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SCMP: Falun Gong mass arrest worries Bush MARK O'NEILL in Beijing, FONG TAK-HO and AGENCIES Saturday, February 16, 2002
US President George W. Bush is concerned about
China's mass arrest of foreign Falun Gong followers in
Tiananmen Square and will raise the issue of religious
freedom during his Beijing visit next week, the White
House says. Fifty-three of the 59 arrested on Thursday had been
expelled by last night, Xinhua reported. It said the
other six had refused to give their names and
nationalities and were still being held. "The President remains very committed to taking
[religious freedom] up, personally and directly, with
Chinese officials," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Asked for Mr Bush's reaction to the arrests, Mr
Fleischer said: "The President obviously is concerned
with any arrests for religious purposes in China." Mr Bush is due in Beijing on Thursday for a 30-hour
visit. The Falun Gong activists threw Tiananmen Square into
chaos when they unfurled banners and shouted slogans
defending the banned spiritual movement before they
were seized by police. Earlier reports said some
followers were arrested in their hotels. "It has now been ascertained that of these 59, 53 came
from 12 countries. Their nationalities and identities
had been confirmed and they were escorted to leave
China by 6pm on Friday," Xinhua said. "Beijing public
security organs are holding the other six foreigners
who refused to make known their nationalities and
identities." Those arrested included 33 Americans, a US Embassy
source said. Others came from countries including
Britain, Sweden, Poland, New Zealand and Brazil. A spokesman for the British Embassy in Beijing
confirmed four Britons had been expelled. "The four
are back in Britain. We have not heard any official
complaint from them about their treatment. We are
satisfied that they were dealt with according to law,"
British Embassy spokesman Alex Pinfield said. US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said
religious freedom was a key concern for Mr Bush. "The
President will clearly raise with President Jiang
specific cases as well as the broader issues of
religious freedom and of human rights," she said. Ms Rice said Mr Bush did not plan to meet separately
with Vice-President Hu Jintao, Mr Jiang's expected
successor, but he might see Mr Hu at a group meeting,
as he did last autumn in Shanghai during the
Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. Thursday's protests were part of a campaign by Falun
Gong members abroad to have Beijing's ban on the group
placed on the agenda of Mr Bush's visit. One of the Britons expelled before the protest,
Rosemary Katzen, described her treatment as
"outrageous". "I was arrested in my hotel the day
before the Tiananmen Square appeal," she said,
referring to the Zhaolong Youth Hostel in western
Beijing. "We asked to see the [British] embassy officials and
they refused. I refused to go and I sat on the desk
and they grabbed me by the hair, making me leave the
hotel room," she said. "I sat on the ground and they picked me up and they
[police] grabbed me violently by the hair and pushed
me into the bus." Falun Gong's headquarters in New York quoted other
practitioners as saying they had been beaten. "Many
practitioners were bleeding and they were denied food
and water," Gina Sanchez, of Los Angeles, said. http://www.scmp.com/topnews/ZZZXWKS3GXC.html Posting date: 2/16/2002
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To Fellow Practitioners
on February 13
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