Friday, February 15, 2002
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Family members of North Carolinians who flew to China to protest Beijing's treatment of members of a banned [group] waited nervously Thursday for word of their relatives' safety.
Falun Gong activists say five North Carolina residents are presumed to be among more than 40 foreigners detained by the Chinese government following demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
Chen, a Falun Gong member in Raleigh, said the protesters had agreed to call him if they were all right following the protest. Chen had not heard from them as of Thursday afternoon -- Friday morning in Beijing.
"If I don't hear from them, then I presume that they were arrested," Chen said.
Falun Gong officials in New York identify the five protesters as Thai Ton and Al Whitted III of Durham, Andrew Parker of Greensboro, Joann Kao of Charlotte, and Tina Bakatsias of Chapel Hill.
Falun Gong said the demonstrators tried to unfurl banners and shout slogans before they were stopped by police as crowds gathered on the square to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Lo Ton of Durham, Thai Ton's father, said he had no idea his son had flown to China last weekend to participate.
"My son ... is very gentle and dedicated," Lo Ton said. "He doesn't want his parents to be worried too much. I support him but I am very concerned about his safety."
He and his son, a biologist with the federal government, are both naturalized U.S. citizens from Vietnam and adherents of Falun Gong, [......]
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Thousands of adherents have been arrested since then. Falun Gong activists claim more than 360 practitioners have died from police torture.
Lo Ton said he protested Chinese policy himself last week in Salt Lake City, where the Winter Olympics were getting underway. He said his son didn't tell him he was going to Beijing, only to protest elsewhere.
"I am very proud that they have stepped forward on our behalf," Ton said.
A Web site shows a picture of the five protesters before they left Raleigh-Durham International Airport on their trip to China.
"We are here to peacefully appeal on behalf of tens of thousands of innocent people who suffer imprisonment, torture or even death at the hands of their own government in China," read a statement from the five, dated Thursday and posted on the site.
Text on the site attributed to Whitted, a math teacher at Woodlawn Middle School in Mebane, said he went to China to protest "because these evil acts cannot and should not continue."
Whitted's parents didn't learn of their son's trip until a reporter called them Thursday. His wife, Megan, knew and waited Thursday for news of his condition.
"I am very scared. But I know in my heart it was something that my husband needed to do," she said. Her husband, raised a Christian, became a Falun Gong practitioner about three years ago.
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About 30 Falun Gong practitioners meet on weekends in the Triangle to practice mind and body exercises, Chen said. He estimates the number of adherents in the region at several times that number.
On the Net: North Carolina protesters' press statement: http://www.xcelr8.com/appeal/
http://www.newsobserver.com/ncwire/news/Story/910538p-907958c.html