Falun Gong members refuse to post bail in Singapore

January 1, 2001

Web posted at: 9:11 PM HKT (1311 GMT)

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement refused to post bail Monday after being detained in Singapore for staging an unauthorized vigil in memory of fellow believers they say died in police custody in China.

Police detained the 15 members just before midnight Sunday after a three-hour standoff involving about 80 Falun Gong members in a Singapore park. The [group] has been banned in China and has been targeted by a crackdown over the past 18 months.

"They did nothing wrong," said member Ng We Keong of his detained colleagues, who rejected the opportunity to be released in exchange for $1,150 .

The Falun Gong members, mostly women and children, had gathered around two makeshift cardboard memorials pasted with pictures and names of the alleged victims in China. Demonstrations and protests are rare in tightly controlled Singapore, where permits are required for any public gatherings.

At least two dozen police cordoned off the area and demanded that the Falun Gong followers hand over the memorials. They refused, at one point locking arms to prevent police from detaining members, a police statement said.

The meditation [group] has attracted millions of members in China and throughout the world. Beijing, fearing Falun Gong's popularity and its threat to Communist Party rule, has banned the group and sent thousands of members to prison and labor camps.

Human rights groups say at least 70 have died in detention since the government banned the sect in July 1999.

A Singapore police spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the detainees will be charged with obstructing a public servant and continuing in an assembly after being ordered to disband.

On Monday, about 20 Falun Gong members gathered outside the police station where the 15 are detained to show support for their peers, Ng said.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/ASIANOW/southeast/01/01/singapore.falun.ap/