On the morning of February 22, three practitioners who had participated in the peaceful appeal in Beijing, Ms. Chunquan Lee, Mr. Hui Lu and Mr. Steve Ispas, held a press conference at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. At the press conference they talked about the abuse they suffered at the hands of the Beijing police and said, "China's persecution of Falun Gong is state terrorism"
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| Ms. Chunquan Lee | Mr. Hui Lu |
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| Mr. Steve Ispas | Reporter interviewing practitioners |
The three of them returned to SF after having been followed, beaten, kidnapped and detained by Chinese police.
Chinese police push American citizens away from US Embassy
Practitioners Hui Lu and Eugene were surrounded and forcefully body-searched by several policemen when walking along the street near Tiananmen Square. When Hui confronted them, asking why they illegally searched people, the police answered, "You are not allowed to ask." The police did not find anything on them and had to let them go, but they assigned 7 to 8 policemen to follow them. The practitioners took a taxi to the US embassy to get help. Chinese police stationed at US embassy claimed that the embassy was closed (Feb. 14 was Thursday) after examining Hui's US passport. The police following Hui talked to the guard at the US embassy, and the latter ordered Hui and Eugene to leave the embassy.
Hui said that as a US citizen, he felt it was unacceptable to be ordered to leave his embassy just because of a few words from a Chinese policeman.
Kidnapping at Qianmen (a building close to Tiananmen) and airport
Hui said that after they left the embassy, Eugene felt the situation to be very dangerous. Eugene took a taxi to the airport and planned to leave China. As soon as he arrived at the airport, he was kidnapped into a police van and taken to a detention center.
Several hours later Hui was kidnapped near Qianmen and taken to the same detention center.
"Unbelievable atrocities."
Steve Ispas called the behavior of Chinese police "unbelievable atrocities." While he, David Coot and Chunquan Lee were walking in the tunnel leading to Tiananmen Square, they were thrown to the ground and beaten by the police. Chunquan, 24, was beaten very badly. Her eyeglasses were broken, and her face was cut and bleeding. Police stepped on her neck, and it was very difficult for her to even breath. Then police pulled her from ground and kicked her. She had bruises all over her body. When she attempted to protest, a policeman first strangled her neck with Chunquan's scarf so she could not speak and then just stuffed the thick scarf into her mouth. The bloodstain on her scarf could clearly be seen.
The two western practitioners Steve and David were also surrounded by police and beaten. They were taken to a detention center for interrogation. Their requests to meet US embassy officials were refused, and police confiscated all of their personal belongings. When Chunquan questioned the police why they snatched her personal belongings and whether they knew it was stealing, the Chinese policemen replied, "It is not called stealing. This is China." When Chunquan expressed she would report the inhuman treatment to American government, the police said, "Do as you wish."
During 24 hours they were detained, when the police attempted to create a false impression of humane treatment of practitioners by providing them food in front of a video camera, the practitioners resolutely declined. On February 15, when Chunquan tried to stop police from beating another female practitioner while waiting on a bus to airport, she was beaten again. When Chunquan refused to get on the airplane, she was dragged onto the airplane.
State terrorism
Chunquan Lee talked about why she went to Tiananmen Square. She said that Falun Gong teaches people to be good, and when kind people were attacked, she could not remain silent. She said that Americans advocate freedom of speech and freedom of religion. These beliefs under no circumstances should be compromised. What she had experienced in China told her that Jiang's regime has totally adopted a policy of state terrorism.
The United Nations International Education Development was the first to point out that the Jiang regime's violent assault on practitioners of Falun Gong is a case of state terrorism. In its statement at the sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, IED stated state terrorism in the form of government terror against its own people - "terrorism from above" - produces far more gross violations of human rights than any other form of terrorism. (For more details, please see: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/9/9/13711.html)
Hui Lu said that after he and his fellow practitioners experienced the kidnapping and the police brutality, they have felt firsthand what state terrorism is.
Category: News & Events
