AP: 25 Falun Gong Members, Including Canadians, Detained in Iceland

June 11, 2002

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Twenty-five people, some of them Canadians, were detained on their arrival in Iceland on Tuesday and questioned about the Falun Gong movement.

Iceland is trying to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from disrupting a four-day visit this week by China's President Jiang Zemin. Iceland says it does not have enough police to deal with a very large demonstration.

Oskar Thormundsson, chief superintendent of police at Keflavik airport in southwest Iceland, said the 25 arrived on two flights early Tuesday morning from Boston and New York. Besides the Canadians, they include Americans, Chinese and Australians. Thormundsson said the men and women, aged between 25 and 60, would probably be sent back to the United States.

China banned the group in July 1999, calling it a threat to communist rule. Falun Gong [practitioners] say it is a peaceful meditation movement and that hundreds of [practitioners] have died as a result of police abuse and torture during the Chinese crackdown.

In Reykjavik, Icelandic [practitioners] of Falun Gong were consulting with police chiefs to outline their plans for a series of protests.

Ministry of Justice officials said last week that they had been alerted by Interpol and authorities in countries such as the United States to plans for a large protest against Jiang.