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A day of celebration abruptly turned ugly as policemen broke up a parade held by Falun Gong practitioners on May 7 in Surabaya City in East Java, Indonesia. A desire to please the Chinese Communist regime lay behind the day’s violence.
Over 300 Falun Gong practitioners, drawn from across Indonesia but also including individuals from Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, had gathered for the parade, which was to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day and the anniversary of Surabaya City.
When policemen rushed the practitioners, some were beaten, and some of the violence was caught on camera by four journalists there to film the parade. The journalists then also came in for rough treatment.
Lukman Rozak, a Trans 7 TV reporter, told NTD Television, “I heard somebody shout ‘Reporters close all cameras. Reporters close all cameras.’ Then suddenly my hand holding the camera was hit. Some policemen beat me and kicked me. Although my camera was fine, I feel they have disturbed my work. I am going to sue them. I don’t accept this.”
According to a Malaysian practitioner who took part in the parade, three Falun Gong practitioners were taken to the police station. They were immediately released.
East Java Police spokesperson Comr. Rachmat Mulyana referred to the possibility of Falun Gong activities in Indonesia having a negative effect on the relationship between Indonesia and China in comments made to the Jakarta Post.
“The movement is banned in China. We are concerned that if we allow it to exist, it would have a negative impact on the Chinese-Indonesian community in East Java. If it’s just a parade, it’s okay. We respect the relationship between Indonesia and China,” Rachmat said.
Journalists protested the attacks on those covering the May 7 parade, and the East Java Police Internal Affairs Division is questioning 21 policemen about the attacks on journalists.
The spokesperson for the East Java Falun Gong practitioners told the Jakarta Post that they planned on filing a complaint against the police for violence.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that involves practicing five meditative exercises and living according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The Chinese regime began a campaign to “eradicate” this practice in July, 1999.
The incident in Surabaya City follows on the arrests in Vietnam in June 2010 of two Falun Gong practitioners who had broadcast short wave radio into China. Vietnamese government documents made clear the two arrests were due to a desire to please the Chinese regime.
Levi Browde of the Falun Dafa Information Center, which reports on the persecution of Falun Gong in China, said, "Over the past several months, the Chinese regime has escalated persecution inside China and now we are apparently seeing those under its influence in the region doing the same. The whole thing smacks of desperation, and a desperate regime is a dangerous one."
