Hong Kong iMail: Freed [group] member barred from returning to mainland

August 14, 2001

HONG KONG Falun Gong practitioner Chan Yuk-to has returned to the SAR after being detained for 31 days in Beijing. But the Beijing-born technician has been barred from entering the mainland for at least ''the next few years''.

Speaking yesterday to the media for the first time since his release, Mr. Chan, 34, recounted the ordeal of his arrest and detention.

Mr. Chan was released from a detention centre in Beijing's Chaoyang district around 7pm on Saturday and was taken directly to the airport and put on a night flight back to Hong Kong.

He was accompanied to the airport by a group of Public Security Bureau officers, who confiscated his home-return permit and told him he would be barred from entering China. Although they did not specify the length of the ban, Mr. Chan said, he understood it would be at least for the next few years.

Mr. Chan believed his status as a permanent resident of Hong Kong - and the assistance of the SAR government after an appeal by his mother - had helped secure his release. But Mr. Chan did not rule out the possibility that the Central Government had improved its stance towards Falun Gong detainees.

''Some detainees told me they had heard that some Falun Gong detainees had been beaten,'' Mr Chan said. ''But no one beat me during my detention.''

Mr Chan, who had worked as a technician for a Chinese-US company in Beijing for two years, was arrested at his home in the capital on the night of July 12. Public Security officers told him he had been watched for some time. The officers searched Mr Chan's home and found some Falun Gong material and videotapes. They then told him he had violated criminal law by practising Falun Gong.

During his detention, Mr Chan was forced to listen to broadcasts on government policies and regulations.

Mr Chan was asked to sign some documents regarding the arrest operation and, shortly before his sudden release, he was asked to sign a ''letter of regret''. Mr Chan said that instead, he wrote that practising Falun Gong was his own business, and doing so ''does no harm to the country''. He also stressed that he had ''no intention to confront the [party's name omitted] ''.

Mr Chan, who migrated to Hong Kong in July 1991, started practising Falun Gong in May 1999 after reading materials on the [group] provided by his mother, Lau Yuk-ling. Mr Chan denied being very afraid during his detention ''because I believed that I had done nothing wrong''. He said he would continue to follow the [Falun Gong] teachings.

In a statement, the qigong group said that even though Mr Chan was not subjected to severe physical torture, his detention on July 12 was ''unlawful'' and was ''a direct result of the illegal persecution'' of the Falun Gong.

It expressed appreciation for the efforts of the Hong Kong government in bringing the case to the attention of the mainland authorities.

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