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Crackdown marks Chinese holiday

Hundreds of petitioners have been rounded up in Beijing as authorities sweep the capital to ensure trouble-free celebrations for the National Day holiday, dissidents and a rights group said yesterday.

The week-long holiday beginning tomorrow is the most politically important holiday in China, marking the Oct. 1 founding of the People's Republic and the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party's rule in 1949.

As happens each year, police detain petitioners who come from all corners of the country to submit written documents about official wrongdoings and other grievances, especially illegal land grabs by local governments.

The US-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said it has learned that Beijing authorities this week rounded up more than 100 petitioners and were keeping them in a detention center in the Majialou neighborhood.

A Beijing-based dissident and Christian activist surnamed Hua, who is currently under house arrest, said that one of the police officers guarding him said many more people were detained.

"He told me there were 2,000 petitioners put into the Majialou detention center," Hua said.

"Many of them have probably been sent back to their home provinces," Hua said.

Those detained include petitioners living in two hostels in Beijing's Xuanwu district which were raided by 200 police officers on Wednesday night and early yesterday, HRIC said.

They forced their way into people's rooms and after questioning the guests, arrested more than 100 petitioners who had arrived from Shanghai.

A receptionist at one of the hostels confirmed the incident.

"They took away around 30 people who came from Shanghai. As to why they were taken away, we don't know," the woman at Qianmen No. 1 Hostel said.

"Currently there are no more petitioners living in our hostel," she said.

The roundup this year appears bigger than previous years', Hua said.

"In previous National Days, there were not that many people. This year, the Beijing police also seem to be just as active as police from the provinces who are up here to grab their petitioners and send them home," Hua said.

No water or food were given to those detained, the Hong Kong and New York-based HRIC said, citing sources.

Beijing police refused to comment.

"We can't tell you about this matter," police officers from the Xuanwu and Fengtai districts said.
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