A POLITICAL activist who was detained for two days by police after protesting on the Great Wall of China has spoken to the News about his ordeal.
The whereabouts of Peter Speller had been unknown following his arrest for demonstrating against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
The 22-year-old and five other foreigners had been detained for abseiling over a section of the Great Wall and unfurling a 450 sq ft protest banner.
Peter and fellow members of the Students for a Free Tibet group were held for two days before being deported.
After landing back in the UK, and safely home in Ashdon, near Saffron Walden – with his mother Penny and sister, Alice – he spoke about his treatment at the hands of the Communist regime.
He said: “We had been told that we could spend two years in prison. So we were scared and very nervous. We didn’t know what was going to happen. Many times we thought they would escalate things and we would not be going back.
“We talked to each other to keep moral up but mostly we just waited to be interrogated. That was the most traumatic part of the whole experience.”
The group had been taken to a Beijing police station for questioning about their audacious protest.
Hidden in a bush it was Peter’s job to film and transmit the protest live around the world.
Peter said: “We refused to answer questions but they knew where we had stayed and where our luggage was. But we wouldn’t own up to it being ours without seeing it in case they put drugs inside.
“They said we were being kept in for 10 days as punishment and were told to sign the form in front of us. We refused.
“Then amazingly they took us to another quieter room and said that because we wouldn’t agree to our detention we were being deported,” said Peter. “We laughed. They said it as if being deported was worse.”
After being frogmarched through Beijing Airport the group boarded a plane to Hong Kong.
Peter said: “We were relieved, and proud to have been to China and effectively slapped the regime in the face. It was some feeling. But what we suffered was nothing compared to the suffering of the Tibetan people.
“In Tibet you can be given 10 years in prison for celebrating the Dalai Lama’s birthday. After the horror stories you hear coming out of Tibet what we have been through is nothing.”
