Families of Tiananmen victims urge China's Xi to 're-evaluate' crackdown

In an open letter to the Chinese government, mothers of students killed in the crackdown on protests calling for greater democratisation, more media freedom and an end to government corruption, called on President Xi to re-evaluate the incident.

The unknown man who has come to symbolise the Tiananmen Square protests, blocking tanks leaving the square after the crackdown on a weeks-long student-led democratisation demonstration. June 5, 1989.
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The unknown man who has come to symbolise the Tiananmen Square protests, blocking tanks leaving the square after the crackdown on a weeks-long student-led democratisation demonstration. June 5, 1989.

Families of Chinese democracy protesters killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown urged President Xi Jinping to acknowledge their suffering and "re-evaluate the June Fourth massacre," ahead of it 29th anniversary on Monday.

Open discussion of the crackdown which began late on June 3, 1989 and continued into June 4, is forbidden in China, where hundreds, if not thousands of people died when the government sent tanks and troops to crush demonstrations in the square in central Beijing, after student and worker-led protesters had staged a peaceful seven-week sit-in to demand democratic reforms, more open media and an end to government corruption.

In an open letter to Xi dated "the eve of 2018 June 4th," the Tiananmen Mothers, an association of parents who lost children in the violence, said: "each year when we would commemorate our loved ones, we are all monitored, put under surveillance, or forced to travel."

"No one from the successive governments over the past 29 years has ever asked after us, and not one word of apology has been spoken from anyone, as if the massacre that shocked the world never happened," said the letter, which was released on Thursday by the non-profit Human Rights in China.

"The 1989 June Fourth bloody massacre is a crime the state committed against the people. Therefore, it is necessary to re-evaluate the June Fourth massacre," the letter said, calling for "truth, compensation, and accountability" from the government.

The official Chinese line is that the protests were a "counter-revolutionary rebellion." Any public discussion of the incident was banned soon after the crackdown, and many people on the mainland remain unaware of the demonstrations, with censorship of books, textbooks, movies, television, radio, printed media and social media.

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An undated picture of a some of the 'Tiananmen mothers'.

US urges China to release crackdown death toll

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged China to disclose the details of people killed, detained or missing during the military's crackdown on the protests.

Pompeo marked Monday's anniversary of the suppression of the demonstrations, saying: "We remember the tragic loss of innocent lives."

"We join others in the international community in urging the Chinese government to make a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing," Pompeo's statement said.

He cited the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who wrote in his 2010 Nobel Peace Prize speech, delivered in absentia, "the ghosts of June 4th have not yet been laid to rest." Liu last year became only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in police custody.

Pompeo's statement also called on Chinese authorities to release those who have been jailed for their efforts to keep alive the memory of the crackdown and to stop harassing the protest's participants and their families.

Hong Kong to mark June 4

Organisers expect thousands to turn out in Hong Kong for the semi-autonomous Chinese territory's annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent crackdown.

The gathering in Victoria Park is the only large-scale public commemoration held on Chinese soil.

On June 4, 1989, Hong Kong was British territory. However, the UK government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher returned it to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997, ending over 150 years of British rule.

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Tens of thousands of people attend Hong Kong's annual vigil commemorating the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Beijing and elsewhere on the Chinese mainland. June 4, 2017.

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