Crackdown on anniversary of Tiananmen massacre

Police and armed forces flooded Beijing today in an attempt to prevent pro-democracy activists marking the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Paramilitary troops patrolled the vast plaza and surrounding streets in the city, stopping vehicles and demanding identification from passers-by, though there were no signs of demonstrations or any public commemoration.

Reporters were told to leave the area following the daily crack-of-dawn flag-raising ceremony. Dozens of activists, dissidents and other critics have already been detained by police, held under house arrest or sent out of the city.

China allows no public discussion of the events of June 3 and 4 1989, when soldiers backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers fought their way into the heart of the city, killing hundreds of unarmed protesters and onlookers. The government has never issued a complete, formal account of the military operation or number of casualties.

Authorities allowed relatives of some of those killed to visit their loved ones’ graves, but they had to go quietly and under police escort, according to Zhang Xianling, a member of a group that campaigns for the victims.

“Even though 25 years is a very long time, as a relative, as a mother, it feels like this happened just yesterday,” said Ms Zhang, whose son, Wang Nan, was 19 when he was killed in the suppression of the protests.

“The wound is still very deep. And though we might now shed fewer tears than in the past, our conviction is even stronger. We must pursue justice for our loved ones.”

Yin Min, whose son Ye Weihang, 19, died in the crackdown, said she wept as she hugged his ashes at home in Beijing: “I told my son, ‘Your mother is powerless and helpless.’ I looked at his ashes, I looked at his old things, and I cried bitterly. How has the world become like this? Why must we be controlled so strictly his year?”

The Tiananmen protesters were seeking greater freedom and an end to party corruption and favouritism.

Beijing’s official verdict is that they aimed to topple the ruling Communist Party and plunge China into chaos. Although virtually wiped from the official record on the Chinese mainland, Tiananmen remains a totem for political expression and civil liberties in Hong Kong, which retained its own liberal social and legal systems after reverting to Chinese rule 17 years ago. Every year a candlelit vigil is held to commemorate the victims, attended by tens of thousands, with numbers rising in recent years.

Organisers said they were expecting about 150,000 people to attend the night-time rally in a park this year. But for the first time, a pro-Beijing group, the Voice of Loving Hong Kong, is planning a counter-rally in support of the military crackdown.