New Falun Gong protest broken up

Followers have staged repeated protests in Beijing

Supporters of the Chinese spiritual movement, Falun Gong, have again held protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The Falun Gong evil cult organisation has completely thrown itself in with the international hostile foreign forces

Chinese state media editorial

The move comes after police detained about 100 of the movement's members during a larger protest on Thursday.

In the latest incident, some 50 Falun Gong protesters are reported to have been arrested after they unfurled banners, threw leaflets or chanted slogans in a series of scattered demonstrations in the city.

According to witnesses, plainclothes police were seen wrestling a number of protesters to the ground.

Many were repeatedly punched and kicked, with some reported to have been dragged along the ground by their hair.

'Evil cult'

China's authorities are keen to wipe out the movement

One old man reportedly shouted "Falun Gong is good," whereupon a group of seven plainclothes officers wrestled him to the ground, punched and kicked him, before carrying him to a waiting police van.

The Chinese authorities have launched a series of increasingly bitter attacks on the group since it was banned in July last year.

The ban followed a meeting in April of more than 10,000 followers in Beijing - a move which stunned the Chinese Government, which regards any group capable of such mass mobilisation as a challenge to its authority.

Falun Gong crackdown

59 members beaten to death in custody

450 members jailed, some for up to 18 years

600 sent to mental hospitals

10,000 placed in labour camps

20,000 in temporary detention centres

Source: Information Centre on Human Rights and Democracy (Hong Kong)

In the latest comment, an editorial in the major state-owned newspapers again accused Falun Gong of being an "evil cult" which was plotting to overthrow China's socialist system.

"The Falun Gong evil cult organisation has completely thrown itself in with the international hostile foreign forces and will spare no pains to become a tool in their interference in our domestic politics," it said.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre on Human Rights and Democracy, at least 59 Falun Gong members have been beaten to death in police custody since the ban on the group was initally imposed.