Reuters: China Detains Falun Gongers on Protest Anniversary

BEIJING, Apr 25, 2001 -- (Reuters) Members of Falun Gong staged scattered protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, two years to the day after the spiritual group stunned Chinese leaders by demonstrating on their front doorstep.

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Police detained about two dozen suspected Falun Gong members on the square and bundled them into waiting police vans, witnesses said.

Plainclothes officers grabbed one young man as he tried to unfurl a yellow banner, they said.

Security around Tiananmen was especially tight, with police checking identification cards and questioning visitors to the plaza and at least 20 police vans on hand to whisk away the handful of protesters.

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OVERSEAS BATTLE JUST BEGINNING

Once common Falun Gong protests on Tiananmen Square appear to have diminished markedly since then.

But overseas, the battle with Falun Gong has only just begun.

When 10,000 followers surrounded the Chinese leadership compound on April 25, 1999, to protest against attacks on the group in state media, few outside China had ever heard of the eclectic mix of meditation and breathing exercises.

Now, Falun Gong is seen by many around the world as a symbol of the struggle against religious persecution in China.

Overseas followers have put Falun Gong -- also known as Falun Dafa -- at the top of the human rights agenda and now threaten to de-rail Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

A rag-tag group of U.S., Hong Kong and European practitioners run a slick public relations machine, issuing regular updates on the government crackdown, arranging protests and lobbying politicians around the world.

"None of us really had any idea about how to do grass-roots human rights work like this until the crackdown made it necessary for us," said Scott Chinn, a volunteer at the Falun Dafa Information Center in New York.

To mark Wednesday's anniversary, the center arranged a series of protests, published a report on police abuse of women practitioners and issued a statement saying Beijing banned the group because it feared social unrest.

In Hong Kong, where Falun Gong is legal, about 20 members demonstrated in the city center to demand an end to what they called "unreasonable persecution" by Beijing.

"When we started in 1999, people used to avoid us and some even scolded us for causing trouble," said Hui Yee-han, a Falun Gong representative in Hong Kong.

"Now people ask for more information and some offer their support," she said. "It's changing for the better."

Falun Gong says more than 190 followers have died in police custody since the government ban. The government has acknowledged a handful of deaths it ascribes to suicide or natural causes.

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