By The Associated Press April 13, 2000 (New York Times)

BEIJING (AP) -- At least 200 members of the banned Falun Gong group were arrested today during a protest of official efforts to destroy the meditation movement, a human rights group said.

Protesters in and around Tiananmen Square unfurled Falun Gong banners, and police quickly arrested them, beating some, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

Reporters near the square saw police pushing people into two vans and driving them away.

Spokesman for Beijing police and the Ministry of Public Security said they did not know anything about the protest.

The Falun Gong members were protesting official efforts to prevent them from marking the first anniversary of a demonstration that led to a crackdown on the group, the Information Center said.

On April 25 a year ago, about 10,000 members stood silently around the Communist Party leadership compound in Beijing to protest criticism of the group by the state press.

Communist leaders, alarmed by the size and intensity of its following, banned Falun Gong. The group, founded by a former government clerk, was said by officials at one point to have 70 million members.

The government says Falun Gong is an evil cult that led to the death of 1,400 followers and caused great harm to society. The ban "actually protected China's human rights,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said today.

Thousands of Falun Gong members have been detained, but many still meet in secret, and periodically gather in Beijing for protests. Tiananmen Square is an especially important site as the symbolic political heart of China.

Today's protest also called for the U.N. Human Rights Commission to look into conditions for the group in China, the Information Center said. The commission is to vote Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, on a motion criticizing China.