DATE=6/2/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHINA ANNIVERSARY
NUMBER=5-46429
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:

INTRO:  Eleven years after Chinese troops mowed down 
pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen 
Square, relatives of the victims are still asking the 
Chinese government to punish those responsible and 
compensate bereaved families.  But, as V-O-A 
correspondent Roger Wilkison reports, the government 
continues to defend the 1989 crackdown, as a move that 
was necessary to preserve economic reforms that have 
brought prosperity to many Chinese. 

TEXT:  With the (June 4th) anniversary of the Tiananmen 
Square incident only (two) days away, a redoubtable 
[formidable] group of victims' relatives is again 
appealing to the Chinese leadership to open an 
independent investigation into the attack.  The 
mothers also want the results and the names of the 
victims made public.

Zhang Xianling, whose son was killed by troops that 
fateful June day in 1989, says she and her colleagues 
have been making the same three requests for the past 
six years, so far to no avail.

/// 1st ZHANG ACT IN CHINESE-ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///

Ms. Zhang says the first request is to ask for a 
specialized committee to investigate the incident, 
find out what really happened and, then, make the 
information public.  The second is to publish an 
official list of names of all the victims.  And the 
third is to investigate those responsible for 
instigating the event and have them take legal 
responsibility for it.

An open letter from the group to President Jiang Zemin 
this week notes there never was any answer to earlier 
requests for the government to reassess its 
suppression of the demonstrators.  Overturning the 
official verdict that the demonstrations were a 
counterrevolutionary rebellion would clear the names 
of those involved in the protests.  But such a step is 
politically difficult, because many of China's current 
leaders supported the crackdown.

This week, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue 
told reporters (through an interpreter) that the 1989 
demonstrations seriously undermined China's stability.

               /// 1st INTERPRETER ACT ///

      The Chinese government had no choice but to take 
      necessary measures to solve this so as to 
      maintain social stability and the smooth going 
      of China's reform and opening up.  For a country 
      with one-point-two-billion people, the 
      development of reform and opening up and today's 
      prosperity could not be achieved without 
      stability.

                  /// END ACT ///

Last year, Zhang Xianling and another victim's mother 
filed a petition to Chinese judicial authorities 
arguing that the army's killing of peaceful 
demonstrators in 1989 violated Chinese law.  It said 
Li Peng -- then premier and now China's top legislator 
-- bore primary responsibility for the killings and 
must face prosecution.  Under Chinese law, prosecutors 
are required to take action on the petition or, at 
least, give a reason why no action will be taken.  
Officials at the prosecutors' office say they have 
never received the petition.

Police routinely detain or harass those who seek to 
commemorate the dead or campaign for an apology or 
compensation for the victims' families.  Zhang 
Xianling says she is followed even when she visits her 
son's grave.

/// 2nd ZHANG ACT IN CHINESE-ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///

She says she goes to sweep his grave every year on 
June 3rd, his birthday, and that she feels terrible 
inside.  But to make things worse, plainclothes 
policemen tail [follow] her and videotape her, and 
that adds to her discomfort.

Foreign human-rights groups and overseas Chinese have 
tried to send aid to the relatives of Tiananmen 
victims, but those efforts have been thwarted by the 
government.  Police have seized or frozen some funds.  
Asked if the government would consider transferring 
the donations to the families, Foreign Ministry 
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue is categorical.

               /// 2nd INTERPRETER ACT ///

      If something happens in China, no foreign 
      country has the right to interfere in China's 
      internal affairs.

                   /// END ACT ///

Zhang Xianling has her own version of why the 
government refuses to allow the relatives to get their 
hands on the contributions that have been sent them.

/// 3rd ZHANG ACT IN CHINESE-ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///

She says that the government believes that by freezing 
the donations, they can eventually destroy the 
relatives' support group.   (Signed) 

NEB/RW/FC/WTW



02-Jun-2000 07:28 AM EDT (02-Jun-2000 1128 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.