Canadian Practitioner Tells of Her Arrest on Tiananmen Square

The following statement was given by Connie Chipkar at Heathrow Airport, London UK and recorded by a UK practitioner:
Heathrow Airport, Terminal 3 Arrivals-19.30

My name is Connie Chipkar, I am 61 and half years old and I have practiced Falun Gong for four years. My son, Joel Chipkar went to Bejing in November last year... He came home with film shot in Tiananmen Square. I was inspired by this and have been part of the Falun Dafa Truth Walk across North Canada and Europe-Portugal and Turkey- appealing for the urgent rescue of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China. The positive response from the walk filled me and I wanted to take the support, encouragement and good wishes I had received to share with my fellow practitioners in China, to show we care.

I arrived in China and went to Tiananmen Square. The weather was very warm and there were many people about. The sun was shining and I felt as if I were in a big space. People wanted to pose with me for photographs and dozens of children asked me for my autograph. It was 1.30pm and I had planned to wait until 2pm when there were to be others arriving with banners. However I was concerned for the many children in case they became caught up in the situation. I gathered myself together and took off my coat. Underneath, I had a banner sewn to my clothes which read Falun Dafa Truth Walk on the front and SOS on the back. As I did this, the guards exchanged gloves (changed over). I sang the Falun Dafa song aloud and I felt as if a sea of Chinese people were watching me. Nothing seemed to happen for a long time. A plain-clothes policeman came towards me “Oh, Falun Dafa!” he exclaimed and grabbed me roughly by the left arm. He started pulling me towards the Peace Monument when another policeman joined him and started to rip the banner off my clothes. This took them a long time and all the while I sang the Falun Dafa song and all the Chinese people watched, staring in amazement. They pulled me around in a big circle trying to find a police van. A young guard in a big green coat followed a bewildered statement on his face. The children watched and so did the crowds of Chinese people. I was still singing-Falun Dafa Hao [Falun Dafa is Good]. The policeman tried to pull my arms down but they were floating in the air-I carried on singing. The policeman was frustrated and pushed me roughly into the van hurting my knees somewhat. I had prepared myself for physical abuse-there was little.

The police drove the van around in circles up the Square, and then swerved to avoid a lady with a very large camera who was taking pictures. They took her card from her. They took me to the police station in Tiananmen Square, there was still no violence [...] I sat in a waiting area which had blue chairs with 10 police officers surrounding me. They asked if I spoke Chinese and I spoke using simple phrases I had learnt on the Falun Dafa Truth March-Falun Dafa Hao. They had trouble understanding my “dialect”. Then they took a lot of pictures of me and put my banner on the floor in order to photograph it as well. I said, NO, YOU PICK IT UP IF YOU WANT TO TAKE A PICTURE! They took a photo when the banner was on the table. They took a long time trying to read the banner as it was written in English.

I was then escorted to my hotel to collect my luggage. The hotel staff was very embarrassed because I had the police with me, I said Falun Dafa Hao to them and they seemed to be in awe of me. After I had collected my luggage, I was driven through a very poor part of Bejing and was taken to a large police station. I was sat at a large table and offered food and drink. I replied that I could not eat or drink while they were holding me out of sympathy for my fellow practitioners persecuted in China. They started asking questions-I think they were from the Police Bureau. I said “If you are going to ask me questions then I need an international lawyer as I am under arrest, or you will be able to trick me as I don’t know what you are saying.” They told me that I wasn’t under arrest so it did not matter. I read Zhuan Falun [the main text of Falun Gong] under the table whilst they were deciding what to do.

Then a Chinese policewoman started talking to me in English. She spoke in a soft way and tried to mislead me. She said, “I just want to say a few things, not to convince you but to tell you about the crime you have committed in China-you have broken the law and just as in Canada you must be punished.” I replied, “If you are talking about criminals you must be implicating Falun Dafa and I have nothing to say” so she carried on trying to talk to me about Canada, asking me about my sons. I felt she was trying to poison me with her manipulation (I was not aware until the next day, that I had been secretly videotaped the whole time I was at the police station)

After that, I was driven to a police hotel room where I was to spend the night. There were two guards with me all the time. The women even came with me when I used the toilet. I was allowed no privacy. The police, who were guarding me, sat and watched television all night. Every programme defiled Falun Gong or showed the “self immolation” which they tried to tell me was true. I said, “Your own Government video shows the lies of the self immolation, it is clear when you slow down the tape that the woman is hit on the head. Human Rights Groups such as Amnesty for example, know what is happening in China, Human Rights lawyers are looking at bringing cases forward about these crimes.” After this I managed to read Zhuan Falun all night. […] I slept for 1 and a half hours to refresh myself. I spoke of the lawsuits against the people who persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The next day the police drove me around and around, I think they were trying to disorientate me. Eventually I was taken to the airport at Bejing and escorted onto a flight destined for Vienna. The plane stopped over at Heathrow Airport and I was passed a message from my son requesting that I board a flight to Canada. I was met at the arrival gate at Terminal 3 by a reporter with 4 camera crew who all walked with me along the concourse. The reporter asked me for a quote to which I instantly replied that “they (referring to the Chinese Government) are masters of deceit and manipulation”.

I was eventually met by 3 UK practitioners who helped me get my luggage, phone my son in Canada and who were concerned for me and got me onto my flight to Canada which left at 9pm.

Connie Chipkar