BEIJING,(AFP) – Police bundled away three people who tried to
enter
the Great Hall of the People to air their grievances to delegates
attending
China’s landmark Communist Party Congress Sunday, witnesses said.
The two men and a woman were on the sidewalk of the Hall on the west
side of
central Beijing’s Tiananmen Square when they were detained and taken
away in
police vans, one witness said.
Each had petition letters spelling out their complaints.
“Some of them asked the police what to do with the petitions. Police
searched the bags of the others and found the petitions,” he said.
“They were taken away before they could do anything.”
The incident happened despite heavy security in and around the Great
Hall,
where the weeklong 16th Party Congress opened Friday.
The imposing Hall is ringed with police and soldiers who stand every few
meters from each other with vast open areas around closed to the public.
Police Sunday were also seen walking sniffer dogs along the west side of
the
square which faces the Hall.
Chinese authorities are anxious to keep a tight grip on security in the
city
to ensure nothing interferes with the highly choreographed Congress,
which
is expected to see sweeping changes in leadership as an older generation
of
leaders cede its place to a slightly younger set.
Delegates have been barred from speaking out of turn to the
international
media.
Television Broadcasts of CNN and BBC were interrupted for several
seconds
almost every hour each time they featured the Party Congress in Beijing
and
referred to either the sporadic attempts at protests by dissidents or by
members of the Falun Gong spiritual group.
In Beijing, viewers have seen the screen suddenly go blank with
broadcasts
continuing a few seconds later.
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/df/Qchina-congress-petition.Ra4p_CNA.html
Posting date: 11/Nov/2002
Original article date: 10/Nov/2002
Category: Media Reports
