Tiananmen Mothers, a group representing victims of the June 4 massacre that ended weeks of pro-democracy protests in 1989 has called on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to take responsibility for the actions of the government ahead of this year’s 34th anniversary.
“They may believe that they had nothing to do with the order to open fire [on unarmed civilians] back then, but … it was still done by the party in power, the Communist Party,” You Weijie, a spokeswoman for the group told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
“The government of today should take full responsibility and tell the public about everything that took place then,” she said.
Public commemoration of the massacre is banned in mainland China, while an annual candlelight vigil that used to mark the anniversary in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park has fallen silent after more than three decades, its leaders in prison under a draconian national security law used to crack down on public dissent.
Authorities in China typically place dozens of pro-democracy activists and dissidents under house arrest or other forms of restriction ahead of the politically sensitive date, while members of the Tiananmen Mothers are taken to make offerings to their loved ones under police escort.
Meanwhile, the number of living relatives of people killed in the bloodshed — ordered by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping — dwindles every year, as the group continues to call on Beijing to make public details of the massacre and…
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