AFP: EU Urges China to Respect the Rights of Falun Gong Members

STOCKHOLM, Feb 23, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The European Union urged China to respect the rights of followers of Falun Gong and other religious and political movements during two days of talks on human rights that ended here Friday.

Swedish officials have been tight-lipped on the discussions, but Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Aasa Arvidson told AFP details would be made available at a press conference later in the day with the head of the EU delegation, ambassador Thomas Hammarberg of Sweden.

Sweden hosted the meeting in its role as the current holder of the EU's six-month rotating presidency.

On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bertil Jobeus told AFP the Falun Gong issue was expected to come up in the meetings which were to focus on human rights, freedom of expression and religion, the death penalty and torture.

He said the basis for the discussions was a list of top priorities drawn up by EU foreign ministers in Brussels in January.

Those priorities included the need to press China to show "respect for the fundamental rights of all prisoners, including those arrested for membership of the political opposition, unofficial religious movements and other movements, such as the Falun Gong."

The Chinese government views the Falun Gong, which claims 70 million adherents in China alone, as the biggest threat to Communist Party rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.

It banned the movement as an "[Chinese government's slanderous word]" in July 1999, three months after it gathered 10,000 followers for a silent protest at the Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.

EU-China meetings are held every six months within the framework of the EU-China dialogue on human rights.

((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)