Two Galleria-area hotels have canceled reservations of Falun Gong practitioners in Houston to demonstrate against Chinese President Jiang Zemin when he visits here this week.
"I don't understand what the problem is," said Lisa Nappi, a Falun Gong practitioner from Virginia. "This is America. This is a free land."
Practitioners from around the world have come to Houston to peacefully protest what they consider Jiang's attempt to eliminate their belief system. They say the Chinese government pressured the hotels to cancel their reservations because Jiang does not like Falun Gong. The hoteliers said the Chinese government did not contact them.
Late Tuesday night, several hundred practitioners had a candlelight vigil outside the Inter-Continental Hotel, hoping to rent a conference room there. Their contract to rent the room had been canceled earlier in the day.
"We think this is discrimination against Falun Gong practitioners," said John Nania, a practitioner visiting from Minneapolis, Minn.
Tuesday, practitioners planned a meeting in the conference room, but late in the afternoon, hotel staff said the practitioners did not show up on time. Jiang is scheduled to stay at the hotel, in the 2200 block of West Loop South, beginning today.
Monday, practitioners said about 50 of their reservations were canceled at the Homestead Studio Suites next door to the Inter-Continental. A Homestead spokeswoman said the hotel had overbooked the rooms and offered the practitioners accommodations at the company's other Houston hotels.
Nappi said she paid $3,710 to use the conference room at Inter-Continental. She booked the room several weeks ago under the name of her nonprofit group, FGM Public Media Inc., which she said produces programs about Falun Gong and traditional Chinese culture.
But late Tuesday, a hotel representative told her the reservation was canceled.
Inter-Continental spokeswoman Pamela Gilbert said Nappi's group did not show up until about 3 p.m. but their contract required they begin at 6 a.m. The hotel returned the money to Nappi.
Gilbert said hotel management did not know that Nappi's company was connected to Falun Gong until some members asked to be let into the conference room for their meeting Tuesday.
Gilbert also said that some practitioners asked hotel managers several weeks ago if they could protest on the property when Jiang arrived.
Hotel staff did not want Falun Gong to use the room, saying the hotel "reserves the right" to protect its guests from disturbances, Gilbert said.
"Since they had requested to protest earlier, we decided not to set up the (conference) room again," Gilbert said.
Monday, Falun Gong practitioners who had reserved rooms at the Homestead Studio Suites said hotel staff told them the reservations were canceled because there were not enough rooms.
Homestead spokeswoman Karen Burk has said management at the company's Galleria hotel overbooked the rooms to make sure as many rooms as possible were occupied if some people did not show up.
The Chinese government banned Falun Gong in July 1999 [..]. Practitioners have been arrested and jailed. Some claim they were tortured. Others said practitioners have been killed.
The alleged treatment of Falun Gong members in China has gained the sympathy of the international community and some members of the U.S. Congress.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1629035
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