4/24/00

BEIJING (Reuters) - 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 China's Communist rulers.

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 symbolic heart of China over which a large portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong gazes.

The protesters -- part of a movement banned by the Communist Party as an ``evil cult'' -- 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.

Protests In Square

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 Chinese 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 organization 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 had tried to minimize the numbers of Falun Gong members -- who usually admit their adherence to the movement if asked whether they belong to it -- getting onto the square.

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.

Witnesses said it was impossible to tell how many people had been detained on a cool, grey day.

Accounts by witnesses of previous demonstrations have tended to underestimate the daily police haul of mostly middle-aged or elderly devotees from distant provinces who risk arrest and possible beatings to plead for a reversal of the official ban.

Lectures On ``Evils'' Of Falun Gong

The government says most of those picked up are given lectures on the ``evil'' nature of Falun Gong -- a synthesis of Buddhism, Taoism and meditation -- and sent home.

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

Alongside the arrests of leading members, Beijing launched a drive to discredit the group and root out adherents from state organizations, 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 destabilizing China.

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

At least 5,000 members have been sent to labor 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.