Agence France Presse -- English

April 13, 2005 Wednesday 7:55 AM GMT

HEADLINE: US rights worker in China detained and interrogated

BEIJING, April 13 (AFP) - An American rights worker on a grant from the US National Endowment for Democracy was detained by police Wednesday and interrogated about his work before being fined for not carrying his passport. Adam Briscoe, who works for the Chinese non-government organization Empowerment and Rights, said he was taken from the group's Beijing offices and questioned for several hours about his work in China .

The group has been documenting human rights issues and large-scale petition movements linked to the widespread requisition of land by Chinese officials and government entities. "They came to my office and said I had to go with them," Briscoe, from Houston , Texas , told AFP. "When I told them my passport was at my home, they went to my house to get it and pretty much tore up the place. They searched everywhere," he said. Police then questioned him on his work in China and appeared to know details of the group's research, he said. "They asked me about some sensitive stuff and they seemed to know quite a lot about what we were doing," Briscoe said. "In the end they fined me 500 yuan (60 dollars) for not carrying my passport with me," he said, adding that the police treated him politely. The group has also been working on a report for the UN Human Rights Commission "to expose land confiscation related to construction projects for the Beijing Olympics," group members said. The Empowerment and Rights group is run largely by Chinese, but has three foreign workers, including Briscoe.

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