San Francisco, USA - US members of the
Falun Gong religious group announced the start of a relay-style hunger strike to protest alleged persecution of their peers at camps in China.
"I think people will continue as long as they can," said Sherry Zhang, one of approximately eight Falun Gong followers who began protest fasts in San Francisco. "We haven't set a time line yet."
Falun Gong practitioners staged a news conference outside the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to announce they would take turns going without food for a day.
Among those fasting was Charles Lee, 41, who said he came to San Francisco in January after being released from a Chinese jail.
Lee, who is from Jiangsu Province, said he was jailed for three years on false charges of sabotaging a television station and that he was abused and brainwashed while in custody.
"They are brutal and capable of anything," Lee said of Chinese officials who have banned Falun Gong as an evil cult. "We must act to stop them as soon as possible."
Consulate officials said they had no official comment on the hunger strike and warned that Falun Gong was "an old group playing old games" that included "making things up."