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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