Relatives of people killed in Beijing when Chinese leaders deployed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) tanks and machine guns to end several weeks of student-led protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989 have once more called for justice.
More than three decades after the massacre on the night of June 3-4, the Tiananmen Mothers’ victims group has called on the administration of President Xi Jinping to make public ruling Chinese Communist Party records from that time, and explain the chain of events that led to the deaths of their loved ones.
The group, in an annual open letter to China’s leaders, takes aim at the official silence surrounding the events of June 4 and the immediate aftermath, when hundreds, possibly thousands, died or were injured in the crackdown.
The letter, which carried 124 signatures, repeated the Tiananmen Mothers’ key demands of truth-telling, compensation and accountability from the ruling Chinese Communist Party over the incident.
Tiananmen Mothers founding member Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son died in the military assault on Beijing, said the group has suffered through 31 years of government indifference to their loss.
“They owe us an explanation,” Zhang said. “Which individuals, which government agencies [were responsible], and what were the circumstances, and on what did they base the decision to commit such acts of murderous violence?”
“What laws did our children break, that they needed to be beaten to death and gunned down?”
The open letter also demanded to know which Chinese law permitted the government to kill students and other civilians for engaging in peaceful protest.
“Under China’s constitution, Chinese citizens should enjoy freedom of speech, assembly and protest,” the open letter said. “The party should stay true to its original intentions and properly implement the law.”
Relatives of people killed in Beijing when Chinese leaders deployed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) tanks and machine guns to end several weeks of student-led protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989 have once more called for justice.
More than three decades after the massacre on the night of June 3-4, the Tiananmen Mothers’ victims group has called on the administration of President Xi Jinping to make public ruling Chinese Communist Party records from that time, and explain the chain of events that led to the deaths of their loved ones.
The group, in an annual open letter to China’s leaders, takes aim at the official silence surrounding the events of June 4 and the immediate aftermath, when hundreds, possibly thousands, died or were injured in the crackdown.
The letter, which carried 124 signatures, repeated the Tiananmen Mothers’ key demands of truth-telling, compensation and accountability from the ruling Chinese Communist Party over the incident.
Tiananmen Mothers founding member Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son died in the military assault on Beijing, said the group has suffered through 31 years of government indifference to their loss.
“They owe us an explanation,” Zhang said. “Which individuals, which government agencies [were responsible], and what were the circumstances, and on what did they base the decision to commit such acts of murderous violence?”
“What laws did our children break, that they needed to be beaten to death and gunned down?”
The open letter also demanded to know which Chinese law permitted the government to kill students and other civilians for engaging in peaceful protest.
“Under China’s constitution, Chinese citizens should enjoy freedom of speech, assembly and protest,” the open letter said. “The party should stay true to its original intentions and properly implement the law.”
