In a procedure that has become routine for law enforcers in Tiananmen, police vans circled the square collecting groups of Falun Gong members who had been rounded up and speedily took them away, witnesses said. At least three groups of people belonging to the Falun Gong or suspected of being group members were cleared from Tiananmen during an 80-minute period in the early morning.

Almost all of the people taken into custody, about 15, were middle-aged and most were women.

Tiananmen was crowded with uniformed and plain-clothes police, who threatened to arrest several groups of visitors squatting on the square if they did not disperse.

The square was cleared of visitors at 9am to prepare for Mr Putin's official welcoming ceremony. None of the Falun Gong members in Tiananmen appeared to be aiming to attract attention - instead they made a silent protest against the Government's treatment of the movement, which has now been banned for nearly a year.

One elderly women who did not get into the waiting police van fast enough was pushed and beaten by a uniformed police officer, one witness said.

At least 22 Falun Gong followers have died after police maltreatment or hunger strikes, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. Since the movement was banned, tens of thousands of practitioners have been detained and core leaders given jail terms of up to 18 years for protesting and refusing to give up their beliefs.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese mystic belief based on the teachings of exiled master Li Hongzhi, who advocates Confucian and Buddhist moral values and group breathing and meditation exercises.

On Saturday, it will be one year since the Government banned the movement, and protests are expected to increase in the run-up to the anniversary.

CHINA - MAIN
Fresh assault on sect leader

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