'CHINESE TORTURING FOREIGN TEENS IN DRUGS BUST'

Parents of foreign teenagers living in Beijing are accusing police of
putting their heads in plastic bags and roughing them up if they
complained during a drugs raid on a bar district.

Police swept two bars in Sanlitun, the most well-established bar and
restaurant area for younger foreign and Chinese residents of the
capital on Friday night.

They led out scores of revellers, including pupils from several of
the city's numerous and expensive international private schools, as
well as Chinese.

They were then escorted, heads covered in bags, to local police
stations for urine tests.

"They had their heads covered in plastic bags and had to keep their
heads bent low throughout their detention otherwise they were
beaten," said one parent. Another said a teenager thought he had a
gun pointed at his head, though he could not see it through the bag.

Some of those detained were forced to undress so their clothes could
be searched.

The raid was confirmed by police, who said that ecstasy, marijuana
and other drugs were seized, and that more than 20 people had been
detained, including eight foreigners.

One of the bars is popular with young French people, who were among
those detained, and the French embassy issued a statement saying it
would make "appropriate representations" if it turned out any
nationals had been assaulted.

The discovery of drugs would make the police action more successful
than a controversial raid last September, also in Sanlitun, when
police swept the bars and rounded up any customers who were black.

They were then made to lie or kneel in the street while they were
searched, while bystanders who took photographs of some being beaten
had their cameras removed.

The event turned into an embarrassment for the city after no drugs
were found. The Grenadian ambassador issued an angry complaint
alleging his son had been beaten and had ended up in hospital
suffering concussion.

One source said that on Friday, black people were separated from
other races.

The raid is part of a general law and order crackdown in the city in
advance of the Olympics, which has also involved unannounced visits
by police to homes of both locals and foreigners to check residence
papers.

Beggars and "petitioners" - people who come to Beijing to lodge
complaints against local authorities - are also being rounded up and
sent back to their home provinces.