Falun Gong Practitioners Detained on Tiananmen Square Sunday

Editor: Below is a report from AP.

Chinese Sect Members Detained

April 23, 2000

By The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) -- On alert for protests, police detained followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement Sunday on Tiananmen Square, including a group of 11 women and a child who were herded into a van and driven away.

Another person was taken away for trying to unfurl a banner and at least six others were detained individually. Because of the throngs of visitors on the huge square, it was impossible to see how many practitioners were taken away in total. But police regularly detain 40 to 50 there each day, sometimes more.

Police have stepped up surveillance of the square and railroad and bus stations ahead of Tuesday's anniversary of a protest by 10,000 Falun Gong followers outside Communist Party headquarters in Beijing last year.

The protest, the largest in Beijing since the crushing of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989, prompted Chinese leaders to ban Falun Gong three months later and launch a crackdown in which thousands of followers have been detained. Leaders have been imprisoned for up to 18 years.

The government says the group caused the deaths of 1,500 followers and that it is an evil cult which must be eradicated.

The group of 11 women looked like other tourists on the square, sitting together eating fruit and drinking water. But a plainclothes security officer grew suspicious and asked if they were practitioners.

The women ignored several questions until they suddenly stood up, formed a circle and meditated, eyes shut and arms raised above their head. The officer shouted at them to stop and tried forcing their arms down. He kicked one of the women in the thighs.

Uniformed officers ran over and began herding the women, kicking two of them, into a van. A young girl, who was with the women but remained seated during their protest, also was taken away.

An amalgam of traditional beliefs, slow-motion exercises and ideas drawn from its founder, Falun Gong is believed to promote health and morality and has attracted millions of Chinese.