Sunday October 1

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement marred China's National Day celebrations on Sunday with huge protests in a packed Tiananmen Square, witnesses said.

Police detained several hundred Falun Gong members, kicking, punching and pulling them by the hair as they herded them onto buses after protests broke out all round the vast plaza crammed with foreign and Chinese tourists, they said.

The defiant protests on the 51st anniversary of Communist rule highlight Beijing's failure to stamp out the group, which has set an alarming precedent with its relentless campaign of civil disobedience since it was banned last year.

One group unfurled a red banner saying "Falun Gong is good'' below a huge portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong looking over the square, but plainclothes officers soon swept from the crowds and wrestled them away.

Others among the largely elderly or middle-aged protesters assumed the lotus position or formed human chains, and many waved and signaled to puzzled onlookers as they were whisked off to a police station nearby.

After more than an hour of protests, police completely cleared the square for about thirty minutes before allowing tourists to pour back in limited numbers.

Millions of Chinese have jammed shops and mobbed tourist spots on the first day of the week-long National Day holiday as the government urged them to do their patriotic duty and spend more money.

Tight Security

Security around Beijing has been tight ahead of the October 1 anniversary -- one of many "sensitive dates'' in China when those with gripes against the government try to stage public protests, often on Tiananmen Square, the nation's political heart.

But Falun Gong members have defied the heavy police presence with similar protests almost daily since the government banned the group in July last year and branded it an ''evil cult.''

Next month will bring the first anniversary of China's parliament rubber-stamping a draconian law against cults, which paved the way for tough sentences on Falun Gong leaders.

Falun Gong says thousands of adherents are in labor camps without trial, and a Hong Kong-based human rights group says at least 52 adherents have died in government custody since the ban.

In the most recent reported case, a Chinese policeman who was also a Falun Gong follower died in a labor camp in northern Hebei province, a Hong Kong-based rights group said last week.

Thorn In The Side

Falun Gong has now become a major thorn in Beijing's side, winning sympathy from other religious groups and dissidents and adding fuel to Western criticism of its human rights record, especially on freedom of religion.

Religion in China, restricted to official state-backed churches, has been under the spotlight this week due to a bitter dispute over the Vatican's plan to canonise 120 Chinese martyrs on National Day.

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This month, exiled poet Huang Beiling called on China's intellectuals to follow the example of Falun Gong meditators by fighting government oppression with civil disobedience.

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Falun Gong, which combines meditation and exercise with a doctrine rooted loosely in Buddhist and Taoist teachings, first rattled the ruling Communist Party with an unexpected 10,000-strong protest in Beijing in April 1999.