AP: Falun Gong, police square off in China's Tiananmen Square

October 26, 2000 BEIJING (AP) -- Members of the outlawed Falun Gong [group] staged a brief but large protest on Tiananmen Square on Thursday, scattering leaflets and raising banners before Chinese police violently ended the demonstration. Plainclothes police in groups of 10 or more pounced on small bands of [group] members spread throughout the plaza in central Beijing. The officers pummeled and shoved protesters into police vans. One man, thrown to the ground, was kicked in the stomach and head until blood ran from his mouth onto the gray flagstones. An elderly woman was dragged by her hair for several yards as bystanders pleaded with police to stop. At least 100 [group] members were taken away in a 15-minute flurry of activity Thursday afternoon. One witness saw 30 police vans filled with protesters driving off the square, which could put the numbers detained over several hundred. Columns of paramilitary police marched onto the square as tourists were cleared from China's best known public monument for about 20 minutes to bring the protest under control. The protest was the second large-scale demonstration by Falun Gong members this month. On Oct. 1 -- China's National Day -- followers used similar tactics, provoking a rough response and forcing police to close off the plaza, a highly embarrassing act on a public holiday that celebrates Communist Party rule. Since then, the government has renewed a smear campaign in state media, accusing members of conspiring with alleged enemies -- exiled dissidents and supporters of independence for Taiwan, Tibet and the Muslim northwest. Falun Gong members claim the group has no political ambitions but want the freedom to practice their meditation exercises, which they say promote health and morality. The government has accused the [group] of [...] Apparently caught unawares by the Oct. 1 protest, police seemed better prepared for Thursday's action -- which coincided with the legislature's decision a year ago to use an anti-cult law to imprison group leaders. Hundreds of uniformed soldiers, police and plainclothes officers waited in buses parked on the square. The plainclothes officers ran in formation to quell each outburst. Banners raised were quickly snatched away. Police threw one man to the ground, kicking him and punching his arm until he let go of a banner. Leaflets were scooped up by police before others could get them. ``Justice is clear. Good and evil will be repaid in kind,'' one leaflet, seen before the protest, said. It accused Chinese President Jiang Zemin of being a ``tyrant'' who ignored constitutional guarantees of religious freedom: ``Jiang Zemin's blood debts are piling up. He's guilty of monstrous crimes.'' Another leaflet gave detailed allegations of the torture and killing of group members in police custody. Since the government banned the [group] 15 months ago as a public menace and a threat to communist rule, Falun Gong members claim at least 67 followers have died in custody. The government has confirmed some of the deaths but denied any mistreatment of detained [group] members. Among the latest deaths were Ji Fengqin, who died in Liaocheng city after prison guards force-fed her to break a hunger strike, and Zong Hengjie, whom prison officials in northeastern Shenyang city said committed suicide, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported Thursday. Police have detained tens of thousands of followers in the crackdown, most only briefly. Rights groups estimate that 5,000 have been sent to labor camps without trial and the government has confirmed convicting 151 principal organizers. They have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years.