AP: Falun Gong Members Return to U.S.

Fri Feb 15, 1:59 PM ET By KORIE WILKINS, Associated Press Writer

DETROIT (AP) - About 25 members of Falun Gong who protested in Beijing's Tiananmen Square returned to the United States on Friday, displaying bruises, cuts and scrapes from what they said were police beatings.

Falun Gong devotee Keith Ware of Washington second from left, discusses the treatment he and others received from the Chinese authorities during a planned demonstration Thursday in support of Falun Gong. From left are Keith's wife, Donna Ware, Court Pearman of Orlando, Fla., Mark Gardner of Orange County, Calif., and Scott Chinn of New York City. The group held a news conference after arriving from China at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich., Friday, Feb. 15, 2002. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) "I was trying to say 'Falun Gong is good,' but they kept hitting me over and over again," Mark Gardner of Orange County, Calif., said as he arrived in Detroit on a Northwest Airlines flight from China.

China expelled 33 Americans, four Britons and five Germans detained during a protest Thursday by foreign members of Falun Gong, diplomats said Friday.

Gardner had a black eye. Many of the others had dirty and torn clothes, and some were not wearing shoes at the Detroit airport as they left to catch connecting flights to other cities.

Gardner said he was beaten repeatedly by the police in Tiananmen Square.

Chinese police said they detained more than 40 foreigners during the protest, the biggest yet by foreign followers on the square against a 21/2-year-old Chinese crackdown on the meditation group.

The protest came a week before a visit by President Bush (news - web sites) to Beijing. Possibly to avert a diplomatic backlash, Chinese authorities took the unusual step of issuing a statement saying they had treated the detainees humanely.

Falun Gong activists in New York said as many as 100 followers planned to take part in the protest, but those at the Detroit airport said they did not know the whereabouts of the others. The Chinese authorities' statement said 14 Europeans were detained in their hotel rooms before the protest.

The activists said protesters tried to unfurl a banner and shout protest slogans.

While many previous protests by the group took police by surprise, authorities appeared to have been prepared for Thursday's event.

Checkpoints were set up around Tiananmen Square and foreigners forced to show identification and open their bags for inspection. Foreign reporters were turned away or held near the square, preventing them from seeing clearly what happened.

In November, 35 Western members of Falun Gong were expelled after a protest on the square.

[...] Thousands of members have been detained and activists abroad say 358 have been killed. [...]

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