subjected to intimidation, torture and imprisonment and it is estimated that some 343 have died from torture and ill treatment in police custody. They say around 20,000 Falun Gong practitioners are in labour camps without trial while 1,000 have been forced into mental asylums and given mind-altering drugs.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution last February calling on the Chinese government to respect the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners. They also have the full support of Amnesty International and are now seeking the same in Cyprus.

Commenting on the latest arrests, Li told the Cyprus Mail that, "it happens all the time".

"My wife's sister was taken to labour camp for two years," he said. "It doesn't surprise me any more."

Zoupounidis said a Greek practitioner was arrested in November and badly beaten after being detained.

He said many other groups were also being persecuted now in China following the ban on Falun Gong. "The practices they ban are the ones they see have a lot of people practising it," he said. "Anything that is independent of the government."

Li said other practices such as Tai Chi had not been banned because they were under the control of the government.

"Just like Christian churches," he said. You can go if you don't mind the party control. They call this religious freedom, but they're not free."

The visiting activists will be meeting with a host of people, ranging from government ministers to deputies and non-governmental organisations, in an attempt to garner the support they need in Europe.

"We are here to inform people about Falun Gong, but the main objective is to get support from Europe to reverse the persecution," Li said. "The only way is to put pressure on China. If more people in influential countries like Cyprus do this, someone will listen."

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http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cmnews/2002/02-02-12.cmnews.html#05