“PRIMA-SUNDAY” (German newspaper): Out of the Clutches of Incarceration

Wuerzburg/Germany, November 25, 2001

A Wuerzburg citizen was deported after 22 hours incarceration in China

Wuerzburg – Last Thursday saw the return of the eight German demonstrators from Beijing. Last Tuesday they were forcefully arrested on Tiananmen Square because of their peaceful appeal and spent 22 hours under police incarceration. Among them was Vitali Uhl from Wuerzburg. The 30-year-old German citizen had a horrendous tale to relate. He was forced to experience personally how brutally and totally outside the law the persecution and discrimination against Falun Gong practitioners is carried out.

“What we experienced there is only a tiny fraction of what the Chinese practitioners have to endure and suffer.”

The Wuerzburg citizen tells what happened before he was deported: “These persecuted people in China are human beings without reproach who are simply trying to better their lives by living according to the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.” Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance are the basis for this teaching [of Falun Gong] according to which the practitioners lead their daily lives, their thoughts and actions. For the past three years, Vitali has been one of them. He followed the persecution in China with horror. When friends informed him of their plans to travel to Beijing, he joined them. “The whole thing was a spontaneous act,” he said. “We were a small circle of people at first, but then, quickly others from eleven countries joined us.”

Falun Gong is now practised in 50 countries around the world. Because of its efficacy for and benefits to the whole body system, more and more people have become convinced of it. None of them can understand why then the Chinese government so massively suppresses this practice. With their peaceful demonstration, the five men and women practitioners from Germany wanted to send a signal. “We were about 36 who came together at Tiananmen Square. Some stood. Some sat peacefully and calmly,” so said the Wuerzburger (citizen of Wuerzburg). The demonstrators carried with them a banner on which were lettered the three principles [of Falun Gong]. After only a few minutes, a cordon of police vehicles and officers encircled the group. “The tumult lasted perhaps five minutes. The police attacked us and then grabbed the banner. What stood out was the brutal, aggressive way the police officers treated the females in the group,” said Mr. Uhl disgustedly. “The women were kicked and dragged by their hair.” Vitali Uhl himself has a small wound on his arm. He and the others were pressed into the buses and driven to police headquarters where their passports and cell phones were confiscated. Then they were locked up in cells. “It was more like a cage – 25 persons in a space of 2 metres by 5 metres,” (6 feet by 30 feet) remembers the young man.

The German “prisoners” were forbidden to contact their German embassy. Attempts to reach the German embassy with a cell phone were brutally interrupted. Someone managed to relay bits and pieces of the incident to the embassy, but the embassy personnel did not learn where these people were incarcerated.

“Finally they took us to a hotel, where we spent the night in a locked cellar.” Interrogations were held the whole night through. The authorities tried to force the demonstrators to sign interrogation statements written in Chinese. “Many remained courageous and refused to sign those statements,” said the 30-year-old. After 22 hours of forced arrest, the demonstrators were finally taken to the airport and deported.

Traditional Falun Gong practice, which is similar to Tai Chi, was until a few years ago a vital part of many people’s lives in Asia. Falun Gong consists of five exercises that are meant to harmonize body and mind. Because of its popularity, the movement has been outlawed in China since 1999. It is impossible to define what could be “anti-State” about this practice. The practitioners want neither religion nor politics. “It is against our teachings to get involved with politics in any way,” informs Mrs. Jing Tang-Wiesberg, who has led a small group of practitioners in the Wuerzburg area for a while now. “…Our meetings are free of charge and are only for the purpose of practising the exercises together or exchanging experiences,” she related. “All the rest of it is up to the individual.” Vitali Uhl occasionally also visits this group in Veitshoechheim (a town) and is full of enthusiasm about this form of meditation. “I am convinced that Falun Gong is good and that good people practise it. We want to finally expose all the lies the Chinese government has spread and is spreading, clarify misconceptions and proclaim the truth.”

To counteract the popularity [of Falun Gong] on the part of the Chinese people, the Chinese government spread all manner of propaganda that is supposed to slander, such as
staging a self-immolation incident, which was broadcast nationwide across the government-controlled CC-Television Station. When Falun Gong was first popularized in 1992, the Chinese government declared and heralded it a “Star Qigong School.” Prior to the persecution in 1999, the journal “U.S. News and World Report” chronicled the phenomenal rise of Falun Gong and noted that the Chinese authorities were very favourably inclined toward this movement, since it saves the state coffers millions in health benefit payments. Nowadays, Falun Gong followers are hunted by agents from the “610 Office,” *) which is under direct jurisdiction of the Chinese government. These agents hunt, tyrannize, abuse and murder Falun Gong practitioners. The official death list counts 320 victims at present.

100 million people around the world are presently practising Falun Gong.

*) The “610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.