May 14, 2002

Amid a sea of brightly colored balloons and banners, scores of Falun Gong practitioners converged on Borough Hall beneath the rain yesterday to celebrate the movement's 10th anniversary.

Though Falun Gong -- also known by its more formal name, Falun Dafa -- has been outlawed in China since 1999, followers say its beliefs are growing in popularity in this country and other parts of the world.

"Falun Dafa is universal," said Tyrone Strachan, one of about a dozen practitioners, clad in the group's signature yellow, who demonstrated the movement's slow arm motions, meditation and other exercises to the crowd gathered outside Borough Hall.

"When you're dealing with spirituality, there's no color, there's no race and there's no creed," added Strachan, a 23-year-old computer operator from Marine Park. "There's nothing."

Some estimate that more than 1,000 people practice Falun Gong in the city at some 30 locations. In Brooklyn, practitioners gather daily at several sites, including Prospect Park.

"On such a gray day, they made Brooklyn look very, very colorful," said Borough President Marty Markowitz, who proclaimed yesterday World Falun Dafa Day in Brooklyn.

Organizers said the anniversary festival was designed to introduce more people to the practice of Falun Gong and bring greater awareness to the persecution of its followers in China. The group says 380 Falun Gong [practitioners] have died in police custody since the Chinese government crackdown began.

"The situation in China is very, very bad," Scott Chinn, of the Falun Dafa Information Center in midtown, told the crowd. "We hope that this senseless persecution will end soon."

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http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-05-14/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-150772.asp