The New York Times

Tuesday, November 16, 1999

Annan Discusses Banned Sect With Chinese Minister

By ERIK ECKHOLM

BEIJING -- Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, said Tuesday that China's foreign minister gave him "a better understanding" of the Government's crackdown on the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement in a meeting here on Tuesday.

Annan said he had been assured that the "fundamental rights" are being observed of Falun Gong practitioners, thousands of whom have been jailed or harassed in recent months.

The Chinese government, with the acquiescence of the United Nations, has restricted Annan's availability to the press during his visit but he answered questions during a brief session with a handful of foreign photographers, television cameramen and one Asian newspaper reporter, who later distributed a transcript of Annan's remarks.

Shortly before Annan's meeting with the foreign minister, Tang Jiaxuan, some 15 Falun Gong adherents were detained in Tiananmen Square as they unfurled a banner and began their ritual exercises, which are said to bring good health and spiritual salvation. Groups of believers from at least five regions of China have reportedly sent Annan letters asking for an official inquiry into China's branding of the group as an illegal, "evil cult."

Last Friday, before his arrival here on Sunday for a four-day visit to discuss United Nations peacekeeping and other topics, Annan said he planned to make inquiries about the severe crackdown on the movement, which had attracted millions of followers in China before it was banned in July.

In his brief public remarks Tuesday, Annan was clearly loath to offend China -- a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

"I think I leave here with a better understanding of some of the issues involved," he said, adding that Tang told him "that in dealing with this issue, the fundamental rights of citizens will be respected and some of the actions they are taking are for the protection of individuals."

Seeking to clarify Annan's remarks, a spokesman for the Secretary General, Manoel de Almeida e Silva, said tonight by telephone that in the meeting with the foreign minister, Mr. Annan had also "impressed upon them the importance of respecting the fundamental rights of those involved."

In that meeting, Annan also offered United Nations help in strengthening the government's capacity to deal with the Falun Gong problem "in accordance with international norms," Silva said.

Tang gave no response, he said.

Falun Gong members, whose leader, Li Hongzhi, is in exile in New York, shocked the Government last April when some 10,000 of them gathered for an illegal demonstration in Beijing, demanding official recognition.

Since banning the group in July and calling it a dangerous cult, the government has charged dozens of the group's top leaders with serious crimes.

Thousands who have refused to renounce their beliefs have suffered temporary detentions, been threated with firings, and in some cases, been sentenced to labor camps.

The United States government calls the ongoing crackdown "a violation of international human rights standards as set forth in instruments including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that China has signed."

"We have no evidence that practitioners have done anything other than peacefully exercise their internationally recognized rights," a spokesman for the American Embassy said Tuesday.