WIRE:12/10/2000 03:45:00 ET

HONG KONG (Reuters) - More than 100 practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement marked International Human Rights Day on Sunday with a rally in Hong Kong to demand that Beijing stops persecuting the movement"s adherents. The movement, banned in mainland China but legal in the highly autonomous Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong, also splashed advertisements in major newspapers in the territory to make similar appeals.

Hong Kong television and radio reported that Chinese police on Sunday detained about two dozen Falun Gong followers who protested in Beijing"s Tiananmen Square, China"s political heart. Chinese officials were not available to comment on the reports. Sharon Xu, a Falun Gong spokeswoman in Hong Kong, told Reuters: "We are appealing to the public and also the governments all over the world for their immediate attention to the human rights situation of mainland Chinese Falun Gong practitioners..." Xu said the group was urging China "to free all the detained practitioners, to give them back the freedom of their person and the freedom of their belief, and stop the persecution." The mainland government has accused Falun Gong of trying to overthrow the government and detained thousands of adherents.

Practitioners of the movement, which denies any political motive, have said some 50,000 followers have been detained and many are sent for "reform through labour," a punishment which does not require a trial. Falun Gong followers also say Chinese authorities abuse and torture practitioners. Xu said 95 practitioners were known to have been tortured to death on the mainland since July last year when the Communists began a crackdown on the movement. Chinese authorities have said 150 prominent members have been jailed, mostly for "using a cult for obstructing justice" but has been silent on the numbers sent for "reform through labour." Beijing has acknowledged several deaths in custody, but say most resulted from suicide or illnesses. The spiritual movement, also known as Falun Dafa, combines meditation and exercise with a doctrine loosely rooted in Buddhist and Taoist teachings. It first rattled Beijing in April last year with a 10,000-strong protest around the country"s leadership compound. The movement was banned later that year, and its practitioners have since staged daily protests in Tiananmen Square.

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