SPECIAL EDITION: CHINESE NEW YEAR BEATINGS, ARRESTS AND TORTURE

CHINA CRISIS NEWS BULLETIN: TIANANMEN NEWS ALERT 2/8/2000

Monitoring News of the Persecution of Falun Gong

Contact Gail Rachlin at Rachlin Management and Media Group: 212 501-8080

  • THOUSANDS ARRESTED, MANY BEATEN IN TIANANMEN PROTESTS

  • AMERICAN PRACTITIONER JAILED; PRATITIONERS SEEK RELEASE

  • TV ANCHOR WOMAN HELD---SENTENCED FOR NEWS REPORT NEW YEAR'S EVE IN TIANANMEN SQUARE: THOUSANDS ARRESTED

THOUSANDS ARRESTED, MANY BEATEN IN TIANANMEN PROTESTS

It was New Year's Eve in China: a traditional time for joyful celebrations-and this year for a major display of injustice:

BEIJING, Feb 5 (AFP) - Chinese police have detained hundreds, and possibly thousands of practitioners of the outlawed Falungong movement, including a US citizen, in a crackdown on a Lunar Year protest. "A friend of mine was arrested last night and about 1:55 a.m. she called me on her cellular phone and told me she was detained with between 2,000 and 3,000 (others)," Hannah Li, a Falungong member told AFP.* Li said her friend, a US passport-holding Chinese American, was taken early Saturday to northern Beijing's Xiao Tangshan detention center and hoped to remain in police custody as long as possible to document the treatment of the followers. She refused to identify the woman and believed police had yet to discover her cellular phone. "We have come here to help the mainland followers," said Li, a US green card holder. "We want to tell the government that Falungong is not an evil sect and that followers should be allowed to do their morning exercises freely."

An official at the detention center confirmed that Falungong followers were being held there, but refused to reveal how many. "If they are Falungong followers, then you don't need to ask about them," she said. Frank Lu, head of the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said he had been informed that at least 300 Falungong followers had been rounded up Friday and early Saturday, including some Westerners. Li said dozens of Falungong practitioners from the US, Australia and Hong Kong had come to Beijing during the Lunar New Year festival to protest the ban on the traditional Chinese group. At least one US passport holder, Zuo Yan, had been detained at the Beijing Airport by customs police and was believed to have been expelled, Li said. The protest appeared to be the biggest by the Falungong since mid-October when thousands were rounded up for protesting government legislation that aimed to stifle the group. Saturday morning police vans criss-crossed Tiananmen Square, stopping to detain anyone in a meditation stance or sitting in the lotus position. At least 25 members of the group were seen taken away over a period of an hour amid a heavy presence of uniformed and plain clothes police. One woman was kicked by police before she was put in a van. Tourists and locals who attempted to photograph the police action had their film confiscated. Chinese authorities admit that more than 35,000 members of the banned group were detained while attempting to make similar protests between July and mid-November, after Falungong was outlawed.

* Note: Many press accounts downplayed the numbers of those arrested, with some wire services only reporting 50 detentions

US CITIZEN BEING HELD---FAMILY AND FRIENDS SEEK RELEASE

BEIJING, Feb 8 (AFP) - A US citizen is missing after being arrested by Chinese police during a weekend protest by the banned Falungong movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the group said Tuesday. Tracy Zhao, an air stewardess, was detained as practitioners staged a Lunar New Year protest early Saturday, US-based group spokeswoman Gail Rachlin told AFP. She said Zhao contacted friends by cell-phone as she was being driven with three busloads of Falungong practitioners to a detention Center in the city of Xiaotangshan about an hour north of Beijing after her arrest. Rachlin said family had received no news of her since, although the Falungong had contacted the US State Department. Zhou, born in Beijing, is a U.S. Citizen working for Northwest Airlines.

Practitioner Detained and Forced to Take Injections in Mental Hospital for More Than Two Months (A PERSONAL ACCOUNT)
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[The doctors and nurses even made fun of me, "Aren't you practicing Falun Gong? Let us see which is stronger, Falun Gong, or our medicines?" ... As long as they knew that I was practicing Falun Gong, they would increase the dosage of medicines on me.]

February 7, 2000 - My name is Jin-chun Huang. I was born in June 1966. I am a Falun Gong practitioner from Bei-hai City of Guang-xi Province. I was a former judicial officer in the Intermediate People's Court of Bei-hai City.

On September 19, 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Later I was escorted back by the local police officers as well as members of my workplace. I was then detained for 15 days under the accusation of "damaging social order". After I was freed, I was removed from my post on November 8 because I refused to give up my belief in Falun Dafa. On November 15, two police officers came to my home and asked me to go with them. Assuming that it might just be another routine interrogation, I followed them. However, they drove me directly to the Long-xiang-shan Mental Hospital in the Zhuang Nationality Autonomous Region of Guang-xi Province. I asked them why they sent me here. They said, "It is the order of the officials of Department of Public Security. They want you to take a rest here for a few days." Since then, I have been detained in this mental hospital.

This is a medical institute of forced treatment. If the patient does not comply, the staff members will resort to violence by beating or roping the patient. When the medicines were taking effect, I felt very weak all over my body. I felt sleepy and anxious for days. Under such circumstances, I have an unspeakable feeling of pain. [but] I will never give up my belief in Falun Dafa.
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FULL TEXT OF TESTIMONIALS BY PRACTITIONERS DETAINED IN MENTAL HOSPITALS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT HTTP://WWW.FALUNWISDOM.NET

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS: TV ANCHORWOMAN, FIRED FOR NEWS REPORT, ARRESTED

BEIJING, Feb 6 (AFP) - Falungong member, Gu Linna, who took an active role in organizing a clandestine press conference, was arrested along with 15 other people as they were preparing a group meeting in southern Guangzhou, The press conference was an open challenge to the authorities and provoked anger from police who interrogated several journalists who covered the event, temporarily confiscating their work permits. Gu, 37, was being held in northern Shijiazhuang, where she worked as a television presenter until April, Chen said. She was fired after managing to broadcast a report favorable to Falun Gong
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Please call us for background on the spiritual practice and the crisis in China. Contact Gail Rachlin at Rachlin Management & Media Group: 212 501-8080. Also visit http://www.falundafa.org.

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Category: Accounts of Persecution