The Age (Australia): Falun Gong protester says Chinese police broke his finger

MELBOURNE, Nov 24 AAP|Published: Saturday November 24, 11:43 PM

A Melbourne man who took part in a Falun Gong protest in Beijing's Tiananmen square last Tuesday has accused Chinese police of breaking his finger.

Chris Cominos, now visiting relatives in Athens, said the hairline fracture had happened as he tried to resist being pulled into a police van.

"I have got scrapes and bruises all over," Mr Cominos said from Athens during a phone call initiated by Falun Gong.

"I held onto the police van door and they pulled back two of my fingers."

Mr Cominos was one of four Australians expelled by the Chinese government for staging the protest. ...

He said he was held overnight in an underground cell with the three other Australians, then taken to his scheduled flight to Athens.

The other three Australians, Kate Douglas, 21, from Melbourne and Myrna Mack (Myrna Mack), 50, and Kay Belonogoff (Belonogoff), 22, both from Sydney, have all arrived home.

The protest in the square was staged by 35 Falun Gong members from 12 countries.

The protesters unfurled a banner bearing the Falun Gong principles, "truth, compassion and forbearance" in Chinese and English.

Mr Cominos said police arrived soon after and began scuffling with the protesters, trying to pull them into the police van.

"They were very unreasonable, verbally abusive," he said.

Asked whether he knew that Falun Gong was illegal in China and expected to be arrested, he said it was not possible to make truth, compassion and tolerance illegal.

He said the Chinese police had told him he was not arrested but refused to set him free, holding him until his flight was due to leave.

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/11/24/FFXIECD9EUC.html