Testimony: A Practitioner From Norway Tells of Her Arrest in Paris

From the 21st to the 26th of January, 2004, I, a Norwegian citizen and a Falun Gong practitioner, went to Paris, together with other Falun Gong practitioners from around the world, with the wish to participate in the Chinese New Year Celebration Parade in Paris.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese cultivation system, with slow movement exercises and meditation, where the practitioner emphasise raising his personal moral character based on the universal principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.

Due to pressure from the Chinese government, Falun Gong practitioners were not allowed to participate and to show to the people of France the beauty of the ancient Chinese culture, which I came to know after practising Falun Gong. We wanted to show Chinese drummers, heavenly girls dancing with a lotus flower in their hands, fan dance, lion dance and a float, all beautifully decorated and practitioners wearing beautiful Chinese costumes.

On Monday the 26th of January, on my departure day, I wanted to spend some time to look around and to see the "Arc de Triomphe Etoile" before heading to the airport. On my way I met some practitioners from Taiwan who needed some help to find the way, so we decided to go together. On our way from the roundabout, along the Avenue des Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe Etoile some of us where handing out flyers that explained the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. We were doing this simply to help stop the persecution of innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Some of us kindly offered some passing policemen a flyer, and they seemed very happy to receive the information. I had my yellow Falun Dafa scarf around my neck and my wheeled suitcase in hand. Then approximately half way towards Arc de Triomphe Etoile, around 2.30pm -- 3pm, about 8 policemen surrounded a Taiwanese women and me standing on the street talking. They said something to us in French, and I said that I did not understand French and asked them to speak English. They then forced my hand out from under my jacket, which I had there to prevent the snow from damaging the flyers I was holding. I asked them, "What is the matter? What wrong have we done? Why are you doing such a thing?" They did not wish to talk to us, and said very little. I did never get any real explanation.

I later came to understand that we were detained only because we handed out flyers, and perhaps because I was wearing my yellow scarf with the word "Falun Dafa", and the Chinese characters for "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance".

One policeman came and demanded to see our identity with a sharp and angry voice, saying it was an identity check. Some other practitioners from Taiwan came toward us wondering what was going on. I gave the police my passport with the understanding that they just wanted to see it and then let us go again without any more hustle. The policeman took it, and did not return it. When we saw that it was not a regular identity check, some of us started to tell the policemen about the persecution, while other started to sing "Falun Dafa Hao", do the exercises and send righteous thoughts. Some of the policemen started to smile, while others did not know what to think.

When the police bus came, the police said the six of us had to enter the bus. One Taiwanese woman did not want to enter the bus, so at least two policemen dragged her inside while she was sitting in the lotus position. Inside the bus we were locked behind the glass and were not allowed to go to the toilet. We tried to talk to them, but they did not respond or seem to care. Then discovering that the only tool I had were a pen and some paper, I started to write down some words for them to read, as to know more about the persecution in China and about what wrong they did and that we were innocent.

After some time I called my fellow practitioner from Norway to tell her what was happening, but the police did not like me making phone calls. They said I had to hang up, which I firmly resisted, saying that it was my right to make a phone call. Then they did not say anything.

After quite some time, we arrived at the police station at Rue de Rambouillet. There we were body searched, and they also searched my suitcase. When I asked them what they were looking for, one of them said, "a gun." I almost started to laugh, and asked the policeman with a smile whether he thought I looked like a criminal. He responded with a no. I again asked them why we were arrested. They still did not want to give us much information, except one policeman said; "This is not a particularly good day to give out flyers", as I understood, indicating that, had it been another day nothing like this would have happened. Another time I asked why we were arrested, one policeman responded, that we were not arrested, saying that he had not put any handcuffs on us. But why then could we not move freely, wherever we wanted, instead of being forced to sit at the police station?

After approximately three hours, around 5.25pm, and maybe due to the fact that I had a plane to catch, they suddenly gave me my passport and said that I was free to go, still not giving any explanations of the ill treatment. Neither did they mention that I could not give out more flyers.

My fellow practitioners from Taiwan were still detained when I hurried to try to catch my airplane.

I was shocked by the treatment of the French police. I honestly did not think it was possible, that the police in a democratic western country could act that way. The police are supposed to protect good people, not imprison them. Such an act can only be harmful to the country itself and to its citizens. I think the French authority should apologise for their behaviour and prevent it from ever happening again. I hope you can help me.

Yours faithfully,

Terese Eriksen

Oslo, Norway