Capital alert for NPC congress

STORY: POLICE have arrested at least two protesters of the banned Falun Gong group as authorities stepped up operations to ensure the upcoming annual session of the National People's Congress, the mainland's top legislative body, ran smoothly.

A Falun Gong member was arrested and taken away at about 4.50 pm, after attempting to stage a protest on Tiananmen Square.

The man, wearing black clothes and glasses, openly challenged the prohibition on performing Falun Gong exercises in public by taking up a physical stance typical of those practiced by the group. He was stopped almost immediately by plain-clothes police and taken away in a police car.

"These (protests) happen every day,"' a witness at the scene of the arrest said.

Since the group was outlawed last year, many members have risked arrest and detention to stage protests around the country.

Among those who have been arrested so far is the daughter of a high-ranking mainland official.

The daughter of Wang Feng, formerly executive vice-minister of post and telecommunications, was recently detained after she preached the merits of the Falun Gong from a car.

Ms Wang has still not been released, sources said.

Police have maintained a heavy presence has been maintained around Tiananmen Square.

At the Great Hall of the People, where the congress is to kick off on Sunday, security units have been posted at every 50 metres.

All suspicious looking people and illegal immigrants from outside Beijing who cannot produce a Beijing residency card are being arrested and detained.

Police have been put on high alert until the meeting closes on March 16, and were going through their "blacklist" of Falun Gong organisers to ensure that none came to Beijing during the period, a New York-based rights group said.

The Human Rights in China group also said Beijing dissident and member of the outlawed China Democracy Party (CDP), Ma Qiang, had been detained three times since February 24 and was believed to be in police custody since February 29.

The family of Wang Jinbo, another party member in Lunan county, Shandong province, said he was still in custody after being detained on February 22.

In the meantime, Beijing authorities have engaged in frantic last-minute preparations for the conference. Workers were busily cleaning the Chang'an Boulevard yesterday, in preparation for the legislators' arrival.

Government vehicles have been ordered to stay off the streets unless absolutely necessary to ensure that lawmakers from outside Beijing will not get bogged down in the capital's traffic jams while the congress is in session.

Capital residents have expressed little interest in the meeting.

"I am not interested in politics," a taxi driver said. "All I want is to concentrate on my business and earn good money."