Friday, 15-Feb-2002 2:30AM

BEIJING, Feb 15 (AFP) - China on Friday began expelling foreign followers of the banned Falun Gong group arrested during a protest on Tiananmen Square the previous day, as embassies sought news of others detained.

Some of the more than 40 demonstrators seized had been treated roughly and witnessed others being beaten by police, the Falun Gong organisation quoted expelled protestors as saying.

The chaotic scenes on the central Beijing square as police swooped on protestors put the spotlight on human rights and religious freedom just a week before US President George W. Bush visits China.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Thursday the president would be "concerned with any arrests for religious purposes in China".

The spiritual group's New York-based headquarters said a group of about 24 foreign practitioners were placed on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit Friday, but could not give all their names.

In a statement the group said it received a phone call from a practitioner just before the plane took off at 12:10 pm (0410 GMT).

"I'm on Northwest flight 88 to Detroit. The scene on the square was pretty brutal. Very few practitioners made it to the center of the square before being taken down," it quoted Scott Chinn from New York City as saying.

"I have a bruise... My wife's pants are torn. A few of us have black eyes and that sort of thing," Chinn said.

Another practitioner, Gina Sanchez from Los Angeles, also called before boarding the plane for Detroit, Falun Gong said.

"I witnessed a lot of beating.... Many practitioners were bleeding and they were denied food and water," the statement quoted Sanchez as saying.

[...]

Western diplomats said eight foreign Falun Gong followers, four Britons, two Finns and two French, had been expelled from China on Thursday, just before the protest. Some had been accused of trying to demonstrate.

One Western diplomat said 14 people had been rounded up by Chinese police in a sweep of different hotels ahead of Thursday's protest.

China has not released information about any expulsions, but said those detained would be deported soon.

Falun Gong issued a list of 45 foreign practitioners believed to have been detained, comprising 34 people from the United States, four from Britain, two from Sweden, two from Poland, one from New Zealand, one from Canada and one from Brazil.

However foreign embassies said Friday they had received no news of their nationals.

Spokesmen at the US and British embassies said they did not know how many of their nationals had been detained by the police, who swooped on the protestors as they tried to unfurl banners and adopt the Falun Gong's traditional meditation pose.

The Canadian embassy was meanwhile trying to gain access to five Canadians detained on Thursday, while a spokesman for the German embassy said seven Germans had been held but they had been given no news of them.

After their arrest some of the demonstrators were physically mistreated or verbally abused, an AFP reporter who was also detained witnessed.

The protest is an embarrassment for Chinese leaders, who are expected to face tough questions about religious freedom during their discussions with Bush next week.

The mayhem was witnessed by a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists in Beijing for the week-long holiday surrounding Tuesday's Lunar New Year.

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/bi/Qchina-sect.RZUD_CFF.html