Tuesday, February 19, 2002

As President Bush heads to China to boost diplomatic relations, two Bay State residents are speaking out about the beatings they say they and more than 40 others suffered last week by Chinese authorities who are cracking down on the spiritual movement known as Falun Gong.

"The situation in China is very grave," said Riordan Galluccio, 34, of West Roxbury.

"We are trying to let people know about the persecution in China."

Galluccio and Maria Salzman, 29, of Quincy, yesterday described the police beatings and lockup they endured after joining several dozen protesters, including 33 Americans, for a peaceful protest Thursday in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

"The Chinese were picking up anyone who looked Western," Galluccio said, describing the tense scene when, he said, he and others were dragged out of Tiananmen Square, beaten in a police van and again in a detention center for 30 hours before being expelled from the country.

Galluccio said the Americans were denied food and water, and the chance to talk to interpreters or someone from the American embassy.

The protest was the largest yet by foreign followers against China's outlawing of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that combines meditation, exercise and self-improvement teachings.

First introduced in 1992, the movement has drawn millions of followers worldwide, but was banned by Chinese authorities in 1999 as a threat to communist rule.

"A lot of people don't know (Falun Gong) practitioners are tortured and beaten to death," added Salzman, who said she could hear kicking and screaming in another detention room at the police station in Beijing.

"What happens there is totally inhumane," Salzman said.

Falun Gong activists say more than 350 people, including children, have been beaten to death since China [...]banned it in 1999.

Salzman and Galluccio said that before they were dragged away by police in Tiananmen Square, they had a chance to talk to many Chinese who, they said, were happy to hear that Falun Gong was allowed to be practiced outside of their country.

"Many people were giving me thumbs up," Salzman said.

President Bush is expected to speak about human rights abuses during his visit to China later this week.

http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/chin02192002.htm