(Clearwisdom.net) According to a report in the Marianas Variety (Micronesia's leading newspaper) by reporter Agnes E. Donato, on May 13, Saipan Falun Dafa practitioners together with Falun Dafa practitioners around the world celebrated the 5th World Falun Dafa Day, which is also the 12th anniversary of Falun Dafa's introduction to public in 1992. However, the report said, "practitioners only started celebrating Falun Dafa Day in 1999, when former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin started prosecuting believers in China in an effort to eradicate the practice."
Saipan practitioners of the ancient Chinese exercise started their celebration by gathering in front of Bank of Guam in Garapan in the morning and at Beach Road in San Jose at noontime.
The report said, "some [practitioners] held flowers and a big Falun Dafa banner, while others distributed informational materials..."
The night before this celebration, Falun Gong practitioners also performed traditional Chinese dancing at the Garapan street market, which also their weekly practice site every Thursday. It is estimated that there are about 30 Falun Gong practitioners in Saipan.
The reporter interviewed Falun Gong practitioner Yang Jun, who said that practitioners wanted to raise awareness of Falun Dafa's positive impact on people's lives and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
The report referred to a Falun Gong statement, "Since 1999, more than 100,000 practitioners have been illegally imprisoned and tortured in a brutal effort by the former (Chinese Communist) Party leader, Jiang Zemin, to eradicate the practice. Practitioners worldwide, with the help of a growing number of people of conscience such as human rights groups, are working together to stop this inhumanity and to bring the former leader to justice."
"Falun Dafa has practitioners in at least 50 countries around the world," the report stated at the end.