CHINA: BEIJING: POLICE STOP DISSIDENTS GATHERING

Описание: (4 Jun 2000) Mandarin/Nat
XFA
Police in Beijing have stopped Chinese dissidents gathering at homes and in Tiananmen Square on Sunday to mourn the people shot by the Chinese military during the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators 11 years ago.

Families of those killed in Tiananmen Square had planned quiet memorials to mark the anniversary of the crackdown.

Troops from the People's Liberation Army shot their way through Beijing on June third and fourth, 1989, ending seven weeks of protests.

Hundreds of people died in the ensuing violence but the exact number has never been confirmed.

Sunrise on Tiananmen Square - it is time for the daily flag raising ceremony.

Several hundred people are there to watch an honour guard unfurl the nation's banner.

This is Sunday June 4, eleven years after the Chinese government crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen in 1989.

It is being remembered in silence by those who lost loved ones when the army opened fire killing hundreds of protesters.

Public security police in Beijing have been on a city wide alert this year against what they call "destabilising elements."

They are determined to keep social stability on this 11th anniversary of the
crackdown.

Police, both uniformed and in plain clothes, have been patrolling Tiananmen Square, watching for any disturbances.

Colleges and universities have been warned to guard against possible disturbances by student activists.

University staff and students have been banned from holding gatherings.

Police have also kept a close watch on Tiananmen Square for activities by the banned Falun Gong sect and pro-democracy activists such as the outlawed China Democracy Party.

Security and extra military police also patrolled in front of Tiananmen gate, which overlooks the square in central Beijing.

Tightening security in the Chinese capital has included a so-called "Shock Campaign" by the Public Security Bureau.

In the past few days police have grabbed and detained more than 500 people without papers, money or jobs in the Beijing.

Most of those rounded up were migrant workers who are believed by many to be the source of rising crime in the city.

Human rights groups claim more than 1,300 people have been detained since the campaign began last month.

Dissidents and members of the China Democracy Party have sent open letters to the government calling for a review of the "counter revolutionary verdict" passed on the 1989 student movement.

In an open letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, eight dissidents from northeast China said the government was "absolutely wrong" to crush the seven weeks of protests centered on the vast square in Beijing.

They called for the release of political prisoners, political reforms and democracy.

They also want compensation for victims' families and the thousands of people imprisoned in an ensuing nationwide crackdown.

Troops backed by tanks and armored carriers shot their way through the Chinese capital on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds, possibly thousands of pro-democracy protesters.

It ended the protests that sometimes drew crowds of more than a million.

The government has never allowed an investigation or a full accounting of the dead and injured.

Amnesty International says 213 people arrested during the crackdown are still in jail.

Veteran Beijing dissident Ren Wanding said police visited him Friday and "told me not to carry out any activities."


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