Falun Gong practitioner describes arrest, detainment by Chinese police

OTTAWA (CP) - While Prime Minister Jean Chretien and business leaders continued exploring ways of doing business in China on Friday, a Falun Gong practitioner in Ottawa described her escape from China after repeated arrests. Zhang ShuMei stood silently at a news conference as her daughter Zhang LingDi read her mother's statement in English describing surveillance by Chinese authorities and three arrests as she meditated in a park. The Chinese Embassy in Canada issued a statement later Friday denying her claims. Zhang's husband, Kunlun, returned to Canada last month after serving two months in a labour camp for practising the outlawed rituals of the sect. His wife was last detained in November after almost daily interrogations. "The police took me from my home without any reason," she said. "They locked me in an iron cage without any furniture at all. "I sat on the floor for one day and one night while my mother was staying home alone. During my detention, they forcefully took my home key and ransacked my home and took away all Falun Dafa books and materials." It was the third time her home was ransacked, she said. Finally, on Feb. 2, she slipped away from her home, ultimately escaping a dragnet after 12 days underground. She arrived in Canada, with help from Canadian consular officials, on Thursday. Her ailing 90-year-old mother remained behind. "I did not do anything wrong," Zhang said. "The terror I have experienced is happening to millions of innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China." The statement from the Chinese Embassy says: "Sumei Zhang enjoyed full freedom, including free communications with abroad while in China. What she said was full of flaws and self-contradictory, unable to stand close scrutiny." It accused her and the Falun Gong movement of aiming to sabotage the development of Sino-Canadian relations. ... [Chinese government's groundless charges against Falun Gong.] Falun Gong says 143 practitioners have died since a government crackdown began 18 months ago. A Hong Kong-based rights group says it has tallied at least 112 deaths. Amnesty International calls China's denial that practitioners have died of abuse in custody "unconvincing." In a report issued last Monday, the human rights watchdog said torture and ill-treatment of detainees is widespread and systemic in China. Zhang Kunlun has said he was tortured in prison with electric shocks. Besides embarrassment for China, which is bidding for the 2008 Olympics, the human rights situation has proven nettlesome for visiting dignitaries. Questions about human rights threaten to overshadow the economic message of the prime minister's Team Canada trade mission. Two Canadian protesters were detained briefly by Chinese authorities Wednesday after Chretien spoke on the rule of law and individual rights to China's National Judges College. The two are back home in Canada. Liberal MP Irwin Cotler said Canadians shouldn't think the problem has been solved with the Zhangs' release, which he attributed largely to Chretien's visit. "We should not forget that there are thousands upon thousands of Falun Gong practitioners languishing in prisons or mental institutions or forced-labour camps for doing nothing other than giving expression to their fundamental rights," Cotler said. [...]