February 17, 2002

A Fullerton College student who said he was beaten and choked during a Falun Gong demonstration in Beijing's Tiananmen Square pleaded Saturday for an end to human-rights abuses in China.

"I hope all kindhearted people around the world support human rights in China," said Mark Gardner, 22, of Brea. Gardner, who returned home Friday night, said he received a black eye and marks on his neck after being beaten by three Chinese police officers in the back of a van during a demonstration Thursday.

Gardner was one of 52 Falun Gong members from 12 countries detained in the protest, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Saturday. [...]

The protest came a week before a visit by President George W. Bush to Beijing. Possibly to avert a diplomatic backlash, Chinese authorities took the unusual step of issuing a statement saying they had treated the detainees humanely.

But some of the detained Americans, including Gardner, said they were beaten by Chinese authorities. Many of the 25 Americans who arrived in the United States from China on Friday displayed black eyes, bruises and cuts they said came as a result of the beatings.

Gardner said he was pulling from his pocket a folded banner, which said "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" in Chinese characters, when an officer in Tiananmen Square yanked it from him and threw him to the ground. He said they then tossed him in a van where he was beaten by three police officers.

Gardner said he was beaten a second time in the police car before being taken to the airport. Chinese police officers beat and choked him while his head was held between his legs, he said.

"I have a black eye, and my neck is still sore from being choked," Gardner said. "Some got it a lot worse."

Gina Sanchez, an acupuncturist from Pasadena, also was detained Thursday. China police officers individually placed the demonstrators, many of them without shoes, wallets or luggage, in their airplane seats, she said.

"I bought paintings of lotus flowers," the 28-year-old said. "But the guards took them from me. They said they were too suspicious."

Gardner said he participated in the demonstration to show that Falun Gong is embraced by people around the world. He has been practicing Falun Gong for more than a year.

"I was looking for deeper meaning in life and something to improve myself mentally and physically," he said. "I was just reaching for a higher realm of understanding of life in the universe."

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http://www.ocregister.com/sitearchives/2002/2/17/local/falungong00217cci.sht ml