SINGAPORE: Police arrested at least 15 adherents of the Falun Gong group who gathered on New Year's Eve for a memorial to more than 100 of their colleagues they claim had died in mainland prisons, witnesses said yesterday.

Police moved in on the gathering in Singapore's MacRitchie Reservoir Park at midnight and herded the practitioners into a police bus which then left the area, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

The photographer said many of the members of the Falun Gong movement had tried to struggle before being shoved into the dark-blue bus and taken to a police station.

Practitioners who voluntarily left the park were not arrested.

Jeffrey Jiang, a spokesman for the group, said about 15 of his colleagues were arrested, including a couple whose nine-year-old child was left behind. "About 15 practitioners have been detained by the police,'' he said, adding that they were told by the police they could post a bond for their colleagues' freedom after 24 hours.

Carrying two cardboard posters bearing the names and pictures of 107 Falun Gong adherents who they claimed had died in mainland prisons, about 100 practitioners gathered at the park on Sunday evening. Beijing has banned the Falun Gong, labelling it a subversive group. The Falun Gong is registered as a legal organisation in Singapore.

"We were very peaceful. It was a non-violent way to commemorate our colleagues who have died in Chinese prisons after being jailed by the authorities there,'' Mr Jiang said.

2 January 2001 / 12:11 AM

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