March 8 2002

The Australian Falun Gong practitioners arrested in Beijing are being sent back to Australia, a spokesman for the group said.

Chris Cominos said he received a telephone message from Michael Molnar just before noon (AEDT) saying the group was being boarded on to a plane.

Mr Cominos said Mr Molnar told him he had been assaulted around the head, as had fellow practitioner David Bryceson.

It is not yet clear how many members of the group, which is outlawed in China, are among those being sent home.

It is believed up to seven Australians, from Sydney and Melbourne, were arrested in Tiananmen Square moments after unfurling a banner in support of the movement.

Those arrested include five people from Melbourne and one from Sydney. Among them is 1964 Tokyo Olympic swimmer Jan Becker.

With her are Mr Molnar and his wife, Candice, both 29, Greg March, 39, and 38-year-old Mr Bryceson, all from Melbourne and David Rubacek from Sydney. Mr Cominos said the group was put on an 8.45am (11.45am AEDT) flight to Australia via Singapore.

He said he was not sure where or when the flight was destined to arrive in Australia.

Meanwhile, about 20 members of the spiritual movement rallied outside the Chinese consulate in Melbourne protesting against the detention of their members in Beijing.

Falun Gong spokeswoman Kati Vereshaka said security guards had surrounded a group of five practitioners who had walked inside the grounds holding a banner ''China stop killing''.

They left the grounds peacefully about an hour later. Mr Cominos said the group would continue to meditate outside the consulate in a bid to show they were harmless.

Yesterday's Beijing protest occurred despite heightened security to prevent demonstrations during the 11-day meeting of the National People's Congress, which meets at the Great Hall of the People next to Tiananmen Square.

The square was once the site of almost daily demonstrations by Chinese Falun Gong protesters.

But a relentless, often brutal crackdown has scared away or driven underground Chinese followers who once numbered in the millions. Thousands of members have been detained, and Falun Gong supporters abroad contend that more than 350 have been killed.

[...]

Other protests by foreigners on the square have involved Americans, Europeans, Japanese and people from more than a dozen other countries.

In the biggest to date, 53 people were detained and expelled from China after a demonstration on February 14.

Some complained they were beaten by police.