lørdag 5. juni 2021

Tiananmen Mothers Mourn Massacre Victims as China Censors Online Tributes

Relatives of people killed in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre were escorted by state security police on Friday to pay their respects to those who died in the bloody crackdown by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Around 10 members of the Tiananmen Mothers victims' group laid offerings for their loved ones at Beijing's Wan'an Cemetery, closely watched by around 30 plainclothes police. In the brief ceremony that took less than an hour, police kept their distance, and didn't interrupt proceedings, mourners told RFA.

Tiananmen Mothers members Zhang Xianling, Huang Xuefen, You Weijie and Huang Jinping were among the mourners, and were escorted through the north gate of the cemetery by plainclothes police, Zhang told RFA after the ceremony. "We got to the cemetery some time between 9.30 and 10.00 a.m., and we began prayers and offerings at 10.00 a.m.," she said. "Then the family members made their individual offerings to their loved ones. There were probably about 30 police there today, all plainclothes, scattered around the cemetery in twos and threes," she said. "There were around a dozen of us. I don't remember there being so many people around in previous years."

Tiananmen Mothers spokeswoman You Weijie gave a eulogy to those who died when the PLA deployed tanks and automatic weapons against mostly unarmed civilians.