Thursday, April 4, 2002

VASSALBORO -- Jason and Dan Pomerleau were told not to return to China for five years after they were detained by government officials for protesting the treatment of those who practice Falun Gong.

The brothers, who spent the Easter weekend with their parents on Cross Hill Road, were detained and jailed in China last week after separate attempts to speak to strangers about Falun Gong, a practice involving meditation and exercise. The Chinese outlawed the practice in 1999.

Dan, a student at Clark University in Massachussets, and Jason, employed by Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said their trip was rocky from the beginning. Dan, 20, was jailed and interrogated for passing out Falun Gong literature. He claimed he wasn't doing anything illegal, but was detained anyway.

Jason Pomerleau, 25, who introduced Falun Gong to his younger brother, arrived in Beijing a few days after his brother, not knowing of his dilemma.

Jason and his girlfriend, Christine Loftus, were grabbed off a busy street by police and jailed for 42 hours. Jason stayed in the same cell in which his brother had been incarcerated.

Dan, Jason and Christine eventually were released and safely returned to their homes.

Before the Falun Gong was banned, it was not uncommon for people to gather and practice the exercises in public. Jason said it's difficult to practice Falun Gong even indoors.

"The government wanted everybody to sign a form agreeing with the government's hateful opinion about Falun Gong and promise not to practice," he said.

Falun Gong practitioners would not sign the form because they believe in truthfulness, tolerance and compassion. Signing the form would prevent them from practicing.

Jason said he spoke with vendors, students and people walking on the street. Even after he was detained, while being brought to a plane waiting to fly him back home, he expressed his opinion.

"I said, 'Falun Dafa is good,' to some of the airport employees as we passed by and the police frantically told me to be quiet and that I shouldn't make trouble for them," he said. "When we got to the gate, they held me off to the side to wait until nearly all the other passengers had boarded. It is clear to me now that they were very afraid people would know what they were doing."

Jason and Dan said this week they hope persecution of Falun Gong members will have ended by the time they get to return to China. Jason said he is disappointed that he could not reach out to more people.

"Both Christine and I were disappointed when we were grabbed. We just began and we had so many people to talk to," he said.

Jason and Dan joined their sister, father and mother -- who also practices Falun Gong -- for Easter dinner on Sunday. Although concerned about their capture, Diane Pomerleau is proud of her two sons and respects their decisions.

"If they reached one person then they accomplished their goal," Diane Pomerleau said Monday.

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