TT/DN
Sunday February 17, 2002
Three Swedish Falungong adherents will be allowed to leave China on Monday and Tuesday, the Swedish embassy announced in Beijing on Sunday via UD (Foreign Ministry) in Stockholm.
(…) An embassy official got to meet all three on Sunday, said the press attache from the Swedish Foreign Ministry to TT (a news agency)
(…)
It is unclear if the Swedes participated in the demonstration in Thursday in Tiananmen Square. 59 Falungong practitioners demonstrated there, according to AFP, for the right to practice the meditation method, which has been branded in China as [slanderous term used by Chinese government] and banned.
”We haven’t had any possibility to talk to them,” says Malin Nordstrand (press spokesperson for Falun Gong in Sweden).
”We know that some practitioners were in Beijing, but not who had participated in any demonstration,..”
Some 360 Falungong adherents have died in Chinese prisons and detention centre the past years according to Falungong information, which are supported in a way by Amnesty International.
Why do Swedes go to China and demonstrate?
”The situation is horrible for Falungong practitioners in China, and it’s just getting worse day by day. The purpose of going there is to help these people,” says Malin Nordstrand.
Isn’t there any fear of getting into trouble for Swedes by going there?
”It might be so, but I think when you do such a thing, you think ‘how can we just watch when people are being tortured to death’. We have tried in so many different
ways, such as appealing to the Chinese government and writing letters, but unfortunately it continues.
Consequently, some feel that they must go there and in this situation you don’t think too much about yourself,” says Malin Nordstrand.
The police quickly intervened in Tiananmen Square when the Falungong adherents in small groups sat down and demonstrated, one group after another, on different
places in the square, among hundreds of New Year Chinese holidaymakers.
The demonstrators were arrested, but so were also 14 Falungong adherents in a hotel where the police conducted a raid.
* * *
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source.
more ...