AFP: 40-plus foreign Falun Gong followers arrested in Beijing protest

Thursday February 14, 2002 More than 40 foreign followers of the banned Falun Gong group were arrested after attempting to hold a protest on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, witnesses and state media said.

The Thursday demonstration was the second this week and came just days before US President George W. Bush is due here for a state visit, with religious freedom expected to figure in his talks with Chinese leaders.

Around 25 people were seen by an AFP reporter and other eyewitnesses being immediately detained on the vast square when they attempted to unfurl banners or adopt Falun Gong's trademark meditation pose.

Two female followers of the group, the subject of a brutal crackdown since it was banned [...] in 1999, were screaming as they were dragged into a police van, the AFP reporter saw.

Later, the state Xinhua news agency said more than 40 "overseas" Falun Gong followers had been detained in total around the square.

Hundreds of police had been stationed on Tiananmen, and security services appeared to have received prior warning of the demonstration.

[...]

The demonstration was witnessed by a large number of Chinese and Western tourists in Beijing for the week-long holiday, known as Spring Festival, surrounding Tuesday's Lunar New Year.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing groups of Western tourists being stopped at the edge of the square and asked to produce identity papers.

[...]

On Monday two other Western followers of the group, an American and a Canadian, staged a similar demonstration on the square. They were arrested and deported the next day.

The protests bring what is for Beijing deeply unwelcome attention to its crackdown on the group, just a week before Bush visits China.

Religious freedom is expected to be one of the most contentious subjects discussed by Bush in talks with Chinese leaders during his two-day trip beginning on February 21.

Bush is under pressure from domestic religious groups over the subject, particularly following the release in the US Wednesday of what are purported to be leaked Chinese government documents detailing Beijing's drive to crush unauthorized religions.

[...]

Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of Falun Gong followers have been sentenced to jail terms and tens of thousands sent to labour camps since the ban.

The movement says as many as 300 followers have died from brutality in police detention.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020214/1/2hf26.html