CHINA:The most senior Chinese official jailed for sympathising with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests has urged the leadership to come clean on why the pro-democracy movement was crushed.
The demonstrations that drew more than a million people on to Beijing's streets ended in a military crackdown on June 4th of that year. Now a fading memory - or no memory at all for young people - the massacre is still taboo in the Chinese media.
But Bao Tong, once the top aide to purged Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, argued that China has been praised for its transparency in handling the devastating May 12th earthquake and should also reveal the rifts in the leadership that led to the massacre.
"Through this quake . . . they have tasted the benefits of openness and should know that openness is better than being closed," Mr Bao said at his Beijing home.
"June 4th of 19 years ago was a man-made disaster, but like natural disasters it should be made known to the people of the entire country and the whole world."
Mr Bao, who was jailed for seven years, remains an outspoken critic of the government.
Tiananmen Square bustled with tourists and police, uniformed and plain-clothed, with no signs of protest yesterday.
"You think today is still a sensitive day?" said one woman selling souvenirs on the square. "That was a long time ago. It was a period of chaos that the government handled well."
Meanwhile, plainclothes and ordinary police manhandled veteran dissident Liu Xiaobo as he tried to leave his home to visit his father-in-law, Liu's wife Liu Xia said. "They grabbed him by the neck and arm and dragged him away." Mr Liu was later released.
In Hong Kong, thousands of people filled more than three soccer pitches in a public park to take part in a solemn annual candlelight ceremony for the Tiananmen victims last night.
Mr Zhao was ousted as party chief in 1989 for opposing then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's decision to send in the People's Liberation Army to crush the pro-democracy movement. He died in 2005 after more than 15 years under house arrest. Mr Zhao was replaced in 1989 by Jiang Zemin, who in turn retired in 2002 to make way for incumbent president Hu Jintao.
Despite efforts of dissidents and families of victims to keep memories of Tiananmen alive, the virtual silence on that period means few people know much about the movement.
Asked on Tuesday about the anniversary, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the government had given a verdict on 1989 long ago and the issue was an internal one. - (Reuters)