Spiritual protest at Chinese Embassy

PRACTITIONERS of the Falun Gong spiritual movement protested outside the Chinese Embassy yesterday over the alleged torture of fellow practitioners.

They claim 46 people have died in labour camps in China since last November, although officials deny torture has taken place.

Trinity College student Ming Zhao, who spent 22 months in a similar camp near Beijing, led the protest.

“We want to increase public awareness about what is being done to Falun Gong practitioners for no reason at all,” he said.

Mr Zhao, a 31-year-old computer science masters student, was released last March after pressure from the Irish Government and human rights organisations.

During his imprisonment he was tortured himself, and one of his friends has since died in a labour camp, he says.

Falun Gong followers engage in a series of exercises, similar to tai chi and yoga, to improve health.

Chinese authorities began clamping down on practitioners in the country in 1999 and hundreds of people have been sent to labour camps since then.

“We have done nothing wrong, they don’t have any right to carry out these things against us. I hope the Irish Government will continue to speak out about the situation in China,” said Mr Zhao.

The Chinese Embassy denied any torture has taken place but said anybody arrested had broken the law.

“Falun Gong is outlawed in China because they have a political motive against the Chinese government and have caused a lot of disruption in China,” an embassy spokesperson said.

Mr Zhao is a native of north-east China and had studied and worked in Beijing before coming to study in Ireland.