BEIJING - Breaking months of silence, Falun Gong's leader is telling his followers that China's crackdown on the banned spiritual movement is an ''evil-wrought'' test foretold by the 16th-century French soothsayer Nostradamus.
Li Hongzhi, who disappeared from public view shortly after Beijing outlawed his multimillion member group in July, addressed his followers in an obscure poem and two at times unfathomable statements published on a Falun Gong Web site.
While Li's followers have defied the crackdown with protests that have seen thousands hauled away, many beaten and, practitioners say, some killed by police, Li has fueled his mystique with silence.
The former government grain clerk, who moved to New York in 1998, six years after founding Falun Gong, gave interviews and issued statements shortly after the government banned his movement as a menace to society and Communist Party authority.
Since then, however, the only sighting has been a photo published Jan. 19 and posted on Falun Gong Web sites of Li sitting cross-legged on a rocky nook on a cliff, apparently meditating.
The caption says the photo was shot ''after the Master left New York in July'' but gives no details about where or when it was taken or where Li is now.
Likewise, neither his statements nor his poem, titled ''The Knowing Heart,'' shed light on Li's whereabouts.
Falun Gong spokeswoman Gail Rachlin said Friday she hasn't seen Li since last July, but ''as far as I know he's still around the New York area.''
In a statement dated June 28, Li said Nostradamus' prediction that ''in the year 1999 and seven months, from the skies will come a Great King of Terror'' foretold the government crackdown on Falun Gong in July 1999.
Nostradamus, an astrologer and physician, published a book of prophecies which contained a series of rhymed quatrains grouped in hundreds, each said to represent a century. Because of their cryptic style and content - commingling French, Spanish, Latin, and Hebrew words - the prophecies have stirred much controversy. Some are said to have foretold actual historical events, while others, having no apparent meaning, are said to foretell events in the future.
In his poem, Li appeared to indicate that followers who weather the crackdown will be revealed as true believers.
''The mountains shake, the seas churn, and the ferocious waves billow ...,'' he wrote. ''Some flee for their lives, deserting capsized boats and torn sails. As the mud and sand are completely sifted, gold shines forth.''
His other statement referred to ''those who've been sifted out during the evil-wrought tests,'' apparently practitioners who have abandoned Falun Gong in the face of government pressure, having had ''some negative effects'' on the group.
But ''disciples who have passed the comprehensive and most rigorous tests have laid a rock-solid foundation'' for the movement, Li wrote.
Li also appeared to defend his silence, writing: ''The enormous test at present is to see how Dafa fares and how students conduct themselves in Master's absence. How could Master speak out? How could I again tell you what to do?''
The Dafa, or ''Great Law,'' is how Falun Gong followers refer to their blend of slow-motion exercises, Buddhist and Taoist philosophy and Li's often unorthodox ideas. Followers believe Falun Gong promotes health, moral living and good citizenship.
Although China has banned, confiscated and destroyed books, publications and tapes that Falun Gong practitioners used, Li urged them to keep studying ''every day with a calm mind.''
''Some volunteers go long periods of time without reading or studying.... How can they do a good job for Dafa?'' Li said in the statement dated June 16. ''The only way to prevent the old evil forces from taking advantage of the gaps in your mind is to make good use of your time to study.''
Meanwhile, Falun Gong volunteers planned to begin broadcasts Saturday to China on short-wave radio and online to counter the Chinese government's vilification of the group.
The hour-long daily broadcasts in Chinese are to inform people in China ''of the true extent and nature of the persecution, to break the information blockage intentionally set by the Chinese authorities, and to help practitioners in China whose basic freedoms have been taken away and whose lives are in danger,'' the group said in a statement.
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On the Net:
Chinese government site, http://ppflg.china.com.cn/indexE.html
Falun Gong, http://minghui.org/eng.html
