Qiao Long | Radio Free Asia
[caption id="attachment_3305" align="alignleft" width="300"] Eleven citizens of Shandong who lost family members in 1989 meet to commemorate the 26th Anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in late April (courtesy of RFA listener)[/caption]
Twenty-six years after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) suppressed the Chinese student-led democracy protests of 1989 with tanks and machine guns, members of the Tiananmen Mothers victims’ group say they won’t give up the struggle for recognition of their loved ones’ innocent deaths at the hands of China’s ruling Communist Party.
Group spokeswoman You Weijie, whose husband died in the crackdown, said the group will continue to call on the government to respond to calls for a reappraisal of the crackdown, which Beijing says was a necessary move to suppress a “counterrevolutionary rebellion.”
“We have maintained through all these long years that we want the truth to be told,” You said. “We want those responsible to be pursued, and we want compensation,” she said.
She said the group faces routine harassment from Chinese law enforcement.
“Last year, there were some things we were unable to do, because of close surveillance from the police,” You said.
Beijing forbids any show of public mourning for those who died on the night of June 3-4, while high-ranking leaders, often pressed by foreign journalists, have repeated their view that the party’s verdict of “political turmoil” is accurate, and that the debate is closed.
But You said the Tiananmen Mothers are hoping that this year will be slightly easier, now that the landmark 25th anniversary is past.
“This year, we will behave as we have done in previous years, and try to carry out [memorial activities] again,” she said.
“But it’s hard for me to tell you to what extent we’ll be able to carry them out, because we don’t know if state surveillance will be as strict as it was last year,” You said.