(Councilor Jamie Parker is the Deputy Mayor of Leichhardt in Sydney, Australia)

On the 26th of December I was in Tiananmen Square with my mother, father and girlfriend. We were on holiday in China. At about 11am we arrived in the Square on our way to the Forbidden City. The square was very busy and it was unusual as there were seven police vans parked at the edges of the square. The area of the square was bounded by the road outside the Forbidden City and the Mausoleum. As we walked across the square towards the entrance to the Forbidden City we heard shouts and saw a van drive across the square. The police in uniform and plain clothes pushed and hauled two people in to a van. The van already has four people sitting the back. When we walked closer 2 elderly woman shouted and held up a flag.

We were very close to these women. We were only about 5 meters away from them when they held up the yellow flags and shouted. Two plain clothed and two men dressed in army uniforms pulled the flags from their hands and pushed them to the ground. One man in plain clothes began violently kicking one woman. He had boots on and was clearly hurting the woman. The women were very small and elderly and at no time offered any resistance. My mother shouted to the solider to stop kicking and don't hurt her. The man stopped and they then dragged the woman into the van that had been driven to the place where we were standing. The woman was dressed in a pink jacket. She looked at us from the back for the van and smiled to us so the solider could not see. I believe she was happy we intervened to stop the violent assault.

We were obviously very concerned about her welfare after she and the others were taken away.

A man in plain clothes approached us and said "Thief, Thief". He was trying to convince us she was a thief but another man then started shouting within about 10 meters of us and held up the same flag. He was also arrested and bundled in a violent and aggressive way into the van. For the next 20 minutes we stood on the square and we saw eight more people get arrested. The vans around the square were full of people. We were unable to accurately count all of the people in the vans as some vans left when they were full but there would have at least been 20 people in the vans. It was clear who were the people who had been arrested, as they were mainly women and some old men.

The women were mostly elderly but some of the people arrested were around 30. One woman threw leaflets in the air but the police picked them up before anyone else could get to them.

Two separate people came to us and whispered "Falun Gong, Falun Gong". It was clear they were not thieves!

When people were arrested a group of Chinese people would gather around but would then be sent away after the van had driven across the square and taken the person away.

We went into the Forbidden City and came out at about 2.30. We walked past the square and saw five more people being arrested. Two women were dressed in what looked like the dress of an ethic minority group. We also saw two women having their bag checked and they had a flag in it. Police also took them away. The people who took away the protestors were aggressive and violent.

We took the following photos from the other side of the road. They show the type of van that they used and the picture was taken with the police putting protesters into the van. We can only assume the people were being arrested all day and that scores and scores of people must have been arrested. The police were moving people on so it was hard to stay to see what was happening.

We were very disturbed by what we saw and the abusive treatment that people were being subjected to. It worried us that if this was what was happening in public what kind of abuse would take place in the prison or police station.

When we went to the Chinese consulate in Sydney to get our visa we were given a leaflet from a Falun Gong person that described the terrible campaign being waged against the Falun Gong. We were first hand witnesses to the treatment that people who engage in peaceful protest can suffer. My mother, father, girlfriend and I all witnessed the terrible events of that day.