By BOYCE UPHOLT
Norristown Times Herald, August 28, 2008
http://www.timesherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20095080&BRD=1672&PAG=461&dept_id=33380&rfi=6
Jeffrey Rae, formerly of Wayne, returned to the United States Sunday after being held for five-and-a-half days by the Chinese government.
A 1999 graduate of Upper Merion High School, Rae was photographing pro-Tibetan protesters at the Olympics. He was volunteering his time for Students for a Free Tibet, an advocacy group that was worried their protests would go uncovered by the mainstream media. Nine other Tibet supporters were arrested as well, including South Philadelphia resident Brian Conley. All were sentenced to 10 days for "disorderly conduct."
On the phone from New York City, where he does communication work for a labor union, Rae said he was housed in a cell with 11 people, only one a fellow demonstrator. There was no bathroom, just a hole in the floor, and his only chance to drink or bathe came when boiling water turned on for 15 to 20 minutes each day.
Arrested at 1 a.m. Aug. 19, Rae says he was then subjected to 22 hours of interrogation. He reports he was locked into a high-backed metal chair and placed behind bars. "They would interrogate me from outside the cage," he said. "I had no sleep. I was threatened; I was pushed around."
Interrogations continued on a near daily basis. In the middle of the night he would be woken and forced to sign paperwork, according to Rae.
He had no contact with the American embassy until his fourth day in prison; in fact, his interrogators told him "they didn't want to see us," he said. The day before his release, their tune changed.
"They started saying, 'you're making a lot of trouble between our governments,'" he said, and he knew he would be released soon.
A growing media firestorm and pressure from American politicians, including local Congressman Joe Sestak, D-7th Dist., led to his early release, according to Rae's father, William Rae of Wayne.
Most demonstrators who actually broke the law were not arrested, Rae reported. Rae's purported crime - "showing with images what is going on"- was considered more "egregious" by the authorities, he said.
Still, he says he's lucky to be an American. "What happened to us is nothing compared to what happens to Tibetans," he said. "Ten days is a drop in the bucket."
Another prisoner in his cell practiced a religion called Falun Gong, which is banned by the Chinese government, and was sentenced to two years in a labor camp, according to Rae. "When he told me he was getting teary-eyed," said Rae. "People who practice his religion are commonly tortured at the camps."
Rae studied photojournalism at Rochester Institute of Technology. After graduation, he was drawn to the plight of his subjects. "He started feeling bad for them so he got involved in social justice instead," says his father - a conviction that ultimately led him to Beijing.
Rae's eyes have been opened by the experience. "I hope we brought light to what's going on," he said. "It doesn't matter what your politics are - facing two years in labor camp for your religion is wrong."
So what can American citizens do? "Call your politicians," he said. "This is 2008, this is China, one of our biggest trading partners. The U.S. should be at the forefront on human rights issues."