Chinese police have for the first time raised the possibility of compensation for those killed in the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, families of victims said Tuesday.
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| PLA tanks and soldiers guard the Chang'an Avenue which leads to Tiananmen Square in Beijing two days after their crackdown on pro-democracy students. Chinese police have for the first time raised the possibility of compensation for those killed in the crushing of the pro-democracy protests, families of victims said Tuesday. |
Police have met twice with relatives of one victim beginning in February, the Tiananmen Mothers said, in a possible sign that the Communist government is changing its view on the brutal June 4 crackdown in the heart of Beijing.
"They only raised the question of how much to pay, emphasising that this was meant for that individual case and not for the families in the group as a whole," the group said in an annual open letter to mark the June 4 anniversary.
The letter said, however, that police did not discuss a formal apology for the killings or a public account of who ordered the shootings -- two of the group's longstanding demands.
"The Tiananmen Mothers have repeatedly appealed to the government over the past 16 years for dialogue, yet government authorities have ignored us," said the letter, posted on the group's website.
"This year, the silence was finally broken."
The letter was signed by 127 members of the group, which is made up of relatives of those killed in the crackdown. It gave no further details on the compensation discussions.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are believed to have died when the government sent in tanks and soldiers to clear the square on the night of June 3-4, 1989, violently crushing six weeks of pro-democracy protests.
An official verdict after the protests called them a "counter-revolutionary rebellion".
The wording has been softened since then but the crackdown remains a taboo subject, with any mention of it censored. Those who persist in raising the issue have been jailed or otherwise harassed.
The letter acknowledged that the motives behind the government's apparent overture were unclear.
It noted that the approach came amid what the group called the harshest crackdown on dissent since 1989, carried out this year as Beijing has moved to prevent unrest similar to that which has swept the Arab world.
Contacted by AFP, the Beijing Public Security Bureau refused to comment on the letter or the reported compensation discussions.
The Tiananmen Mothers have documented the killing of 203 people during the crackdown, all of whom were peaceful demonstrators or citizens, the letter said.
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