BEIJING, Oct 5, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Police Thursday arrested more than 20 members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group trying to evade tight security to stage another protest at Tiananmen Square four days after a huge demonstration there.Two vans containing a total of 20 Falun Gong members were seen by an AFP reporter on the square.The followers had been grabbed by police after trying to demonstrate their loyalty to the group by shouting slogans in the square.A police officer sitting in the front passenger seat of one van beat a practitioner with his fists while trying to keep him from climbing to the front as the vehicle was driven off the square.In the other van, police shoved followers back into their seats, while trying to pull all the window shades down to keep the foreign and domestic tourists from noticing the commotion.Four middle-aged followers were dragged away as they used the alternative name for Falun Gong and shouted "Falun Dafa is good." Police slapped one man and grabbed him by his hair when he refused to stop shouting.

Dana Cheng, a U.S.-based spokesman for the group, said a large protest was planned for 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) Thursday, but many practitioners could not get on the square due to a massive police presence."I know there are still many practitioners in Beijing. They want to do something ... but the police are so prepared," said Cheng.Thursday's arrests followed Sunday's protest when some 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners were rounded up in two hours, as a small army of soldiers and police dragged protesters into buses and vans, while throngs of tourists watched in shock.Sunday's protest stole the show during the National Day celebrations to mark 51 years of communist rule and humiliated authorities more than a year after they banned the group.

Police and People's Liberation Army soldiers were out in full force Thursday, with groups standing watch at several points on the square, while undercover officers, some dressed as hip-looking youngsters in trendy denim jeans, roamed around.Twenty city buses, some containing soldiers, were parked across the street, while eight tourist coaches sat on the square with numerous soldiers and police in waiting.China's government considers the Falun Gong, which combines martial arts, Buddhism and [group] founder Li Hongzhi's moral teachings, to be the biggest threat to its rule since the 1989 student pro-democracy demonstrations.

The government banned the group, which claims to have 70 million members, in July 1999 after accusing it of seeking to overthrow the state.Since the ban, China has sentenced 450 followers to prison for up to 18 years, sent more than 600 to mental hospitals, placed 10,000 in labor camps and locked up another 20,000 in temporary detention centers, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)