December 21, 2001

HONG KONG (AP)--After being expelled from China for staging a Falun Gong demonstration, five Western followers of the spiritual sect took their protest Friday to Hong Kong, saying they were beaten and bruised by mainland police.

"When I was sitting in meditation, I was lifted by my hair and pulled by my arms," said Lilian Staf, a Swede who works in London.

Staf said police dragged her away, gripping her so tightly it felt like her skin was being penetrated and leaving her in pain "so intense it made my whole body numb."

The demonstration by 35 foreign Falun Gong followers last month in Beijing's Tiananmen Square was broken up after just a few minutes. Some of the practitioners
said they were surprised at the speed and severity of the response, although police in Beijing are always quick to stop any public Falun Gong activity.

"I did not expect they would go on to beat white people," said Peter Recknagel, a student of Chinese affairs from Frankfurt.

The Westerners said they wanted Chinese citizens to see that the group practices freely in more than 40 countries, although it is banned in mainland China and subjected to an often-brutal crackdown that Falun Gong says has left at least 323 people dead.

China disputes allegations that Falun Gong followers are abused in custody and independent verification is impossible to obtain.

Several of the protesters said they were bloodied or had hair pulled out, while watching others kicked in the face or knocked down during interrogations. The police threatened them and tried to get them to sign statements in Chinese, the Falun Gong followers said.

After practicing their slow-motion meditation exercises in a Hong Kong park early Friday, along with local Falun Gong followers, the five foreigners said they would deliver a letter to the Hong Kong government.

Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong, which continues to enjoy many liberties left over from British colonial days[...]

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One of the foreigners, U.S.-Israeli citizen Leeshai Lemish, said he had removed his shoes in Tiananmen Square to practice his meditation and the shoes stayed behind when police dragged him away.

About 27 hours later, after interrogations in which the Los Angeles resident said he was punched and kicked, Chinese authorities put him on an airplane to Vancouver.

"I was still barefoot," Lemish said.