AFP: Top UN Human Rights Official to Visit China on Saturday

GENEVA, Feb 24, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson travels to China on Saturday for three days of talks that will touch on the fate of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Robinson told reporters here Friday she would raise human rights issues during meetings with the foreign minister, minister of justice and other ministers.

"I will be raising, as I have done before, issues of violations of human rights, issues of Falun Gong and other concerns," she told a news briefing.

But the former Irish president said the main purpose of her visit was to attend a workshop on the punishment of minor crimes, the first working event of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by her and China last November.

Under the MOU, the UN promised assistance to help China comply with two UN pacts.

The workshop would bring together international and Chinese experts, she said.

Robinson said her approach to the trip, due to end on Monday, would be "two-fold" based on a "constructive approach" to the process of the MOU and speaking out on human rights violations.

The spiritual movement of Falun Gong [...] was banned by Beijing in July 1999, alleging that the movement [Chinese government's slanderous words].

More than 100 followers have died in police custody during a crackdown on the movement after beatings and forced written recantations by police, the Hong Kong Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy has said.

China has managed for a number of years to block the introduction of hostile resolutions on its human rights record at the annual sessions of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The next session begins March 19. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)