Chinese authorities commemorate Tiananmen crackdown with arrests
Since yesterday plainclothes and uniformed police are patrolling downtown Beijing to prevent any commemoration of the massacre in which thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators died.
A major tourist destination in the capital, Mao’s mausoleum was closed today for three days “for repairs.”
Authorities yesterday also blocked access to popular internet services Twitter and online photo sharing service Flickr, as well as interrupting e-mail provider Hotmail. MSN Spaces suffered the same fate.
Tourists and foreigners have come under tight supervision. Administrators at universities have been told to keep a close eye on foreigners in their departments.
Taxi drivers were instructed to watch out for suspicious passengers, especially those headed towards the square.
Wu Gaoxing, who was jailed for two years after he protested in 1989 in the eastern province of Zhejiang as pro-democracy protests were taking place in Beijing, was taken away on Saturday. Mr Wu had just written an open letter to President Hu Jintao seeking economic redress for those jailed after the crackdown on 4 June.
In Beijing, Mothers of Tiananmen founder Ding Zilin , 72, whose son was shot and killed in the 1989 crackdown, was asked to leave Beijing ahead of tomorrow’s anniversary, but refused and is now closely followed.
Guizhou human rights activist Chen Xi and Beijing’s Qi Zhiyong, who lost a leg as a result of the repression, have been placed under house arrest.
Bao Tong, a former aide to Zhao Ziyang, has been removed from Beijing. Zhou Duo, a former Peking University sociologist who joined students in protest in 1989, has been placed under house arrest.
Police has prevented Zeng Jinyan, wife of Hu Jia, a well-known activist currently in prison, from leaving her home.
For many analysts, government control of the Beijing residents is tighter this time compared to ten years ago when the world-famous square was cordoned off for “repairs” during several months.
In the meantime the US Congress yesterday called on Beijing to free all political prisoners (at least 30 according to the Dui Hua Foundation) and “invite full and independent investigations into the Tiananmen Square crackdown, assisted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross.”
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