CAMPUS CHRONICLE: U.C.C Student Detained By Chinese Police

[article from University College Cork’ Campus Chronicle magazine]

By Brian Power

On November last, UCC [postgraduate] Brian Trought was in Tiananemen Square to protest against the maltreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The protestors…. assembled in the middle of the square. After receiving a signal the group sat down legs crossed and one hand symbolically in front of their chest. Two of the protestors raised a banner displaying the words ‘Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.’ Within seconds police vehicles were on the scene and the protestors had been surrounded. While Falun Gong members claim their meditation is a ‘system of cultivation for body and mind’, the practice has been outlawed by the Chinese government and its members wrongfully persecuted. Brian Trought from Blackpool, Co. Cork, a physics student in UCC and a practising member of Falun Gong was part of the 35 protestors to be detained by Chinese police. Mr. Trought last week told the Campus Chronicle of his experiences in Tiananmen Square….

‘Let me state up front, that the purpose of holding this peaceful appeal was not politically motivated. We have no objection to political power, nor did we disturb political or social order. What you see is exactly what happened – we sat on Tiananmen Square with one hand raised in front of the chest. Within 30 seconds, police vans had surrounded us and began to drag everyone away.

My eyes were closed throughout – after all this is a standard meditation position! I heard the screech of brakes and a little commotion. Then I heard people being dragged off into the police vans. It took about a minute before the police began to tug at me. It took two policemen to lift me up but I peacefully resisted by relaxing my body. The police officers couldn’t lift me. Throughout this, they had stamped on my legs to force them out of the lotus position (left leg on right, the right leg brought up over the left). I didn’t feel any pain, but after they lifted me onto the bus, I took my legs down and sat at the back of the bus with some others.

It was strange […] but I wasn’t bothered by the arrest, I knew that it was the right thing to do. So many had been misled by media reports inside China. I just wanted to show the Chinese people that westerners also practised Falun Gong, and in other countries it isn’t illegal.

After sitting down besides a man from Germany, another practitioner said, “Shall we leave?” I replied “They have no right to detain us”. With this, the practitioner beside me opened the window and got out. The man who suggested we leave got up to leave through the front door. I also got out the window.

I took video footage from an American, slipped it into my pocket, and walked away. I walked past the crowd and was stopped by a Chinese official in a green uniform. He asked me to go back (in Chinese) but I didn’t understand. I also, understandably, didn’t want to return to the police van I had just left!

Eventually, I had my camera [film] confiscated (but the footage was safe in my pocket) and I was escorted back, where I was asked to sit in a minibus. I was being detained for being a westerner and having a camera on Tiananmen Square!

I wasn’t mistreated, but I saw others being forced into the police station. I heard later that the police punched and kicked some of the others. One Swedish man was even beaten for about an hour in a hotel room. I had heard some stories before about police brutality towards Falun Gong practitioners, but this really hit home. The others were detained for about 21 hours, interrogated and then deported. I left Beijing on the day I planned. […]

Just for sitting in a meditation posture on Tiananmen Square, the police responded by arresting 35 people. There seems to be something wrong with this. The most basic human right is to appeal against injustice. This is exactly what we did, and we did this peacefully’

While the stereotypical views of students is often one of apathy, disillusionment and indifference to the needs of others, it must be recognised that there are individuals and groups within the University and the student body in Ireland who are motivated by a deep social conscience and who campaign for social injustice. The work by student societies such as Amnesty International, St. Vincent de Paul, Simon, Earthwatch and One World Society to name a few, dispels the myth of student apathy. Brian Trought will continue to help fight for the release of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China.