Monday, May 20, 2002

About 1,700 people marched through downtown Toronto yesterday to protest the Chinese government's ill treatment of Falun Gong practitioners.

The march, which began at Queen's Park and ended in Chinatown on Spadina Ave., was to support individuals still subject to torture by Chinese police.

Zhao Ming, a graduate student at Ireland's Trinity College, was one of several individuals who shared tales of abuse and torture.

"The situation in China is more serious than people realize," Ming said. "There are more and more people being persecuted as we speak."

While on a trip to China in December 1999, he was detained by police and sent to a labour camp, where he was beaten and tortured.

Ming said he was often deprived of sleep. On a number of occasions he was tortured with electric shocks.

Ming was released earlier this year after appeals from the international community, including Amnesty International and the Canadian government.

http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/ts.ts-05-20-0036.html