By
The Associated Press
BEIJING - Police beat and dragged away hundreds of Falun Gong followers who emerged from crowds to chant and unfurl banners during China's National Day celebrations in a protest that forced the brief closure of much of Tiananmen Square.
The banned sect's protest in Beijing's main square, one of its biggest acts of civil disobedience, was an embarrassment to Chinese leaders, showing that the meditation group remains unbowed despite a brutal 14-month crackdown.
In the morning, small groups of Falun Gong sect members seemed to materialize suddenly from among the tens of thousands of Chinese tourists who gathered on the square to mark the 51st anniversary of communist rule.
In seconds, police zeroed in on them, shoving the protesters - mostly middle-aged women - into white minivans. As they were grabbed, some shouted "Falun Gong is good! Falun Gong is good!" while others threw sheets of printed paper into the air, which police immediately scooped up.
Police were seen beating most of the roughly 350 members of Falun Gong who were detained throughout the day. Most of the arrests came during the large morning protest that ended with police briefly closing more than half of Tiananmen, the square where Mao Tse-tung proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949.
Thousands of Falun Gong followers have been arrested since Chinese leaders outlawed the group, calling it a threat to communist rule and as a public menace that cheated members and caused 1,500 deaths.
Falun Gong says it seeks no political objectives, just the right to practice free of harassment. Members maintain the group's beliefs - an eclectic mix of traditional Chinese exercise, Taoist and Buddhist cosmology and the teachings of founder Li Hongzhi - promote health and morality.
In the morning protest, sect followers chanted slogans or raised yellow banners. A few began the group's characteristic meditative exercises in front of the pole where just a few hours before a military color guard had raised the country's red flag in a nationally televised ceremony.
They appeared up to a dozen at a time, and just as police subdued one group another would emerge from the crowd. Punching and kicking many, police forced protester into minivans, packing them so tightly the doors would not shut.
One middle-aged woman, blood running from her mouth, escaped a clutch of officers who grabbed her again, slapping her head and pulling her into a van.
As police cleared the square, a woman sprinted across the open space until police kicked her legs out from under her. Once on the paving stones, plainclothes police kicked her.
A few onlookers applauded as police carried her away. But the violence stunned most of the Chinese tourists - young children, families, businessmen in suits - admiring the floral displays set up in the square for National Day. Some were knocked to the ground as officers chased sect members.
China's state-run media ran only a brief statement on the evening news that condemned a "small number'"of Falun Gong for "illegally assembling and intentionally disrupting order on Tiananmen Square."
Falun Gong, in a letter recently posted on the group's U.S. Web site, had warned of protests if police persisted in detaining followers ahead of National Day. The American-based activist said as many as 10,000 followers from around China headed to Beijing for protests.
Girding for trouble, police searched vehicles and trains entering Beijing. Nearby provinces detained 600 followers over the past two weeks to prevent them from streaming into the capital, said the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a Hong Kong-based group.
The security actions appeared to head off the group's initial plans for a large-scale protest during the dawn flag-raising on Tiananmen Square - a centerpiece of the holiday.
Some 200,000 spectators mixed with police in new, blue uniforms and plainclothes agents. Military police by the hundreds ringed the edges of the square and hundreds more waited in underground walkways for the flag-raising.
