BEIJING (AP) - Chinese police refused Wednesday to say where they were holding about three dozen Westerners detained for demonstrating in Beijing's Tiananmen Square against China's crackdown on the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect.
Swedish Ambassador Kjell Anneling said China's Foreign Ministry informed his embassy that protesters would be deported on the first available flight. He said the Chinese didn't specify where protesters were being held, where they would be flown to or whether they would be expelled together.
The U.S. Embassy said Wednesday it was still gathering information on any Americans detained.
Anneling said seven Swedes were among those who staged Tuesday's demonstration, in which participants sat in the lotus position, chanted and unveiled a banner.
Official Chinese media said Tuesday that 35 protesters were detained, given warnings and would be expelled for breaking Chinese laws on protest and assembly as well as defying the ban on Falun Gong, which China calls an ``evil cult.''
As Chinese tourists stood by, police pushed demonstrators into vans and drove them off the square, China's symbolic political heart and a favorite venue for protests by Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong said demonstrators included people from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Falun Gong identified one of those detained as Zenon Dolnyckyj, from Toronto. Canadian Embassy spokeswoman Jennifer May said she had also been told all the protesters would be expelled. She couldn't say if they would face charges.
Demonstrators said they wanted to publicize the plight of Falun Gong followers detained since China outlawed the group in July 1999.
Falun Gong claims 300 followers have died from torture and mistreatment in police custody. Thousands have been sent to prisons and labor camps. The group attracted millions of Chinese followers in the 1990s and says its philosophies and slow-motion exercises promote health and citizenship.
China's government accuses Falun Gong of causing more than 1,600 deaths by driving followers insane or encouraging them to substitute meditation for medicine.
Anneling said the protests would focus attention on allegations of brutality against Falun Gong followers. He said Sweden, like many European nations, has told Chinese officials that their treatment of followers ``is not acceptable.''
Meanwhile, Falun Gong said Wednesday it feared follower Teng Chunyan, sentenced to three years in prison last year for helping publicize the crackdown, might have been tortured and brainwashed. China's official Xinhua News Agency ran a report Tuesday quoting Teng saying she had renounced the sect.
"China Expels 6 Americans, 29 Others After Falun Gong Protest"
By John Leicester (Associated Press, Thursday, November 22, 2001)
BEIJING, Nov. 21 -- China swiftly expelled six Americans and more than two dozen other Westerners who protested in the heart of Beijing against the government's repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
By this evening -- little more than 24 hours after they chanted, sat cross-legged and unveiled a banner on Tiananmen Square -- all 35 protesters had been forced to leave the country, the official New China News Agency said.
The news agency said they were treated with "humanitarian concern," contradicting Falun Gong assertions and other reports that some were slapped and kicked by police. Police told them they broke laws on protest, assembly and cults, the agency said. China's government views Falun Gong as a cult.
The demonstrators called for an end to China's often brutal crackdown on Falun Gong. Falun Gong says more than 300 practitioners have died from torture and abuse in custody since China's communist leaders outlawed the movement in July 1999. Thousands of followers have been imprisoned.
Chinese Falun Gong members are regularly detained and often beaten and kicked for demonstrating at Tiananmen Square, the nation's symbolic heart. But Tuesday's protest was the first to involve only Western supporters of the movement.
Falun Gong said demonstrators included Australians, Canadians, French, Germans, Irish, Israelis, Swedes, Swiss, Britons and Americans. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said the six Americans detained had all been expelled by this evening. It did not give their names.
Seven demonstrators were Swedes, said the Swedish ambassador to China, Kjell Anneling. He said the protest would focus attention on allegations of official brutality against Falun Gong adherents.
Sweden, like many European countries, has told Chinese officials that their treatment of Falun Gong followers "is not acceptable," Anneling said.
Falun Gong identified one detainee as Zenon Dolnyckyj, of Toronto, a practitioner for three years. Falun Gong helped him "turn from a life of drugs and mischief," the group said in a statement.
Falun Gong attracted members in the late 1990s with a combination of slow-motion exercises and beliefs that mix traditional Chinese thinking with the teachings of its founder, Li Hongzhi.
The group used to claim a following in the tens of millions, mostly but not exclusively in China, where Li had been a government clerk. He now lives in exile in the United States.
Falun Gong followers believe that Li's teachings and Falun Gong meditation promote health, good citizenship and even supernatural powers for accomplished practitioners.
China's government accuses Falun Gong of causing more than 1,600 deaths by driving followers insane or encouraging them to substitute meditation for medicine. Officials have imprisoned followers in labor camps and reeducation centers to force them to renounce the group.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company