AFP (Agence France-Presse): Police arrest petitioners outside China's Party Congress venue

Sunday, 10-Nov-2002 6:30AMááááá

BEIJING, Nov 10 (AFP) - Police bundled away three people who tried to enter the Great Hall of the People to air their grievances to delegates attending China's landmark Communist Party Congress Sunday, witnesses said.

The two men and a woman were on the sidewalk of the Hall on the west side of central Beijing's Tiananmen Square when they were detained and taken away in police vans, one witness said.

Each had petition letters spelling out their complaints.

"Some of them asked the police what to do with the petitions. Police searched the bags of the others and found the petitions," he said.

"They were taken away before they could do anything."

The incident happened despite heavy security in and around the Great Hall, where the weeklong 16th Party Congress opened Friday.

The imposing Hall is ringed with police and soldiers who stand every few meters from each other with vast open areas around closed to the public.

Police Sunday were also seen walking sniffer dogs along the west side of the square which faces the Hall.

Chinese authorities are anxious to keep a tight grip on security in the city to ensure nothing interferes with the highly choreographed Congress, which is expected to see sweeping changes in leadership as an older generation of leaders cede its place to a slightly younger set.

Delegates have been barred from speaking out of turn to the international media.

Television Broadcasts of CNN and BBC were interrupted for several seconds almost every hour each time they featured the Party Congress in Beijing and referred to either the sporadic attempts at protests by dissidents or by members of the Falun Gong spiritual group.

In Beijing, viewers have seen the screen suddenly go blank with broadcasts continuing a few seconds later.

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/df/Qchina-congress-petition.Ra4p_CNA.html