FALUN GONG

Courtesy Falun Dafa in Kansas The symbol of Falun Dafa is Falun, the Wheel of Dharma. The Taoist Yin-Yang and the Buddha's Dharma-wheel (or Dharma-chakra) are both reflected in the Falun emblem. The swastika is a commonly used symbol in the Buddha school with over two thousand years. It can be found in the various cultures of Europe, India, China and American Indians. In Webster's Dictionary, this symbol is defined as a token of good luck or blessing.

An Overland Park man and a Columbia woman were thought to be among more than 40 Falun Gong devotees detained by Chinese police for protesting in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Chinese authorities said 33 Americans were detained, and all were put on flights out of China today, the U.S. Embassy reported. An Embassy spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities didn't give their destination.

Having received no contact during the day from David Snape, 33, and Sara Effner, 25, relatives and Falun Gong activists said the two probably were among Western demonstrators rounded up by authorities enforcing China's ban on the spiritual sect.

Snape and Effner flew out of Missouri on Tuesday to join dozens of other Falun Gong followers from at least 10 countries for the group's fourth and largest demonstration in Beijing.

The demonstration appeared to have been intricately planned and timed to embarrass Chinese leaders a week before President Bush is to arrive in Beijing.

Both Snape and Effner prepared statements before leaving the United States, explaining their purpose in protesting. Their statements were released to reporters Thursday by the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center, an advocacy group linked to Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi.

Chinese police issued a brief statement, saying that "the trouble caused by these Falun Gong members was intended to prevent the Chinese people from celebrating" the lunar new year.

Falun Gong, which is seen by the Chinese government as an "evil cult" and a threat to public safety, was outlawed in China in July 1999 after drawing tens of millions of followers. The sect's practices blend martial arts and teachings loosely based on traditional Chinese religions.

A brutal government crackdown reportedly has led to the arrest, torture and imprisonment of thousands of Chinese devotees. Several have died in custody, and prison sentences have reached as long as 18 years.

Chinese authorities have tended to go easy, however, on foreign practitioners who travel to China for public protests, analysts said.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Kansas Democrat, called for China to release Snape, his constituent, "quickly and unharmed."

"I am deeply concerned about (his) arrest...and of China's treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in general," Moore said in a news release Thursday.

"Mr. Snape and the other demonstrators arrested with him were protesting for the right to practice their religion....We can only hope that someday soon the people of China will be given this right and will be freed from the yoke of religious persecution."

China expert Robert Weil said the communist nation, while undergoing social and economic change, will not likely see such freedoms soon.

"If the people of China begin to organize in any way that's seen as a challenge to the state -- that's considered a problem. It could extend into a more organized struggle among the workers," said Weil, author of Red Cat, White Cat: China and the Contradictions of Market Socialism.

"Quasi-religious movements have a long history in China of evolving into major political stuff," he said.

David Snape

Brian Kuang, a local organizer for the movement, said Snape had heard about Falun Gong when a co-worker at Cerner Corp. started talking to him in 1999 on an elevator at the North Kansas City-based software company.

"He smiled at me, and I gave him a flier," said Kuang.

He said Snape, who now works for Sprint Corp., told him the flier had stayed on his refrigerator for six months before he began looking into the movement, intrigued by news reports about practitioners being arrested in China.

Since then, Snape has regularly attended weekly meetings at a Johnson County library to exercise and read about Falun Gong, Kuang said. The Internet shows hundreds of his postings about the movement.

In a statement written before Snape left for China, he said he planned to hold up a banner in Tiananmen Square reading: "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" in Chinese.

"I will act in a peaceful manner," he wrote, "and I will not fight back even if (Chinese President Jiang Zemin's) special forces beat me, just like they have unjustly beaten tens of thousands of other Falun Gong practitioners ...

"I want to make more people aware of the persecution in China, and let the Chinese citizens know that Falun Gong is practiced freely around the world, except in China."

Snape's parents, who live near Springfield, Mo., declined comment. They said they were trying to confirm Thursday afternoon that their son had been arrested.

Sara Effner

Effner graduated in 1998 from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg. She moved to Columbia, where she works at a health foods store and is one of a dozen or so active Falun Gong members in the city.

"Falun Gong teaches people to live by high moral standards, give up selfishness and to return to their true natures," she wrote before leaving for China. "Through following its principles, I quickly became a stronger and healthier person, and a genuinely happy person."

Effner first learned about Falun Gong two years ago through news reports about the Chinese government's crackdown on the religious group, said her father, Randall Effner of Jamestown, Mo.

The Effner family has been devoted to the movement ever since, he said.

"We were intrigued by the combination of physical exercises, high moral standards and spiritual practices," said Randall Effner, who is a businessman and practices traditional Chinese medicine.

He added that his daughter often traveled to Kansas City for parades and other Falun Gong events, where she met Snape. The two are friends, he said.

"It's hard to see someone put themselves in harm's way like this," Randall Effner said. "But...we understand why she's doing what she's doing."

The parents also knew that her trip could be dangerous. Randall Effner stayed up all night Wednesday monitoring news from China over the Internet.

By Thursday afternoon, the parents had spoken to U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, and U.S. State Department officials. There was no confirmation that Sara Effner was in custody.

The family's belief in Falun Gong principles has helped them through the uncertainty over Sara's situation.

"Without it, I'd have been a complete basket case," Randall Effner said. "With it, I'm managing, I'm dealing with it, and I think I can deal with it as long as it takes to get Sara back."

Thursday's crackdown

The State Department knew little about the detentions Thursday. "Our embassy has asked for notification of any American citizens who have been detained," spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Boucher said the United States has frequently asked the Chinese to tolerate various religions in its country. "We've gotten responses in some particular matters and particular cases," he said, "and sometimes we've been told to mind our own business."

A reporter for The Washington Post in Beijing said the protesters, who hailed from across Europe and North America, unfurled banners in the square, which was packed with thousands of persons celebrating the new year. The protesters shouted "Falun Gong is good!" before dozens of Chinese security personnel surrounded them.

Seven foreign journalists also were detained. In raids on Beijing hotels, police rounded up 14 additional Falun Gong activists from other countries, The Post said.

In November a similar crackdown on protests drove police to detain 35 followers from 12 countries. All were expelled from the country, ostensibly on visa violations, after spending a night in an underground holding cell.

Author Weil said Thursday's demonstrations appeared to be timed by Falun Gong "to have maximum political impact," given Bush's planned visit on Thursday and Friday.

The two nations are expected to discuss trade and human rights in addition to global terrorism.

"China will want to get these (detentions) out of the way quickly, so it's not a current flashpoint when Bush is there," Weil said.

Adam Montanaro, a spokesman with the Falun Dafa Information Center, agreed: "They don't want to be holding American prisoners when the American president arrives."

OPPRESSION?!OR JUST CRANKINESS