A.4 Media Report Excerpts on the First Anniversary of April 25 Zhongnanhai Appeal

Associate Press reported:

"In a swirl of chaos, Chinese police detained dozens of Falun Gong protesters who unfurled banners and meditated Tuesday on Tiananmen Square, defiantly marking a massive demonstration a year ago that prompted a government ban on the spiritual movement.

Despite swarms of plainclothes and uniformed police who patrolled the vast square, small-scale protests erupted in all directions. One group of 15 people sat down together to meditate and were pulled to their feet and pushed into a minibus.

Police quickly tackled four people who unfurled a banner, punching one man in the face. Police muzzled a middle-aged woman and pulled her backward as she tried to yell. A group of at least six other women, all carrying children in their arms, were bundled into a van on the square's edge.

More than 100 people were taken away, with most arrests occurring in the morning."

Wall Street Journal published an Editorial titled "Falun Dafa Heros" on April 26, 2000. It reports:

"More than 100 followers of the Falun Dafa school of meditation gathered yesterday in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to peacefully protest the brutal suppression of their faith. As they sat cross-legged or unfurled banners, they were beaten by police and dragged away to waiting vans. They may receive long sentences of hard labor for the "crime" of asking for the freedom to follow their religious beliefs, a freedom that is guaranteed in the Chinese constitution but has never been honored.

Yesterday's gathering came exactly one year after 10,000 followers surprised China's leaders by gathering in the capital. Frightened by the group's power to mobilize support, the Communist Party branded the movement an "evil cult" and banned it. The anniversary may have special resonance for the practitioners and China's leaders, but the protests were not an extraordinary event. Police arrest Falun Dafa adherents on a daily basis -- in Tiananmen Square, and also in towns throughout China where fewer tourists and journalists can observe."