Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that tens of thousands ofpetitioners from all over China have recently been detained in Beijing,with many suffering abusive conditions in custody. (boxun.com)

According to HRIC's sources in China, police detained more than 36,000petitioners in the first few days of September. The detentions haveapparently been spurred by a desire to ensure public order in advance ofa meeting of the Central Committee of the 16th Party Congress next week.Because of the speed and scale of the massive police operation, informedsources say an accurate number of detentions has been hard to obtain,and the actual number could be double the current estimate. One sourcereported that police were seen loading petitioners into 8 vans outsideof the Supreme People's Court in Beijing on September 3. Anothereyewitness, Wu Lishan, said that elsewhere on the same day he saw threepolice buses crammed with petitioners being transported westward. (boxun.com)