South China Morning Post: Falun Gong mass arrest worries Bush

Saturday, February 16, 2002

MARK O'NEILL in Beijing, FONG TAK-HO and AGENCIES

US President George W. Bush is concerned about China's mass arrest of foreign Falun Gong followers in
Tiananmen Square and will raise the issue of religious freedom during his Beijing visit next week, the White House says.

Fifty-three of the 59 arrested on Thursday had been expelled by last night, Xinhua reported. It said the
other six had refused to give their names and nationalities and were still being held.

"The President remains very committed to taking [religious freedom] up, personally and directly, with Chinese officials," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Asked for Mr Bush's reaction to the arrests, Mr Fleischer said: "The President obviously is concerned with any arrests for religious purposes in China."

Mr Bush is due in Beijing on Thursday for a 30-hour visit.

The Falun Gong activists threw Tiananmen Square into chaos when they unfurled banners and shouted slogans defending the banned spiritual movement before they were seized by police. Earlier reports said some followers were arrested in their hotels.

"It has now been ascertained that of these 59, 53 came from 12 countries. Their nationalities and identities
had been confirmed and they were escorted to leave China by 6pm on Friday," Xinhua said. "Beijing public
security organs are holding the other six foreigners who refused to make known their nationalities and
identities."

Those arrested included 33 Americans, a US Embassy source said. Others came from countries including Britain, Sweden, Poland, New Zealand and Brazil.

[…]

US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said religious freedom was a key concern for Mr Bush. "The President will clearly raise with President Jiang Zemin specific cases as well as the broader issues of
religious freedom and of human rights," she said.

[…]

One of the Britons expelled before the protest, Rosemary Katzen, described her treatment as "outrageous". "I was arrested in my hotel the day before the Tiananmen Square appeal," she said, referring to the Zhaolong Youth Hostel in western Beijing.

"We asked to see the [British] embassy officials and they refused. I refused to go and I sat on the desk and they grabbed me by the hair, making me leave the hotel room," she said.

"I sat on the ground and they picked me up and they [police] grabbed me violently by the hair and pushed
me into the bus."

Falun Gong's headquarters in New York quoted other practitioners as saying they had been beaten. "Many
practitioners were bleeding and they were denied food and water," Gina Sanchez, of Los Angeles, said.

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