Police crackdown on Tiananmen anniversary

4 Jun 2009, 8:39 pm   -   Source: AFP
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China's police force has enforced a major crackdown on Chinese and foreign tourists on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.

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Thousands of tourists milled around China’s Tiananmen Square under heavy security, snapping photos and soaking in the sun, but few were willing to even mention the events of June 1989.

For most Chinese, the army's bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, in which hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators and ordinary citizens were killed, remains strictly taboo, even 20 years later.

Many were reluctant to make any comments on the subject, telling reporters they were "unclear" or had "no opinion".

One 31-year-old postal worker clearly recalled the Tiananmen protests but said they belonged to a different time and place.

"Twenty years ago, people were very poor, so their thinking was very different," he told reporters.

"But now people are richer so they have a completely different way of thinking," the postal worker said.

Police monitoring the square

Hundreds of police and security forces deployed in the area barred journalists from gaining access to the famous square.

Police officers meticulously checked bags and swiped tourists with hand-held metal detectors at checkpoints set up at all entrances.

Armed police lined the pavement at intervals on either side of the square.

"It's pretty scary having so much police. There are a lot of plainclothes officers too," said a 35-year-old Chinese man, who said he frequently visited the square.

Plainclothes police, some wearing earpieces and holding walkie-talkies, also kept watch, and an AFP TV journalist positioned outside the square was ordered to delete footage from his camera.

In the huge square, the symbol of political power in China, police cars could occasionally be seen patrolling the perimeter and vans were parked in the centre, in front of the mausoleum of communist China's founder Mao Zedong.

The traditional flag-raising ceremony took place at dawn, watched by a large crowd of spectators.

But one American woman trying to take in the sights was forced to do so from a distance.

"I can't believe they wouldn't let me on the square just because I didn't have a passport with me," said the woman.

Another foreign tourist was kept waiting when police discovered a banner he wanted to use as a backdrop for a photo with his tour group.

After close scrutiny, he was let onto the square.

Dalai Lama honours Tiananmen dead

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, paid tribute to those killed and urged China's leaders to review the events that led to the bloodshed.

"I respectfully honour those who died expressing the popular demand for the government to be more accountable to its people," the Dalai Lama said in a statement from the seat of his exiled government in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala.

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since escaping a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, said the Chinese government had a "great opportunity" to review its official labelling of the pro-democracy movement as "counter-revolutionary".

The students who led the movement were "neither anti-communist nor anti-socialist" the Dalai Lama said.

"It is my hope that the Chinese leaders have the courage and far-sightedness to embrace more truly egalitarian principles and pursue a policy of greater accommodation and tolerance of diverse views," he added.

The Dalai Lama is regularly vilified by China as a separatist seeking independence for his Himalayan homeland, a charge he denies.

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