Fri May 25 17:12:52 2001
MONTREAL - Canadian practitioners of Falun Gong say they're worried about the disappearance of a Montreal woman. Zhu Ying hasn't been seen since an hour before she was due to leave Hong Kong by train for mainland China on May 10.
Her friends fear she may be the latest follower of the controversial spiritual movement to fall victim to China's crackdown on Falun Gong.
Li Zhili is the last person known to have seen 35-year-old Zhu Ying. Li says they went together to the train station in Hong Kong two weeks ago.
They were both heading for mainland China to visit family. Li left first. Zhu was to follow on another train an hour later.
At the Chinese border, Li was taken off the train, questioned, and turned away.
Both Li and Zhu Ying are practitioners of Falun Gong. Now safely home in Canada, Li says she worries about Zhu's disappearance.
On Thursday, the Hong Kong Human Rights Information Centre confirmed through sources Zhu was arrested by police in China's Guangdong province. But her whereabouts remain unknown.
Zhu Ying is the fifth known Canadian resident to be detained or turned away by China, apparently because of their links to a movement China considers [Chinese government's slanderous terms omitted].
A Canadian academic, Zhang Kun Lun, was released from a Chinese prison in January, after serving two months of a three year prison term for practising Falun Gong.
Yang Yumin, a spokesman for the Falun Gong movement in Montreal, says he is hoping pressure from Canadian authorities will once again be brought to bear on China.
"Because of the Canadian people's support, from the government, from the public, he (Zhang) did get released. That's the success of the public's effort," said Yang.
Li and other friends of Zhu say what's especially worrisome in this case is neither Li nor Zhu is a public figure in the Falun Gong movement.
Their names are not posted on Internet sites and they keep a low profile.
They say Zhu's apparent arrest and Li's detention at the border crossing suggest that Chinese authorities had information they were Falun Gong practitioners. They say that's evidence Chinese government agents are keeping a tab on ordinary practitioners even outside the country.
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Category: Persecution Outside China
