AP: American detained on Tiananmen Square after pro-Falun Gong demonstration

A Chinese military police officer tries to snatch away a banner with Chinese characters that read "Falun Dafa is Good" from U.S. citizen Andrew Ellsmore, in Tiananmen Square on Sunday, April 14, 2002, in Beijing. Ellsmore was taken into custody peacefully Sunday after unfurling a banner on crowded Tiananmen Square and shouting slogans supporting the outlawed Falun Gong [..]. (AP Photo/Str)

U.S. citizen Andrew Ellsmore raises a banner with Chinese characters that read "Falun Dafa is Good" as Chinese military policemen try to stop him in Tiananmen Square on Sunday, April 14, 2002, in Beijing. Ellsmore was taken into custody peacefully Sunday after unfurling a banner on crowded Tiananmen Square and shouting slogans supporting the outlawed Falun Gong [..]. (AP Photo/Str)

U.S. citizen Andrew Ellsmore raises a banner with Chinese characters that read "Falun Dafa is good" in Tiananmen Square on Sunday, April 14, 2002. Ellmore was taken into custody peacefully Sunday after unfurling a banner on crowded Tiananmen Square and shouting slogans supporting the outlawed Falun Gong [..]. (AP Photo/Str)

Sun Apr 14, 6:29 AM ET

By TED ANTHONY, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - A young man identified as an American university student was taken into custody peacefully Sunday afternoon after unfurling a banner on crowded Tiananmen Square and shouting slogans supporting the outlawed Falun Gong [..]. The man, identified by Falun Gong supporters in the United States as Andrew Muir Ellsmore, 21, was quickly driven off in a police van that had been stationed nearby — standard operating procedure in the public square that represents the heart of Chinese communism.

On a dusty, windswept afternoon when Tiananmen Square was filled with kite-flyers and out-of-town tourists, Ellsmore unfurled his banner — in the favored Falun Gong color of yellow — and shouted, in barely intelligible Chinese, "Falun Dafa is good!" The banner said the same thing. Falun Dafa is another name for the spiritual movement. Military police who patrol the square quickly swooped in and seized Ellsmore's banner, then blocked his way as he tried to walk off. The entire incident lasted less than a minute. Ellsmore, identified as a junior at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, was not mistreated before police escorted him crisply but professionally into their van. "How interesting," a young Chinese man said to his girlfriend as they watched the scene.

In a statement released by Falun Gong members abroad less than two hours after his arrest, Ellsmore, said "I'm merely trying to help people who have no voice and are in desperate need of justice." Police at the precinct where Ellsmore was taken said he had not been officially arrested. A woman who identified herself as the duty officer at the Public Security Bureau said she knew nothing about the arrest. A man at the Foreign Ministry who refused to identify himself said he would look into the matter Sunday afternoon.

Police also detained an Associated Press photographer for nearly three hours, taking him into custody at the demonstration and driving him away in the same van as Ellsmore. The two were kept in custody together and questioned in the same room at the Tiananmen precinct. The photographer, Ng Han Guan, said Ellsmore walked out of the precinct after being left unsupervised, prompting a frantic search by police. Ellsmore was dragged back to the precinct but was not physically mistreated during the period they were held together, Ng said. After Ellsmore's recapture, a plainclothes police supervisor told him through an interpreter that he didn't care about Falun Gong — but that losing such a detainee could cause him major problems. "Do you realize we could lose our jobs over this?" the supervisor told Ellsmore. "My wife and children depend on me. Who is going to feed them if I get fired?"

Ellsmore's demonstration was the latest in a series of more than a half-dozen staged in Tiananmen Square by foreign supporters of the movement. All were detained and expelled.

Falun Gong was founded by Li Hongzhi, a former Chinese grain bureau clerk who lives in the United States. He attracted millions of followers in the 1990s with his mix of slow-motion exercise, traditional Chinese beliefs and his own teachings.

The Chinese government, which calls Falun Gong an "[slanderous term omitted]" banned the movement in 1999 as a threat to public order. During an often brutal crackdown, an estimated thousands of believers have been sent to labor camps. Falun Gong members abroad allege nearly 400 of their fellow followers have died of abuse by authorities. Chinese officials deny killing anyone

Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020414/ap_wo_en_ge/china_banned_sect_14