MB Civic

By SARA KUGLER
The Associated Press
August 26, 2008

NEW YORK, Aug. 25 — Eight American
activists jailed by the Chinese for
protesting during the Olympics said
Monday after being sent home from
Beijing that they were interrogated for
hours, deprived of sleep and accused of
having ties to the U.S. government.

The activists were sent home late Sunday
during the closing ceremony. Some were
activists and artists who demonstrated
against China’s occupation of Tibet; others
were bloggers who photographed the
protests.

Speaking outside City Hall in New York, the
detainees said they were kept in cells and
were allowed to leave only for
interrogations, which sometimes lasted for
hours. Some said they emerged more
dedicated than ever to their cause.

“Our conditions were uncomfortable, but
because we’re Westerners, we suffered
absolutely nothing compared to what the
Tibetan people suffer,” said John
Watterberg, a 30-year-old musician who
lives in New York.

The U.S. government expressed
disappointment Sunday that the Olympics
did not bring more “openness and
tolerance” in China.

China’s Foreign Ministry said in a
statement Monday that “the protesters
participated in ‘Tibet independence’
activities and that is against China’s law.”

The statement said China hoped “the
relevant countries will teach their citizens
to abide and respect China’s laws.”

Watterberg and another New Yorker,
Jeremy Wells, said they were tackled and
detained the evening of Aug. 20 while
staging a demonstration with two other
activists outside the National Stadium, one
of the main Olympics venues.

During an initial interrogation, they were
told they had broken Chinese law and
would be held for 10 days. They were then
moved to a detention center, where they
were locked in a cell and allowed to leave
for interrogations that lasted between four
and 16 hours.

With lights shining on them, prisoners
were locked into high-backed metal chairs
with bars across their laps.

Interrogators, sometimes speaking
through interpreters, would not let them
sleep and accused them at times of
working for state-funded groups and
organizations that had ties to the U.S.
government, the activists said.

“They asked about our actions, our roles,
about our lives — everything from where I
went to high school to everything I ate in
China,” Wells said.

Detainees said they wore dirty uniforms of
red T-shirts and black shorts. Drinking
water was turned on for only 15 minutes a
day, so prisoners would scramble to fill old
soda bottles or other containers.

“It was the scariest — it was beyond
anything I could imagine in a movie,” said
Jeff Rae, a 28-year-old photojournalist
from New York. Rae said he was
videotaping a demonstration when he was
detained Aug. 18.

Some of the detainees said they asked
daily to speak with the U.S. Embassy but
were not allowed to do so until a day or
two after they were imprisoned.

They said they were given no warning
about their release and were not told why
they were being let go. Once the prisoners
were rounded up and put into vans,
possessions that had been seized days
earlier were returned to them. The
luggage the detainees had left at their
hotel rooms was also rounded up and
given back.

Many detainees said the Chinese officials
kept some of their electronics, like
cameras, laptops and media cards.