Reuters: China holds two Western Falun Gong protesters

February 12, 2002

BEIJING (Reuters) - China held a Canadian and an American follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement on Tuesday, one day after they launched a Lunar New Year protest in the capital Beijing, diplomats and officials said.

Canada said it was trying to gain access to its citizen. The U.S. embassy said it was in contact with the Chinese authorities over the matter.

Police detained Canadian Jason Loftus and American Levi Browde in Tiananmen Square on Monday after they unfurled a yellow banner saying self-immolations a year ago by alleged followers of the group had been staged by the Chinese authorities.

A Canadian official said his government was seeking access to Loftus but the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which started on Tuesday, had made that difficult.

"We're trying to gain access to him but it is going to be challenging because of the Chinese New Year holiday," Carl Schwenger, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, said by telephone from Ottawa.

Chinese government offices are shut for the week-long holiday.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the detentions but declined further comment.

A U.S. embassy spokesman said on Tuesday that U.S. officials were aware of reports of the detention of an American citizen and were in contact with Chinese authorities regarding the matter.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year last year, five alleged Falun Gong members, including a 12-year-old girl and her mother, set themselves ablaze in the square. The girl and her mother died of their injuries.

Graphic footage of the self-immolations and the perpetrators' horrific burns have been at the core of a government media campaign against Falun Gong, which it outlawed in 1999 and has branded a [Chinese government's slanderous term omitted].

Falun Gong has denied any involvement in the incident. Witnesses said Loftus, 22, struggled and shouted "Falun Gong is good!" as he was wrestled into a police vehicle. Browde, 29, was led peacefully on board shortly afterwards, witnesses added.

China expelled 35 foreign Falun Gong members for protests on Tiananmen square in November and another Canadian woman for a Falun Gong protest there last month.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-89063.html