Stephen Thorne

Thursday, January 03, 2002

OTTAWA (CP) - A Chinese student attending school in Ottawa claims he was dragged, kicked and beaten inside the Chinese embassy after taking a picture of an anti-Falun Gong exhibit during an open house.

Xueliang (Leon) Wang, 25, a business administration student at the University of Ottawa, says embassy officials implied he had no recourse because he was on Chinese territory.

"They were vicious and frightening," Wang said Thursday. "I never expected anything like this in Canada."

Local police were investigating the Dec. 28 incident. Foreign Affairs officials said they were waiting for a police report before deciding whether any action can or should be taken.

[...]

During an interview, Wang produced an e-mail invitation to "a movie party" at 4 p.m. on Dec. 28 and a cockeyed photograph he took there. It shows a display board declaring Falun Gong "[Jiang Zemin regime's slanderous term omitted]."

Wang says he was approached by two embassy staff after taking the photo of part of an exhibition of 90 posters he said were "defaming" Falun Gong.

The staff were shouting "he's taking pictures," said Wang.

He said he was dragged out of the hall to the main entrance, where he said he was surrounded by three or four embassy staff demanding he turn over his film. He refused.

"Do you know where you are?" he quoted them as saying. "This is Chinese territory."

Wang claimed witnesses saw him dragged downstairs and into a room. Behind a closed door, he said officials beat him while another stood guard.

"One of them held my arm and another hit my head very heavily," he said. "I felt very, very dizzy. My head was spinning. But I was still conscious."

He said he was thrown and knocked down several times, his arms were twisted and his legs kicked.

He said he was repeatedly threatened and reminded he was on Chinese territory.

"Either you give us the film or we will call the RCMP," he said he was told. "I said I wanted to see the RCMP."

Wang said he was released after an official confirmed he had been invited to the party.

Wang said he was detained and beaten twice as a Falun Gong practitioner in China in 1999 - once for eight days and once for more than 20 days.

Falun Gong drew members in the late 1990s with a combination of slow-motion exercises and beliefs.

[...]

Falun Gong practitioners say more than 300 have died from torture and abuse since China launched a [persecution of] the movement in July 1999.

http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=C5B8FD48-ED2A-4D0D-9632-67BF914B01F3

Posting date: 1/5/2002
Original article date: 1/3/2002
Category: News & Media Reports

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