BEIJING, July 22 (Reuters) - On the second anniversary of a crackdown on the Falun Gong, Chinese police on Sunday dragged at least four members of the spiritual movement off Tiananmen Square after they unfurled a yellow protest banner, witnesses said.
Two women held up the banner protesting the treatment of Falun Gong members.
Police grabbed them by their hair and threw them into a van after they tried to flee, the witness said.
Plainclothes officers also arrested a man and a woman protesting nearby and bundled them into two separate vans that sped away from the vast square filled with camera-toting tourists.
The protests demonstrated the stubborn resistance of the Falun Gong in the face of a massive government propaganda campaign and the biggest security operation since the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protests.
Two years after banning the group as an "evil cult," Beijing's propaganda effort in recent days has focused on a new museum exhibition in Beijing.
State-owned newspapers on Sunday showed pictures of a group of more than 100 former Falun Gong followers who visited the exhibit on Saturday and praised the government for "saving" them.
"Li Hongzhi is too evil," one was quoted as saying in the Beijing Daily, referring to the group's U.S.-based founder. "The idea that the so-called Falun Gong can cure illness is a psychological trick," he said.
The exhibit shows blown-up photos of charred bodies, bludgeoned faces and illegal rituals, and emotional footage of women "saved" at government re-education camps.
HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS
Chinese authorities say Falun Gong is responsible for the deaths of 1,800 people by suicide or refusing medical treatment. The movement is based on elements of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese meditation and exercises.
In the run-up to Sunday's anniversary, police set up roadblocks on roads leading tanger because it has distracted police from fighting crime.
China last week put on trial five Falun Gong followers for their alleged role in a fiery group suicide attempt at Tiananmen Square in January, state media reported.
Those who went on trial for "using an evil cult to organise a homicide" included a survivor of the Chinese New Year's Eve self-immolations that resulted in two deaths.
The Beijing First Intermediate People's Court heard the case of survivor Wang Jindong, as well as four others who were accused of plotting the January 23 suicide attempt by five alleged Falun Gong adherents, the Beijing Daily said.
One woman died shortly after the self-immolations and her 12-year old daughter died seven weeks later. The badly burned girl was the centrepiece of a government campaign to discredit Falun Gong and its leader, Li.
Falun Gong has denied that the five self-immolators belonged to the movement.
China's battle with the spiritual group has sparked international concern about abuse of religious freedom and civil liberties.
Since 1999, tens of thousands of Falun Gong followers have been detained for protesting on Tiananmen Square.
Human rights groups say thousands of members are in labour camps and at least 200 have died of abuse in police custody.