BEIJING, Jul 20, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) China's communist leaders are still struggling to suppress the Falungong spiritual movement despite an often brutal year-long crackdown which has seen tens of thousands of followers jailed.

Week after week practitioners flock to Beijing's Tiananmen Square from all over China to unfurl Falungong banners or make silent protests against the ban on their group.

On just one nondescript morning this week police in the square in the heart of Beijing filled waiting vans at least three times as they picked up and drove away protesters.

"We will continue to practice. We will never give up," said Chen Dan, a practitioner of Falungong, which mixes Buddhist and Confucian beliefs with breathing and meditation exercises.

On Saturday, it is one year since China officially outlawed the movement, calling it an "evil cult" and accusing it of "inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability."

The government acted after the movement caught the leadership totally off-guard by assembling 10,000 followers around Communist Party headquarters in Beijing three months earlier in a silent show of strength.

In the months after the ban Beijing launched a propaganda onslaught against the Falungong, handing down prison sentences to leaders of up to 18 years and sending thousands to "re-education through labour" camps.

The government described the movement as the biggest threat to its authority since the 1989 mass pro-democracy protests and has relentlessly turned the screw on the movement despite international condemnation.

And there is no sign the government plans to relax its crackdown which human rights groups say has led to the deaths of at least 24 people in custody after torture or hunger strikes.

In the latest incident the relatives of 44-year-old Li Zaiji, from northeastern Jilin city, were informed he had died while serving a one-year sentence of "re-education through labor," a form of detention without trial.

When relatives were allowed a last glimpse of Li, they discovered numerous wounds and bruises on his body although police insisted he had died from dysentery.

Torture methods employed against Falungong members include extinguishing cigarettes in their palms or beating their backs with broom sticks, according to Amnesty International.

"We have consistent reports of torture and ill-treatment," said Catherine Baber, a Hong Kong-based China researcher for Amnesty. "There is no let-up in the crackdown."

But the severity of the government's purge has not deterred the protests -- the movement has consistently pulled off daring demonstrations in Tiananmen Square on key anniversaries despite blanket security.

"The Chinese leaders are facing a group of people who are not afraid of sacrifice," said Joseph Cheng, a political scientist at City University of Hong Kong.

The source of Falungong strength is a set of values that make sense to people caught in an ideological vacuum brought by the dismantling of the communist welfare system and breakneck economic reforms.

Falungong also promises better health for its adherents, important in a society where pollution is worsening and medical benefits disappearing.

Observers say the ban may have been counterproductive.

"The crackdown is foolhardy of the Chinese authorities, as it has alienated many people who previously considered themselves upstanding, law-abiding citizens," said Amnesty's Baber.

Cheng said the emergence of a semi-religious mass movement like the Falungong carried a salient indictment of modern Chinese society which should trouble the communist government.

There is widespread disgust in China with official corruption and abuse of power, accompanied by mere lip service to a Marxist ideology that fewer and fewer people believe anymore.

"Falungong basically reflects the difficult challenges facing the Communist party, that people are losing confidence in the government, and that they seek emotional support in such organizations as Falungong," he said.

"The problem is not the Falungong, the problem is lack of legitimacy and trust of people," said Cheng.