Jason accepting AP interview

DETROIT, March 30 -- Falun Gong practitioner Jason Pomerleau, who was detained while distributing Falun Gong materials near Zhongguancun by Beijing police, arrived at Detroit Airport at 11:30 a.m. on March 30. Dozens of practitioners from Detroit and Warsaw, Canada welcomed Jason home. An AP reporter conducted a one-hour interview by telephone.

The twenty-five year-old Pomerleau, a laboratory technician at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said he and his girlfriend Christine Loftus arrived in Beijing on March 26. His brother, Daniel, had arrived in Beijing on March 25, but had not met either of them at the airport and was missing. The purpose of the trip was to tell Chinese people that Falun Dafa is good. On the afternoon of March 28, Jason and Christine were surrounded by a dozen police and security officers and dragged behind a building and into a parking garage while they were distributing bookmarks bearing Falun Gong pictures and truth clarifying VCDs on a street near Zhongguancun. Later, they were pushed into a police car and taken to a Beijing police station.

Jason asked the security personnel why they had arrested them. The security guard pointed to the Falun Dafa on bookmarks said, "Because of these four words: Fa Lun Da Fa. This is a violation of the law in China." Jason had taught English in Beijing for over a year and could converse in Chinese. He heard the spectators say to the police that they should not arrest people like this. However the security guards and police still dragged Jason and Christine into the police car. Jason and Christine were detained separately, and there was no word what had happened to his brother, Daniel. Until he returned to the US he still did not know Danielí s situation. He was very worried. What he didní t know was that Daniel had also been arrested and was beaten by Beijing police and held for 48 hours before being put on a plane back to Boston.

Jason was detained in three different places in two days. Fortunately, he did not suffer beatings, but he was denied the right to call his embassy. His request to contact his family members was also denied. Many of his personal belongings were confiscated, including a copy of Zhuan Falun, Essentials for Further Advance, a Walkman and backpack.

Jason told reporters that distributing Falun Gong materials was part of the plan of the trip. He said he did not realize how deeply the Chinese people were deceived. He said during the two days, many Beijing residents he had spoken to showed sympathy to Falun Gong. They all wanted to have the Dafa information, but some were afraid to take it. They all were shocked to learn that so many practitioners had been tortured to death.

Jason said because he understood the importance for the Chinese people to know the truth of Falun Gong, he felt the trip was worthwhile even if he only helped one person know the truth about Falun Gong.