Amnesty seeks Tiananmen enquiry

Amnesty says China still holds about 200 people over the Tiananmen Massacre

By CNN's Rose Tang

LONDON, Britain -- Amnesty International is urging China to initiate an "impartial and public enquiry" into the killings of civilians and protesters in the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.

On the 12th anniversary of the carnage in Beijing, the London-based human rights group has called on the Chinese government to account for all people killed and injured in the military crackdown and to compensate the victims' families.

The organization repeats its calls on China to release "immediately and unconditionally" the prisoners who have been held for participating in the 1989 protests or for attempting to commemorate past anniversaries.

Troops and tanks, maneuvered from all around China, fired upon unarmed crowds around the Tiananmen Square for several days from the early hours of June 4, 1989.

The student-led pro-democracy demonstrations had lasted about six weeks.

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The Chinese government at the end of June 1989 released a report stating "more than 3,000 civilians were wounded and over 200, including 36 college students, died during the riot".

Over the past 12 years, while continuing to detain those who attempt to commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre anniversary, Beijing has softened its tone, switching the label for the massacre from "the violent counter-revolutionary rebellion" to "the political disturbance".

Continued harassment

Amnesty International disputes that at least several hundred people were killed in Beijing during the military intervention and tens of thousands arrested throughout China in the wake of the crackdown.

The organization said in a statement Friday that it's records showed more than 200 people remained in jail or on medical parole for their role in the 1989 protests, with many tortured or ill-treated.

"None of them received fair trials," Amnesty notes, adding that many inmates were convicted of "counter-revolutionary" crimes that were scrapped from the Criminal Law in 1997.

Meanwhile, 111 family members of the victims known as "The Tiananmen Mothers" recently sent an open letter to the Chinese Procurator General demanding it address a civil law suit the group lodged two years ago against Li Peng, the former premier believed to be the mastermind behind the crackdown.

The families also filed a civil suit in New York against Li in September last year, seeking reparation for damages and loss of life.

The Chinese government has reacted calling the lawsuit a "political farce". A new hearing will establish whether the case may be heard.

Amnesty says Chinese authorities continue to harass and detain members of the group, led by academic Ding Zilin, whose 17-year-old son was gunned down in the 1989 clampdown.