9 May 2001 / 04:03 AM
MORE than 300 local and overseas Falun Gong members are prepared to launch widespread protests today against President Jiang Zemin.
They plan to mount demonstrations in the Urban Council Centenary Garden in Tsim Sha Tsui, Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Outlying Islands Ferry Pier, Victoria Park and Hong Kong Park.
The plans were disclosed yesterday as the qigong [group] staged a protest at SAR Government Headquarters after at least 48 followers, 36 of them Taiwanese, were denied entry yesterday.
This brought the total number of [group] members denied entry to Hong Kong since April 28 to more than 100, Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa spokeswoman Hui Yee-han said last night.
One of the detained followers, a woman, accused the Immigration Department of using excessive force to deport her.
The protesters marched from Chater Garden to the government headquarters holding a banner calling on Mr Jiang to stop persecuting Falun Gong members.
Mrs Hui said she still expected about 100 overseas members to join the 200-member local team for protests and rallies.
She said 63 members from various countries had already been stopped at the airport and deported, and at least 40 more, all from Taiwan, were being held at the airport pending deportation.
Other [group] members known to have been deported or detained included seven people from Australia, two British Chinese, one follower from Singapore, one from Macau and four US-based Chinese from Washington - two holding US passports and two with Chinese passports. A woman follower, Xia Ze, was deported to Britain yesterday morning after being refused entry on Sunday night.
One of the four from Washington, Shi Wei, an academic, accused immigration officers of using excessive force.
In a taped telephone conversation with the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Ms Shi said she was pushed to the floor by members of a 30-strong group of officers who tied up her feet and hands and wrapped her in blankets before carrying her to an aircraft.
"I was not released until I was breathless," said Ms Shi. "I was tied up, not allowed to say a thing, and a strong man pressed hard on top of me. They said that I did not fulfil their security requirements. I'm going to tell the whole world about this."
Ho Wei, also from Washington, said an official had told him her name was ``in the system" and she was not allowed to enter. She said this strengthened her suspicion that the SAR government had a blacklist of [group] members.
The four had arrived on a flight at 11pm on Sunday. All were detained at the airport until their deportation yesterday morning. Three of them said they had entered Hong Kong in January.
A spokesman for the Immigration Department said they were not able to comment on specific cases. [...]
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Category: Persecution Outside China
