By Ashley Fantz

This weekend, about 2,000 people, including 50 South Floridians, will gather in downtown Chicago to do something that would get them jailed and perhaps beaten or tortured in China: Falun Gong.

The meditation exercise, much like tai chi and yoga, is the focus of a third annual national conference organized by Florida Atlantic University graduate and Chinese immigrant Tommy Xu, 31.

''There are many people who love it,'' he said. ''It soothes the mind and takes away your stress,'' he said.

But Xu can only practice it outside of China. His mother, who lives there, was jailed for four months for doing Falun Gong. [...]

This month, [...] An Illinois federal court is weighing the merits of a suit against Zemin for torturing Falun Gong practitioners.

Although there is a larger community of Falun Gong followers in Central Florida, about a dozen residents of Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties meet on weekends in parks to practice and will attend the Chicago gathering. They are a diverse group made up of Latin Americans, Chinese immigrants and others.

[...]

Qiu is part of a group that hands out fliers in parks explaining Falun Gong. ''We want everyone to see how great this is,'' he said. ''My wife has high blood pressure, but mine is like my kids','' he said.

[...]

Along with three other Falun Gong [western practitioners], including a University of Central Florida senior, Jasurek traveled to Beijing in 2002 for an organized protest against Zemin. But news reports said hundreds were detained by state police before they made it to Tiananmen Square, a site laden with great symbolic importance since the 1989 protests for democracy there.

Jasurek and others were physically attacked by Chinese police. After they were interrogated at the police station, government officials put them on a plane, and they wound up back in America -- in Detroit without most of their luggage -- less than 24 hours later.

Although Florida Falun Gong devotees have written to U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and Gov. Jeb Bush about the issue, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is one of the few politicians who have spoken out against the persecution, condemning it at rallies and sponsoring a House resolution in support of Falun Gong freedom. She has also added her name to the federal suit against Jiang Zemin.

American-based Chinese diplomats have harassed Chinese Americans and others who practice Falun Gong, she said.

''We've worked with the U.S. Department of State and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to ensure that this stops,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.

[...]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/6137318.htm

Posting date: 6/25/2003
Original article date: 6/24/2003
Category: News & Media Reports

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