Beijing Police Rough Up Sect Members on Anniversary

BEIJING —  Police punched, knocked over and dragged away followers of the banned Falun Gong sect in Tiananmen Square on Saturday as members defiantly celebrated the spiritual movement’s eighth anniversary.

Sect members raised banners and chrysanthemums--all yellow, a traditionally auspicious color adopted by Falun Gong. The protests around the square lasted only seconds before police pounced, hauling sect members away. The flowers remained on the square’s gray paving stones until a street-sweeping truck was brought in.

Police punched and kicked five women as they tried to unfurl a banner. The beatings continued after the women were forced into a police van. Another woman, standing among 10 followers, was sent sprawling to the ground. Some members were dragged away, half-seated in a meditation pose, although many other protesters did not resist.

At least 50 people were taken away by police after staging scattered acts of civil disobedience across the vast square in central Beijing. Chinese and foreign tourists, who come to the square by the thousands each day, gawked at the outbursts and the frenzied police response.

Police detained at least three foreign tourists Saturday, apparently for photographing or videotaping the protests. A uniformed officer pushed and kicked one of the tourists into a van.

The rougher tactics underscored the frustration of police, who have been unable to stop protests since the Communist government banned Falun Gong in July.

Saturday’s gathering was the third in recent weeks to mark sect anniversaries. On April 25, followers came to Tiananmen to mark a massive protest last year that provoked the government’s ban. On Thursday, they honored sect founder Li Hongzhi’s birthday.

Saturday marked the sect’s founding in 1992. The group has declared the date “World Falun Dafa Day,” using another name for the practice that combines meditation and exercise.

In Hong Kong--where the sect is not banned--150 members gathered in a park in the central business district.