AAP (Australia): Reverse Falun Gong ban: Greens

March 16, 2005

The Federal government should reverse a decision to prevent members of a religious group protesting outside the Chinese Embassy, the Australian Greens said today.

Falun Gong, a [spiritual] group with a focus on meditation, is due to hold a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra today to protest the Federal Government's 2002 decision to stop it erecting protest banners outside the Chinese Embassy.

The organisation is outlawed in China and thousands of its members are reported to be locked up in Chinese jails.

Greens senator Bob Brown said the group was conducting a "very reasonable protest against the thousands of their members who are jailed in China".

"(An) estimated 400 (According to minghui.ca, up to present, 1520 practitioners are verified to have died from the persecution) have died in jail in China," Senator Brown told reporters in Canberra.

In the interests of religious freedom of expression, Falun Gong members should be allowed to protest outside the embassy, he said.

"It is their right to protest in this country and it is not right for (Foreign Minister) Alexander Downer to be restricting their protests at the behest of the Chinese communist regime in Beijing," he said.

"I'm not a practitioner, but I do believe in religious and political freedom of expression.

It's a very important matter at the moment and it's one that shouldn't be swept under the carpet because we're frightened of trade relations with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)."

Comment was being sought from Mr Downer.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12562129-29280,00.html