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Tuesday, April 25, 2000
 
Sect rocks Tiananmen on demo anniversary

REUTERS in Beijing
Updated at 11.23am:
Several dozen members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement were detained in Tiananmen Square on Tuesday for demonstrating to mark the anniversary of a mass sit-in that sparked a crackdown by the mainland.

Witnesses said small groups of protesters emerged from the crowds of Chinese and foreign tourists to strike the meditative postures of their faith or unfurl small yellow banners with the movement's name written in red characters.

They were pounced on by some of the hundreds of plainclothes and uniformed police watching over the vast square.

The protesters were dragged into white police vans standing by and driven away, the witnesses said.

The biggest group of protesters taken away, about 15 strong, included a small child, witnesses said.

One woman did a solo sprint across the main road onto the square before being halted by police and driven off, they said.

Small, brief and peaceful protests have been a feature on Tiananmen Square since April 25 last year, when 10,000 Falun Gong members staged a peaceful sit-in around the leadership compound nearby.

They were calling for what the movement calls official harassment and for official recognition of their faith.

The Communist Party responded by banning the movement and launching a massive crackdown which included sending some of the movement's leaders to prison for up to 18 years.

Tuesday's demonstrations involved many more people than the daily attempts at protest and showed signs of organisation that took advantage of the presence of thousands of tourists.

Handfuls of Falun Gong demonstrators popped up in different parts of the square to unfurl their small banners and keep police busy, the witnesses said.

Police swarmed through a nearby main railway station checking identity papers and asking questions. They did the same at a subway station close to the square.

The Communist Party was stunned by the April 25 demonstration last year and unnerved by Falun Gong's nationwide organisational skills.

Alongside the arrests of leading members, Beijing launched a drive to discredit the group and root out adherents from state organisations, schools and factories.

It also launched a major propaganda campaign, blaming Falun Gong for causing 1,500 deaths by suicide or from refusing medical care.

Authorities seized on the international sympathy the group has gained to brand it a tool of foreign forces bent on destabilising the mainland.

Spokesmen for Falun Gong, which claims between 70 million and 100 million adherents, have accused Beijing of arresting more than 35,000 people since it was banned.

At least 5,000 members have been sent to labour camps without trial, the group says.

The government says Falun Gong never had more than two million members in China and adds that fewer than 100 adherents have been jailed.

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