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By SHANNON TANDelegates to the Unity conference hear of rights abuses in China.
WASHINGTON - The man dressed as a police officer slowly hammers bamboo sticks stuck under a woman's fingernails.
Another woman in bloodied white pajamas is being struck by police officers wielding batons. Yet another peers plaintively from behind the bars of a wooden cell.
A recording blares from the speakers: "Torture like this has been happening every day throughout China."
Practitioners of a meditation technique called Falun Dafa, better known as Falun Gong, have been bringing their demonstrations to large national gatherings, including the Democratic Convention in Boston. The group accuses the Chinese government of torturing and killing practitioners. On Saturday, they targeted the Unity conference, which has attracted 8,100 black, Hispanic, Asian-American and American Indian journalists from across the country.
The demonstrators set up banners and poster boards, hung effigies from ropes and tied them to wooden boards. They made up fellow practitioners to look like torture victims. Dressed in bright yellow shirts, they fanned out around the Washington Convention Center.
Members of the group, which is banned in China, distributed CDs, the Falun Dafa Reader, colorful lotus paper flowers and buttons. While they were generally ignored by reporters leaving the convention center, several tourists stopped to snap pictures.
The practitioners hoped to attract media attention by "vividly showing the tortures," said Li Ding, 30, of northern Virginia. "We just want to get the word out."
About 150 Falun Gong practitioners, mostly from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, participated in the daylong demonstration. A dozen of them practiced Falun Gong exercises, their feet splayed and arms outstretched.
"Please tell people about us," North Carolina resident Ming Cheng told a reporter. "That's the journalists' mission."
Other groups also have sought the attention of journalists at the convention. When President Bush spoke at the conference Friday, protesters held a sign with the words, "What questions are being asked?"
An unidentified man also interrupted Bush's speech, shouting, "Shame on you," before being escorted out of the ballroom.
Bush's appearance came a day after Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke at the event. Last week's convention, which has been taking place every five years, was the third such gathering by minority journalists.
It was an opportunity for panelists to question the presidential candidates on issues important to minority voters. Recruiters got to woo job candidates with fancy parties and even a cruise on the Potomac River.
And the convention center was a prime location for anyone wanting to be heard.
That's why Florence Gross, a "50-something" nurse from Baltimore, printed out 1,000 fliers on the Oct. 17 Million Worker March in Washington and headed to a nearby street corner.
"We need the attention," said Gross, who handed out 600 or 700 fliers in a few hours.
She even invited the Falun Gong demonstrators.
Shannon Tan can be reached at 727 445-4174 or shtan@sptimes.com