AFP: Lone protester seized on Tiananmen on Falun Gong anniversary

Thursday April 25, 12:48 PM

A [practitioner] of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual group was arrested in Tiananmen Square on the third anniversary of the movement's landmark protest which led to its banning.

The middle-aged Chinese woman was swiftly tackled by police as she ran through the square Thursday morning carrying a yellow banner, eyewitnesses saw.

Police took her to a waiting van and immediately began shooing away a crowd of curious tourists, with the episode lasting only around 15 seconds.

On April 25, 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners surrounded the Zhongnanhai headquarters of the Communist Party, a few hundred metres from Tiananmen, to protest official harassment.

The massive show of strength deeply shook China's leaders and prompted the outlawing of the group, which combines [Master Li's] teachings and meditation, [...] three months later.

In the past two years practitioners have marked the date with sporadic protests on Tiananmen, the spiritual heart of the communist regime, and security was stepped up in central Beijing ahead of this year's anniversary.

Scores of uniformed civilian and paramilitary police as well as plain-clothed officers could be seen patrolling the vast square Thursday.

[...]

Most demonstrations over the past months have been by overseas Falun Gong sympathisers who have flown to China specifically to protest at the Chinese government's brutal repression of the group.

In the largest incident of its kind so far, an estimated 59 foreigners protested on Tiananmen in February.

Since the banning of the movement, rights organisations estimate that hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have been given jail terms and tens of thousands sent to labour camps without trial.

The group claims that about 400 [practitioners] have died due to police abuse since the ban.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020425/1/2ojfd.html