Sat, Jun. 15, 2002 The U.S. State Department said on Friday that it was asking Iceland's government for an explanation of its ordering the state airline, Icelandair, to refuse passage to American citizens who appeared on a list of [practitioners] of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Iceland does not want protests to interfere with the visit this week of Jiang Zemin, the Chinese president, according to Iceland's ambassador to Washington. [...]

The ambassador also said that his government worried that the nation's police force, which is unarmed and totals only a few hundred people, ''might easily be outnumbered'' by Falun Gong protesters.

A spokesman for the movement in Washington, Joe Yin, said that nearly 100 Falun Gong [practitioners] had been turned away by Icelandair, which provides the only flights between the United States and Iceland.

Falun Gong [...] was wildly popular in China until it was banned in 1999.

ETC.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/2002/06/15/news/world/3474011.htm

Posting date: 6/16/2002
Original article date: 6/15/2002
Category: News & Media Reports

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