DATE=6/2/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHINA ANNIVERSARY
NUMBER=5-46429
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Eleven years after Chinese troops mowed down
pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen
Square, relatives of the victims are still asking the
Chinese government to punish those responsible and
compensate bereaved families. But, as V-O-A
correspondent Roger Wilkison reports, the government
continues to defend the 1989 crackdown, as a move that
was necessary to preserve economic reforms that have
brought prosperity to many Chinese.
TEXT: With the (June 4th) anniversary of the Tiananmen
Square incident only (two) days away, a redoubtable
[formidable] group of victims' relatives is again
appealing to the Chinese leadership to open an
independent investigation into the attack. The
mothers also want the results and the names of the
victims made public.
Zhang Xianling, whose son was killed by troops that
fateful June day in 1989, says she and her colleagues
have been making the same three requests for the past
six years, so far to no avail.
/// 1st ZHANG ACT IN CHINESE-ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///
Ms. Zhang says the first request is to ask for a
specialized committee to investigate the incident,
find out what really happened and, then, make the
information public. The second is to publish an
official list of names of all the victims. And the
third is to investigate those responsible for
instigating the event and have them take legal
responsibility for it.
An open letter from the group to President Jiang Zemin
this week notes there never was any answer to earlier
requests for the government to reassess its
suppression of the demonstrators. Overturning the
official verdict that the demonstrations were a
counterrevolutionary rebellion would clear the names
of those involved in the protests. But such a step is
politically difficult, because many of China's current
leaders supported the crackdown.
This week, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue
told reporters (through an interpreter) that the 1989
demonstrations seriously undermined China's stability.
/// 1st INTERPRETER ACT ///
The Chinese government had no choice but to take
necessary measures to solve this so as to
maintain social stability and the smooth going
of China's reform and opening up. For a country
with one-point-two-billion people, the
development of reform and opening up and today's
prosperity could not be achieved without
stability.
/// END ACT ///
Last year, Zhang Xianling and another victim's mother
filed a petition to Chinese judicial authorities
arguing that the army's killing of peaceful
demonstrators in 1989 violated Chinese law. It said
Li Peng -- then premier and now China's top legislator
-- bore primary responsibility for the killings and
must face prosecution. Under Chinese law, prosecutors
are required to take action on the petition or, at
least, give a reason why no action will be taken.
Officials at the prosecutors' office say they have
never received the petition.
Police routinely detain or harass those who seek to
commemorate the dead or campaign for an apology or
compensation for the victims' families. Zhang
Xianling says she is followed even when she visits her
son's grave.
/// 2nd ZHANG ACT IN CHINESE-ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///
She says she goes to sweep his grave every year on
June 3rd, his birthday, and that she feels terrible
inside. But to make things worse, plainclothes
policemen tail [follow] her and videotape her, and
that adds to her discomfort.
Foreign human-rights groups and overseas Chinese have
tried to send aid to the relatives of Tiananmen
victims, but those efforts have been thwarted by the
government. Police have seized or frozen some funds.
Asked if the government would consider transferring
the donations to the families, Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue is categorical.
/// 2nd INTERPRETER ACT ///
If something happens in China, no foreign
country has the right to interfere in China's
internal affairs.
/// END ACT ///
Zhang Xianling has her own version of why the
government refuses to allow the relatives to get their
hands on the contributions that have been sent them.
/// 3rd ZHANG ACT IN CHINESE-ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///
She says that the government believes that by freezing
the donations, they can eventually destroy the
relatives' support group. (Signed)
NEB/RW/FC/WTW
02-Jun-2000 07:28 AM EDT (02-Jun-2000 1128 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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