Associated Press Worldstream
February 18, 2004 Wednesday
By MIN LEE; Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG - A Canadian Falun Gong follower who once was kicked out of mainland
China for protesting in Beijing now has been barred from flying into Hong Kong,
the group said Thursday.
The meditation group charged that Hong Kong was undermining its own freedoms and
rule of law by refusing to admit 26-year-old Zenon Dolnyckyj, who wanted to
visit Hong Kong to promote a book he has written about practicing Falun Gong.
Falun Gong was outlawed [...] by China in 1999 but remains legal in Hong Kong,
where Western-style freedoms were maintained when the former British colony was
handed to Beijing rule in 1997.
Still, practitioners have reported that a number of foreign followers have been
refused entry in Hong Kong.
Dolnyckyj was expelled from China in November 2001 after he and other foreign
Falun Gong practitioners unfurled a banner in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and
were caught by police. Falun Gong accuses China of torturing hundreds of its
followers to death [...]
Falun Gong said that Dolnyckyj tried to board a Hong Kong-bound China
Airlines flight in Taipei on Wednesday evening, but he was turned away by an
airline employee who said Hong Kong immigration had warned against letting him
fly.
Falun Gong said the airline worker told Dolnyckyj he could not take the flight
because he did not have an entry visa for Hong Kong, but the group called the
explanation suspicious. Canadian citizens normally are allowed to travel to Hong
Kong for up to 90 days without visas.
Hong Kong Immigration Department spokesman K.K. Au declined comment, saying the
department won't discuss individual cases.
The Canadian Consulate General in Hong Kong and China Airlines in Taipei did not
immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press.
Dolnyckyj, who runs an office-cleaning business in Toronto, had hoped to promote
his book "Coming for You," Falun Gong said.
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Category: Persecution Outside China
