BEIJING (AP) - A young man identified as an American university student was taken into custody peacefully Sunday after unfurling a banner on crowded Tiananmen Square and shouting [statements] supporting the outlawed Falun Gong [group].

The man, identified by Falun Gong supporters in the United States as Andrew Muir Ellsmore, 21, was quickly driven off in a police van that had been stationed nearby -- standard operating procedure in the public square that represents the heart of Chinese communism.

On a dusty, windswept afternoon when Tiananmen Square was filled with kite-flyers and out-of-town tourists, Ellsmore unfurled his banner -- in the favored Falun Gong color of yellow -- and shouted, in barely intelligible Chinese, "Falun Dafa is good!" The banner said the same thing.

Falun Dafa is another name for the spiritual movement.

Military police who patrol the square quickly swooped in and seized Ellsmore's banner, then blocked his way as he tried to walk off. The entire incident lasted less than a minute. Ellsmore was not visibly struck or mistreated in any way before police escorted him into their van. U.S.-based Falun Gong supporters have alleged some foreigners who staged protests on Tiananmen Square in the past were abused while in custody.

"How interesting," a young Chinese man said to his girlfriend as they watched the scene.

Ellsmore, identified as a junior at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., issued a statement that was released by Falun Gong less than two hours after his arrest.

"I'm merely trying to help people who have no voice and are in desperate need of justice," he said. "If we as a world society do not stand for justice, human rights and peace, what then do we stand for? I choose to stand no matter what the consequences." Police at the precinct where Ellsmore was taken said he had not been officially arrested.

Police also detained an Associated Press photographer for nearly three hours, taking him into custody at the demonstration and driving him away in the same van as Ellsmore.

The two were kept in custody together and questioned in the same room at the Tiananmen precinct. The photographer, Ng Han Guan, said Ellsmore walked out of the precinct after being left unsupervised and had to be hastily retrieved by authorities after a frantic search.

Ellsmore was dragged back into the station and forced to stand facing a wall for 20 minutes, Ng said. But he said Ellsmore was not physically mistreated during the period they were held together.

Ellsmore's demonstration was the latest in a series of more than a half-dozen staged in Tiananmen Square by foreign supporters of the movement. All were detained and expelled.

Falun Gong was founded by Li Hongzhi, a former Chinese grain bureau clerk who lives in the United States. He attracted millions of followers in the 1990s with his mix of slow-motion exercise, traditional Chinese beliefs and his own teachings.

[...] During an often brutal crackdown, an estimated thousands of believers have been sent to labor camps.

Falun Gong members abroad allege nearly 400 have died of abuse. [...]

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