Swedish Practitioner’s Testimony of How He was Treated by Chinese Police

The Manifestation for Falun Dafa at Tiananmen Square Beijing, China

The following text is facts about what happened in relation to the peaceful manifestation for Falun Gong in Beijing, China.

2001-11-20

I arrived at Tiananmen Square and I walked towards the western practitioners that had all ready gathered there at the meeting point. They had all ready raised the banner, which said Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, before I got to the spot. Police cars and vans passed me at high speed. They started to form a ring around all the practitioners, so that spectators at the square would be unable to see what was happening. There were a lot of tourists and other Chinese people present at the square. Other policemen were outside of the ring and were screaming to the spectators to keep them away so that they would be unable to see what was going on inside the ring of the police cars. I went straight inside of the ring of practitioners. The police dragged and pulled aggressively at the passive practitioners. None of the practitioners were making any resistance.

I sat down on the ground with the others in the meditation position. I maybe sat for half a minute or so when a whole gang of police came and were trying to more or less pull me off the ground. Two police grabbed my arms, one grabbed my jacket from behind and one from the front. I repeatedly said in English that there was no reason for violence and they replied back to me in English that “this is China”, “do as I say”. They were aggressive, didn’t allow any talk and were using force on me. They tried to bend my arms and wrists backward behind my back with force. I calmly and repeatedly said that I could walk myself. They ignored me and proceeded with their violent tactics instead. After repeated attempts they managed to lock me hard and I was unable to get out of the lock unless using the same force or more, as they did against me. I did no physical or violent resistance. They didn’t let me step into the bus, instead it was more that they threw one into the entrance while the ones outside were hitting and pushing, and the police all ready inside tried to pull one further back in the police bus.

Other practitioners were treated in similar ways as myself. The police were screaming, they were not calm, not in their speech, nor in their commands or procedures of treating the people. The police continued to film the whole event. They were constantly trying to film and take pictures of all the practitioners. There were sure to be three times more of police, military and plain clothes police taking part in the arresting than there were practitioners, maybe even more. In the police buses the police were always taking the seats by the windows, so that no one was able to have a look inside the bus to see what was happening and at the same time cover the view of us in the bus so that we were unable to see what was happening outside. I heard that other practitioners got punched and kicked in the face, and all over the body, both on the square and in the buses, even though they were lying down on the ground without making any resistance. Others had been dragged by the hair. This had happened to both men and women.

They drove us to a police station close to Tiananmen Square, with an escort full of vehicles. Once we had arrived we were taken out violently from the buses to a meeting room in the police station. They continued to film us and take pictures of us during the whole event. None of the practitioners were making any resistance.

Once in the room they wanted to take all our cameras and telephones. The police didn’t allow any calls to any of the embassies and no telephones were to be used. We calmly explained that we had the right to make one call to the embassy to tell what had happened. But we were denied this right several times. Someone tried to call an embassy and the police saw it and assaulted the person, so that no calls were to be made. They continued to film and take pictures of us even though we said that we didn’t want to take part.

They tried to separate us several times. They also tried to separate the female practitioners from the rest of the group. No visits to the toilets were allowed for a rather long time. If one went to the toilet they were closely followed. There were three that followed me in to the toilet. They later succeeded in separating parts of the group and took us in to different interrogation rooms. They did it by pulling hard at the practitioner that was closest to them and furthest away from the rest of the practitioners. It was with greater force that they managed to separate us. We were making no resistance but holding each other’s arms, hooked in one another, trying to stay together. We knew that Chinese practitioners who became separated from each other at the police station were very badly treated, even killed.

I became separated from the group. The police held my arms tightly. I got to sit down on a chair in the corridor waiting to be interrogated. The police were filming and taking pictures of the event again even though we said we didn’t want to take part. They escorted me in to an interrogation room. One asked questions, one took notes and one was guarding inside by the door. I calmly and peacefully replied to the questions that were relevant. They started to ask very personal questions and I said that I didn’t need to answer or participate in this that was going on, and that we had the right to contact the embassy. I got escorted out of the room. I got to sit down on a chair in the corridor again. Other police came by. They just pulled me, grabbed hard of my arms, others grabbed the front of the shirt from the side. They tried to search me. I did not co-operate and they got more violent. As soon as one didn’t follow their screaming and shouting orders they became physically more aggressive.

I was then taken to another interrogation room where there was one who interpreted and asked questions, one who took notes and a third one who was guarding the door. They asked different questions and I participated in what I thought was relevant. I didn’t answer the questions that I didn’t consider being relevant and tried to explain my rights. Thereafter I got escorted back to the meeting room where the rest of the practitioners were. As I have understood it, some of the practitioners got separated from the group again, and were in a more violent way taken down in the direction of the basement. Again we were with the same yellying and screaming orders forced down to the basement. We did no physical or violent resistance but we tried to hold on to each other by holding each other’s arms. I saw a younger woman that the police were pulling hard on the way down to the basement. The whole thing resulted in that she more or less was thrown down the stairs because of the hard pushes and shoves from the police.

Down in the basement they did another search. They wanted all of our telephones, cameras and passports and so on. We, the 35 practitioners, were put in a cell that was about 2,5 times 4 or 5 meters. They were constantly trying to take new photos and film us even though we didn’t want to. They said that we were not taken in to custody and that we were not seen as any criminals, but still we were taken in to a barred cell against our will and without an explanation to it. We were again denied all contact with any embassy.

After a while we got released from the cell and pushed in to the bigger meeting room. We sat in the big room for a while and after that we got transferred to a different spot again. We never found out where and why we were moved around like that all the time. We were again, in the same violent way, gathered quickly to the police buses that were standing outside the police station. We were filmed and pictures were again taken of us. In the buses the police were sitting closest to the window, the practitioners were sitting in the seats closest to the gangway. Some police were sitting on chairs in the middle of the gangway. There were also more police further up in front and in the back of the bus.

They took us out to a hotel nearby the airport. The hotel either had no guests or they were forced to make space for us. We were forced out of the police buses in the same forcing way as before. We were filmed all the time and they continued to take our pictures. Thereafter we were taken into two different conference rooms, I think it was on the third floor. We were again denied the right to contact any embassy. We were separated into two groups, with about half of the practitioners in each group in the two rooms. We were to sit in some of the chairs or sofas that were present. The police used the rest of the furniture, they were about two or three times more of them than us in the room. They gave us a lot of negative comments. They continued trying to film and take photo of us. If one was allowed to go to the toilet there were always three to five persons who kept you under close guard.

After that the police tried to collect our passports and our luggage without really telling us why. We said then that we wanted to pack our things ourselves. They took us in small groups back to our own hotels. I was together with two other practitioners and around ten police in one bus. I told them the way to the hotel without causing any problem for them. They were seven police who walked me up to the hotel room. Once I was inside the hotel room they started to search my private things and papers. I said that it was my private things but a few police held me and pushed me away while they were searching some of my luggage. I was unable to find some books and other important papers in my luggage, when I got back home to Sweden. I quickly packed my things. They constantly stressed me and they had one police who all the time tried to film my private things and me. I told them that he could wait outside but that was just ignored and he kept filming. After that I got escorted out from the hotel very quickly to avoid the crowd that had gathered. Then we went to pick up the other practitioners’ luggage. They also got treated in a similar way. Thereafter they drove us back to the hotel and we were taken back to the other practitioners in the conference room.

A large share of the practitioners were taken down individually further away in the hotel, away from the conference room, one by one for interrogation. I was also taken to a room together with two other women practitioners. First they said that they would let us go together but once down amongst the separate rooms on the ground floor of the hotel, they separated us. Through the whole time from the beginning of the arrest they were constantly lying to us and tried to trick us and separate us from the group, for their own motives.

I was taken to a separate hotel room. Once inside the hotel room there was a policeman who interpreted and asked questions, one continued trying to take pictures of me, three were sitting down on the bed in the room and two were standing outside the door. They asked a lot of questions. They also seemed trying to educate me with their propaganda filled lies and pure rubbish. I didn’t listen to their lies. I didn’t make any resistance, and neither did I act aggressive in any way. I co-operated in all their questions that I found relevant. When I didn’t answer some of the questions they immediately got irritated. I explained my rights according to international law but then they just turned away, and said in a negative way something like “you have no rights, we are in command here” – it was something like that they said.

After a while during the interrogation they wanted me to sign a paper with Chinese text on it. I asked what the paper said since I didn’t know how to read any Chinese and he said that I didn’t need to know what it said, “sign it”, “it’s routine”. Many of the Falun Gong practitioners in China are forced to sign papers that depreciates and spreads false propaganda about Falun Gong, that is later used as the government’s own lying propaganda for so called “educating” the people. I told them that and that the West knows what you are doing, how you are persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, how you torture, rape and kill practitioners. The atmosphere immediately got aggressive. I refused to sign the paper since he never explained what it said. The police got more irritated.

They then told me that they needed a certain kind of photo of me, so that they could give me new visa so that I could leave China. I calmly replied that I had all ready sent my passport, photos and money to receive a visa completely legally and travelled to China. I also pointed out to them that no visa was required for leaving the country. They were trying to test me constantly with their propaganda and lies. I said that I did not want to be in any pictures and neither was there any need for me to do it if they didn’t give a truthful reason why. They got very irritated.

Two of the younger police left the room and two older police, probably of higher rank, took their place. The door was shut. Two police were standing in the room guarding by the door, one police was interpreting and asked questions, four other police stood up in the room, one of them had a camera in the hand. On of the police who seemed to be a higher officer asked me “do you want to leave China?” I took it as a serious threat as they stood in a position around as if they were ready to assault me. I said that I would not sign any papers nor have my picture taken. Then the policeman said to me “We have to do what we have to do”, “we have to do our job”. Two of the policemen then grabbed one of my arms each and tried to bend them behind my back to have my picture taken with much force. I managed to turn away from the camera. After a few failed attempts they assaulted me again.

This time the third police grabbed my head from behind by the side and took a hard grip of my hair and pulled upwards once again trying to have my picture taken. I once again managed without violence to turn to the side, out of their grip, so that they couldn’t take any picture. They tried twice in this way before they let go of me again. They complained and threatened me. The third and last time that they assaulted me they did as they had done the second time only this time a fourth police took a chokehold around my throat. They again tried to bend and lock my arms behind my back, they pulled my head and hair plus that the fourth police tried to take a chokehold and press me down towards the bed to take the photo. I managed to turn awry forward and to the side and protect my face from the camera. They failed in taking any pictures of me and gave up in the end. They also hit and pushed against my body during this time. I said that they acted inhumane, and they said in a very irritated manner that I had caused China and the police a lot of trouble. They were very aggressive and violent against me. The whole thing went on for about one hour. I was later taken back to the conference room were I had previously been.

They didn’t let us sleep or rest. They constantly tried to film us and take our pictures. When one was putting up the jacket, a paper or the arms in front of the face, someone came and tried to hit them or pull them away so that they would get a good picture of us. This went on in turns and for several hours. I finally got some sleep in a corner of the room on the floor.

2001-11-12

In the morning the next day they gathered us again in the same rude way. We were put into the police buses and then we were taken to a distant part of the airport. We got to sit and wait there for a few hours. We still didn’t get to contact the embassy. One woman tried to make a call and the police directly tried to take the telephone away from her. Many police had a very bad attitude towards us, another police said to us “you Falun Gong practitioners have no rights, you are not humans”. They constantly wanted to rule and direct us. Just before it was time to go to the airplane we were informed about what was going to happen.
We got divided into smaller groups. We were put on different flights depending on the final destination we had. Many police escorted us the whole way to the airplane’s door. On the way through the airport we walked through different corridors where other people could not see us. Once at the door of the airplane they gave us our passports and tickets back. They were constantly filming us and tried to take pictures of us. Though they were treating us a bit more humanitarian, since there were other civilians and flight personnel present.

The police were filming especially much and longer when they were acting humane towards us and were filming a lot less or none, when they were mistreating us. The greatest possibility is that this was done because they gathered material for their own propaganda films, by which they would further try to deceive people, in China and around the world, with their lies. It was probably also to draw the focus away from the many murders and other crimes that they have committed that the rest of the world already knows about. This has been done with other material that they have managed to publicize in China and in the rest of the world.

At the entrance stood a woman from the Swedish embassy in China who received us. She told us how she had tried to reach us but was unable to get a hold of us or get permission to see us. We thanked her for her brave contribution and for that she through the hardships went out to find us and did not give up. We also want to thank Anna Lindh for her sharp and righteous statements during our arrest. We also want to thank the Prime Minister, the Foreign Affairs Department, other parts of the Swedish government and other national and international organizations for their support.

With kind regards Martin Larsson, Falun Dafa practitioner.