The Age: Deported Falun Gong member 'hit, kicked'

By Terry Smyth

March 10 2002

One of nine Australian Falun Gong members detained and deported from China after protesting in Tiananmen Square says he and other protesters were kicked and punched during their arrest and interrogation by Chinese police.

After arriving home in Sydney yesterday, David Rubacek, a 24-year-old retail worker from Hurstville, told of his ordeal at a demonstration by about 70 Falun Gong practitioners outside the Chinese consulate.

The group of Australians, which included Olympic silver medallist Jan Becker, had raised a yellow protest banner in the square when police swooped. [...]

"I kind of expected it," Mr Rubacek said. "Tiananmen Square was crowded with undercover police, uniformed police and security police. Sometimes there are more police than tourists out there, all determined not to let people speak out, not to let people tell the truth."

He said he had been punched, knocked to the ground and kicked during his arrest, despite having offered no resistance, and again while being interrogated.

"I wasn't scared while I was being beaten," he said. "I just didn't understand why. There must have been a lot of hate inside them to do that.

"They grabbed me by the suit and one of them started hitting me in the head. They pushed my head into the ground." He had no bruises or marks to show, he said.

"Then they put all of us in a room and waited until our flight arrived. They wanted to get us out of the country as quickly as possible and talk to as few people as possible."

[...]

Falun Gong claims the movement is being brutally suppressed in China, with at least 375 members killed since 1999, more than 100,000 detained without trial and 20,000 sent to labour camps.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/03/09/1015365751681.html