Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The families of those killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre (June 4, 1989), are demanding that Beijing break the silence and open a dialogue with them about the government led violence.
Just as every year, as the anniversary approaches, a group of 128 members of the association Tiananmen Mothers, released an open letter in which they criticized the leadership for not wanting to listen to their requests for frank and open dialogue about what occurred on the night between 3 and 4 June 1989. "The communist authorities - said the letter - should listen to our voice, but there is no response ... Can it be that you really want to wear us all down or wait for our deaths so that the problem will naturally disappear?".
From April to June '89, up to a million young people, students, workers, peasants, gathered in Tiananmen Square demanding democracy and an end to corruption. The night between 3 and 4 June the Chinese military intervened with tanks and guns to "clear the square”, occupied for months. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of young people were killed or crushed, others were shot in the streets surrounding the square. For the Communist Party, the movement was a counterrevolutionary rebellion", despite being a non-violent movement.
With the passing of years, faced with the criticism of the Tiananmen Mothers, demanding the revision of judgments made of their children from "counterrevolutionaries" to "patriots", the government has imposed its interpretation of the "lesser evil": the suppression of the ‘1989 Movement was necessary to enable the current economic wellbeing of China.
The letter however states: "We have gradually come to understand from the blood, tears, and suffering that June 4 is not only the misfortune of any single family, but rather it is the misfortune of the entire nation."
The group also calls for the end of persecution against its members. Now, for longer and longer periods during the year, families are followed by police, isolated and controlled at home, their phones and Internet connections cut off, and mail requisitioned.