Falun Gong couple in Hong Kong airport nightmare
News of a Chinese espionage
ring spying on Australian members of the Falun Gong meditation group sent shivers
down the spine of Coast book wholesaler, John Dowie.
The 53-year-old Peregian
Beach resident has been practicing Falun Gong meditation for about five years.
He
claims he was a victim of information gathered by Chinese spies, after he was
arrested and detained in secret for two days in Hong Kong before being deported
back to Australia.
"I never got past the customers barrier in Hong
Kong. They were waiting for me and as soon as I handed over my passport I was
arrested," John said, about his Kafkaesque nightmare which began on June30,
2002 when his Cathay Pacific flight touched down at Hong Kong airport.
"It
was so fast, a little over 20 seconds and I was gone. It’s frightening how quickly
you can just disappear over there and for 24 hours nobody, including my wife Amanda
who’d flown with me but wasn’t detained at the airport, knew where I was or where
I had gone."
John and Amanda had flown to Hong Kong to take part in
a "peaceful appeal" asking for the release of all Falun Gong practitioners
detained by the Chinese.
His wife passed through customers before him without
any problems, but as soon as John handed over his passport, his nightmare unfolded.
"Within
seconds they’d whisked away my passport and a policeman led me into a room containing
about 20 or 30 police and immigration officials."
"Finally, after
about 24 hours, they allowed me to make a call to the Australian Embassy representative
but he said sorry, there was nothing he could do for me."
Meanwhile,
John’s wife Amanda was petrified and feverishly trying to find her husband who
had simply vanished from the customs area at the airport.
"For 24 hours
she phoned Hong Kong immigration and they said they knew nothing about me, was
she shure I had arrived in Hong Kong?
"When she told them that she’d
been sitting next to me on the plane and had gone through customers ahead of me,
they told her she must be mistaken."
After about 24 hours John was
moved to another tiny cell with other detainees at the airport.
Eventually
his wife found someone in Hong Kong to help and she was able to speak to her husband
on the phone.
After two days detention, police came to John’s cell and ordered
him to pack his bags – a flight was ready to take him back to Australia.
John
said Chinese officials used his original plane ticket to send him home.
After
returning home, he tried to get answers from the government.
His local MP
Alex Somlyay wrote to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer on his
behalf.
But Mr Downer said he couldn’t do anything.
"He wrote
telling us that he’d contacted his Chinese counterpart and was told that we were
arrested for security reasons and that was the end of the matter."
John
said Australian members of Falun Gong had known for years that they were being
spied on, but couldn’t prove it.
Posting
date: 22/Jun/2005
Original article date: 12/Jun/2005
Category: Media Report
