China yesterday began expelling foreign followers of the banned Falun Gong group arrested during a protest on Tiananmen Square the previous day, as embassies sought news of others detained.
Some of the more than 40 demonstrators seized had been treated roughly and witnessed others being beaten by police, the Falun Gong organization quoted expelled protesters as saying.
The chaotic scenes on the central Beijing square as police swooped on protesters put the spotlight on human rights and religious freedom just a week before US President George W. Bush visits China.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Thursday the president would be "concerned with any arrests for religious purposes in China."
The spiritual group's New York-based headquarters said a group of about 24 foreign practitioners was placed on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit yesterday, but could not give all their names.
In a statement the group said it received a phone call from a practitioner just before the plane took off at 12:10pm.
"I'm on Northwest flight 88 to Detroit. The scene on the square was pretty brutal. Very few practitioners made it to the center of the square before being taken down," it quoted Scott Chinn from New York City as saying.
"I have a bruise ... My wife's pants are torn. A few of us have black eyes and that sort of thing," Chinn said.
Another practitioner, Gina Sanchez from Los Angeles, also called before boarding the plane for Detroit, Falun Gong said.
"I witnessed a lot of beating ... Many practitioners were bleeding and they were denied food and water," the statement quoted Sanchez as saying.
China's state Xinhua news agency said those arrested "were given reprimand, admonition, education and humanitarian treatment."
It added that the protesters had "violated the Chinese law on assemblies, processions and demonstrations, and regulations on dealing with evil cults."
Western diplomats said eight foreign Falun Gong followers, four Britons, two Finns and two French, had been expelled from China on Thursday, just before the protest. Some had been accused of trying to demonstrate.
One Western diplomat said 14 people had been rounded up by Chinese police in a sweep of different hotels ahead of Thursday's protest.
China has not released information about any expulsions, but said those detained would be deported soon.
Falun Gong issued a list of 45 foreign practitioners believed to have been detained, comprising 34 people from the US, four from the UK, two from Sweden, two from Poland, one from New Zealand, one from Canada and one from Brazil.
After their arrest some of the demonstrators were physically mistreated or verbally abused, said an AFP reporter who was also detained.
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