(Clearwisdom.net)

EUROPEAN FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE PRESS RELEASE 14/02/02

"As Western practitioners we go to Tiananmen Square in the hopes that our peaceful appeal will bring an end to the torture and murder of innocent people and help to awaken a society that is being torn apart by lies and deceit" one westerner explained before embarking on his trip to Beijing. "Falun Gong is not a China issue. Falun Gong is an international issue. We won't stop until the killing stops."

Thirty to forty Western Falun Gong practitioners were arrested today in Beijing's Tiananmen Square where they were appealing to the Chinese totalitarian regime to release all Falun Gong practitioners who are being detained for practising the peaceful exercise and meditation system. The practitioners unfurled banners and told people around them loudly that: "Falun Dafa is good". The police arrived within a minute and brutally dragged the practitioners into police vans. The practitioners made their peaceful appeals in small groups with an interval of a couple of minutes between each group. The whole action took the police 15 minutes to stop. Many tourists were around. "Falun Dafa Hao" was heard here and there at the square.

A seventeen year old practitioner from Germany, Steffi, was the last one arrested. A policeman screamed to her to shut up. She calmly kept saying loudly that "Falun Dafa is good" until she was brutally stopped.

The practitioners have been driven to unknown sites.

Two finnish practitioners, Hannu Järvinen and Mikko Mattila, were among those 14 Westerners that were arrested yesterday in a hotel. They have now been expelled and are on their way to Finland.

President Jiang Zemin was worried about the large numbers of people practising the Falun Gong system and perceived it as a threat to his control of China. Consequently, in 1999, the Chinese authorities banned the system and have used all of their energy to try to eradicate it by manipulating, brainwashing and torturing practitioners. With the directive "No means are too excessive to control Falun Gong practitioners" and with the offer of large financial incentives to officials to force people to stop practising, the totalitarian regime has been practising State terrorism on its own people.

It is to appeal to the Chinese Government to stop the killing of these innocent people that the Western practitioners have gone to Tiananmen Square. The Chinese Embassies in the West have not been willing to meet the practitioners from their countries and so they went to China to appeal directly to the Government there.

We urge the Western Governments to put pressure on the Chinese regime to release the practitioners to immediately release these practitioners.

Posting date: 2/14/2002
Original article date: 2/14/2002
Category: News & Media Reports

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version

_____Related Articles_____ CP: Falun Gong Protester Home in Barrie, Man arrested following peaceful demonstration [2/14/2002] Falun Gong Practitioners Stage Large International Appeal on Tiananmen Square to End Persecution in China [2/14/2002] Reuters: China Detains Some 40 Western Falun Gong Protesters  [2/14/2002] Japan Today: China detains 20 Western Falun Gong protesters  [2/14/2002] BBC: China arrests foreign Falun Gong activists  [2/14/2002] Irish Times: Police detain Falun Gong protesters in China  [2/14/2002] CNN: China detains 40 Western Falun Gong activists  [2/14/2002] Falun Dafa Information Center Responds to Violent Arrests of 40 Western Practitioners in China [2/14/2002] AP: 40 Falun Gong Members Detained & Reuters: China Detains Some 40 Western Falun Gong Protesters  [2/14/2002] CTVnews: China detains Canadian Falun Gong Protester [2/13/2002]