Reassess 1989 massacre: Tiananmen Mothers

Beijing, May 29 : Families of victims of the 1989 military crackdown on Tiananmen Square demonstrators have called on the government to reassess the incident and compensate victims, days ahead of the sensitive anniversary of the event.

In an open letter released by the watchdog group Human Rights in China today, the ''Tiananmen Mothers'' also called for a process of truth and reconciliation over the events of June 3-4, 1989, when troops and tanks suppressed weeks of peaceful protests, killing hundreds.

''We believe that only by going through a process of determined perseverance can we accumulate results bit by bit,'' said the letter from the group headed by Ding Zilin, a retired professor whose teenage son was killed in the crackdown.

''And only though the continuous accumulation of specific results can we achieve a just and proper resolution of the June 4 issue,'' the letter said.

Although 17 years have passed since the student-led protest movement unprecedented in Communist China, the government still fears the date could spark a challenge to its grip on power and has refused calls to reassess the wave of activism it condemned as ''counter-revolutionary''.

In April, Chinese authorities made a payment to the mother of Zhou Guocong, one of those killed, the first time a victim's family has been compensated. At the time, though, Ding said she doubted it meant any softening of the official line on Tiananmen.

Dissidents and intellectuals are still routinely taken into custody or placed under house arrest each year in the days leading up to June 4. Others leave Beijing to wait out the period in the countryside.

Among those taken in this year were Shanghai petitioner Mao Hengfeng, who spent more than a month in detention earlier this year after she went on hunger strike in support of an outspoken human rights lawyer.

Mao was detained again on May 23 by a district police station and later transferred and her whereabouts were unknown, Human Rights in China said.

In a second incident, the father of an imprisoned activist was summoned by police after he submitted an open letter during UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's visit to China last week, requesting Annan's intervention to release his son.

Xu Yongdao's son, Xu Zhengqing, is serving three years for commemorating last year's death of former party leader Zhao Ziyang -- ousted for his support of the student demonstrators -- the New York-based watchdog group said.

Reuters