AFP:US student missing in China: [Falun Gong]

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

WASHINGTON, March 27 (AFP) - A US student has gone missing in China after traveling to the country to protest at Beijing's crackdown on the [Falun Gong] spiritual movement, the group said on Wednesday.

Daniel Pomerleau, 22, a sophomore student at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, has not been seen since leaving Boston for China on Sunday, [Falun Gong] said in a statement.

His disappearance came after [Falun Gong] complained that 5,000 of its members had been rounded up in a new purge against the group in Changchun city in northeastern Jilin province.

Jane Salerno, spokeswoman for Clark University, disclosed only that academic authorities were trying to contact Pomerleau's parents to find out more details on his case.

"Clark is doing all it can to find out the status, to find out if he is safe, and we have a lot of concerned students who know Dan and are concerned about his safety."

There was no immediate information on Pomerleau's case from the State Department.

The reported sweep on [Falun Gong] in Changchun came three weeks after Chinese President Jiang Zemin was accused by the group of ordering police to shoot practitioners in the area.

[Falun Gong] was banned by the Chinese government in 1999, and has since faced the ire of law enforcement authorities, as tens of thousands of followers have been rounded up.

The United States frequently criticizes China's treatment of [Falun Gong] and other religious groups.