Security net tightens around Beijing dissidents (News Feature)

By Bill Smith May 29, 2009, 12:50 GMT

   Beijing - Chinese security forces have placed some prominent dissidents under virtual house arrest and persuaded others to leave Beijing before next week's 20th anniversary of the crushing of the 1989 democracy movement, activists said Friday.

   'There are restrictions on me going out,' Beijing-based dissident Qi Zhiyong told the German Press Agency dpa.

   'I can only go to school to drop off and pick up my child and go to the hospital,' said Qi, who lost a leg after he was shot during the crackdown on the 1989 protests.

   'The children have been on holiday for the last two days, so I have to get into a police car to go out,' he said.

   Qi said his telephone was 'under surveillance' and his internet connection was 'paralysed' on Friday.

   Another rights activist told dpa that police had questioned some of the 19 intellectuals and other activists who attended a recent seminar and commemoration of the 1989 democracy movement in Beijing.

   'Several people were called in by the state security police after the meeting,' said the activist, who asked not to be identified because he feared arrest after police warned him not to talk to foreign journalists.

   Retired university professor Ding Zilin, whose 17-year-old son was shot dead in the 1989 crackdown, said state security police had also visited her.

   The police prevented her from attending a memorial meeting of the Tiananmen Mothers, an informal group of relatives of people who died in the 1989 crackdown, Ding told dpa.

   'These people came to see me on May 17,' Ding said.

   'One aim was to stop me from going to the memorial; the other was to ask me to leave Beijing for the June 4 period,' she said.

   The 1989 protests ended when troops with tanks and live ammunition moved through Beijing overnight on June 3-4, 1989, reportedly killing hundreds of unarmed civilians who allegedly blocked their route.

   Demonstrators, who congregated in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, had urged the government to end corruption and allow democracy and other political and social rights.

   Ding said police suggested she go stay in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao for the anniversary, but told her she could also choose any other place.

   'I said, 'I will go nowhere,'' she said.

   The police then told her that Bao Tong, an outspoken former Communist Party official, and his wife had agreed to leave Beijing.

   Bao is a former aide to late Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang, who was purged for sympathizing with the 1989 protestors.

   A book of Zhao's memoirs, secretly recorded by him and collected by Bao, was published this month after being smuggled out of China.

   'I said his condition is different, he has finished things,' Ding said of the police attempts to persuade her to follow Bao's lead.

   'He collated the memoirs and published them,' she said. 'Now, of course, he can have a rest. But I am different. I have a relative who was murdered at this time [June 4]. I can't leave.'

   Beijing police visit the homes of prominent dissidents and rights activists in the run-up to all major events, placing some dissidents under house arrest and forcing others to live temporarily at heavily guarded hotels.

   Tens of thousands of police and paramilitary guards keep petitioners, protestors and known dissidents off the streets before and during the events, including the annual sessions of parliament in March.

   The 20th anniversary of the 1989 democracy movement has been one of the most sensitive dates in China for several years.

   In a recent report, New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Chinese government 'continues to persecute those who seek a public reassessment of the bloody crackdown.'

   'Chinese citizens who challenge the official version of what happened in June 1989 are subject to swift reprisals from security forces,' the group said.

   'These include relatives of victims who demand redress and eyewitnesses to the massacre and its aftermath whose testimonies contradict the official version of events,' it said.

   Ding and the other Tiananmen Mothers have repeatedly demanded an official investigation into the military action and a public announcement of the death toll and the names of the dead.

   The Beijing rights activist who asked not to be named said he expected the current restrictions on Ding, himself and other dissidents to continue until after October 1, when Beijing is scheduled to host celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, including a military parade.