Thursday, November 22, 2001

BEIJING (AP) -- Sweden has protested China's handling of several Swedes who were among a group of 35 Westerners expelled for demonstrating against the government's [persecuting] of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

The protest handed to China's Foreign Ministry complained that the detained Swedes were not permitted to meet quickly enough with Swedish diplomats according to international regulations, Rigmor Petterson, a consular official for the Swedish Embassy in Beijing, said Thursday.

She said the embassy also objected to what it called the harsh physical treatment of those detained, though police used far less violence in removing the foreign protesters than they typically use to arrest Chinese Falun Gong followers.

Petterson said eight Swedes were named on a list of those detained provided by China's Foreign Ministry.

Petterson said she spoke briefly with members of the group before they departed on a flight for Copenhagen on Wednesday. A woman protester had black bruises on her arms, Petterson said, and all demonstrators said they had been banned from re-entering China for five years.

Canadian and Australian protesters also complained they were kicked and punched by police during their arrests and subsequent interrogations. One Australian protester complained of being held in poorly ventilated underground cells and being unable to use the bathroom in private.

[...]

"Most of the diplomats said that they are satisfied with the handling of the case by the Chinese side," [a Chinese official] told reporters. "China is free from any accusations. We have strictly abided by the relevant regulations."

On Tuesday afternoon, the protesters sat cross-legged on Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, chanted and unveiled a pro-Falun Gong banner before police took them away.

The official China Daily and other newspapers said all protesters left China by 7 p.m. Wednesday. It did not specify where they were sent.

[...] It was the first Falun Gong demonstration on Tiananmen Square to involve only Westerners. The square is China's symbolic heart and has been a frequent venue for protests by Chinese Falun Gong members since the group was banned in July 1999 as an "evil [Jiang Zemin regime's slanderous term omitted]." [...]

Falun Gong said demonstrators included Australians, Canadians, French, Germans, Irish, Israelis, Swedes, Swiss, Britons and Americans. The U.S. Embassy said six Americans were deported.

Demonstrators said they wanted to publicize the plight of Chinese Falun Gong followers.

Falun Gong says 300 followers have died from torture and mistreatment in custody. Thousands have been imprisoned. The group attracted millions of Chinese followers in the 1990s. Practitioners believe Falun Gong aids health and even gives accomplished followers supernatural powers.

[...] http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/china_nov22-ap.html