Exiled Chinese dissidents mark anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre

Jun 4, 2006, 11:37 GMT

Taipei - Exiled Chinese dissidents held seminars, vigils and marches in many countries on Sunday to mark the 17th anniversary of the June 4th 1989 military suppression of a pro-democracy movement in Beijing, which became known as the Tiananmen Massacre.

In Taipei, opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou and a dozen Chinese dissidents attended a seminar on the event. Ma urged China to introduce democracy and rehabilitate the victims of the June 4th incident.

'It took Taiwan 40 years to rehabilitate the victims of the February 28, 1947 military crackdown in Taiwan. We believe that with increased flow of information, it will take less time for China to re-evaluate the June 4th incident,' he said.

Former Chinese student leader Wuer Kaixi, who fled to the US after the Tiananmen Massacre and has lived in Taiwan since 1997, expressed worry that foreign countries are turning a blind eye to China's human rights record because they want to do business with China.

'We used to think that China's economic development would speed up its democratization, but the result is the opposite. China's economic success has given it the power to suppress and interpret freedom of speech,' he told the seminar.

'If China's democracy has not advanced along with its economic development, China will pose a threat to the world and this should be a global concern,' said Wuer Kaixi, now a managing partner of a high- tech investment consultancy firm.

In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China organized a series of activities on Sunday to mark the anniversary.

They included a mini-marathon and a photo exhibition in downtown Hong Kong, a memorial at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park.

In the US and Europe, exiled Chinese pro-democracy activists held discussions, marches and memorials in large cities.

In the US capital Washington, Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng attended a candlelight vigil in memory of the Tiananmen Massacre victims in front of the Chinese embassy on Saturday evening.

'Less and less people are commemorating the Tiananmen incident, but a movement to protect human rights has emerged in China. That is the transformation of the democracy movement in China,' Taiwan's Broadcasting Corp of China quoted Wei as saying.

The Germany-based Chinese Alliance for Democracy held commemorative activities in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich on Sunday, according to Radio Free Asia.

On June 4, 1989, Chinese troops surrounded Tiananmen Square in Beijing to crack down on the hunger-striking students who were sleeping in tents or in the square.

China claimed that no-one was killed in the crackdown, but human right groups estimated that some 2,500 protesters were killed as tanks rolled over their tents and soldiers fired machine guns in the early hours of June 4th.

Family members of the victims of the Tianamen Massacre have repeatedly demanded that China reassess the incident, and rehabilitate and compensate the victims.

The Chinese government reportedly paid compensation to the family of one victim in April in the form of a 'livelihood subsidy,' but it continues to reject calls to punish those who ordered the crackdown and rehabilitate the victims, saying suppressing the protests was necessary to maintain China's social stability.