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China stops petitioners mourning late leader Zhao
2006-01-19
Chinese police stopped about 30 petitioners on Tuesday from commemorating the first death anniversary of Zhao Ziyang, purged as Communist Party chief in 1989 for opposing an army crackdown on the Tiananmen protests.Dozens of uniformed police sealed off the alley leading to Zhao's Beijing courtyard home, where his ashes are kept, after the petitioners turned up at the doorway. "Does the Communist Party have justice?" one woman shouted, standing outside the closed red door of Zhao's home. The Communist Party remains nervous about Zhao's residual influence and has tried to erase him from public memory, blanking out his role in economic reforms that turned China from an economic backwater to a powerhouse. Zhao's only daughter, Wang Yannan, who was in the courtyard home, told Reuters the family had received dozens of well-wishers in recent days. "We held a small private memorial here today. There have been many visitors," she said by telephone. "The restrictions haven't been as bad as last year." Officers forced the petitioners, who spoke with accents from northeast China and the central province of Henan, into vans which drove away after a one-hour stand-off. Police ordered other petitioners and reporters to leave. By midday, the scene around Zhao's house had returned to outward calm, with plain-clothes police vetting passers-by. Zhao was toppled as party chief in 1989 for opposing a decision by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to send in troops to crush the student-led pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square on June 4 that year. He died on January 17, 2005, after more than 15 years under house arrest. Chinese state media ignored the anniversary on Tuesday and there was no official commemoration planned. SURVEILLANCE Dozens of Tiananmen survivors, families of victims and dissidents have been placed under tight police surveillance to prevent them from visiting Zhao's home to pay their respects. "Plainclothes police are outside my home and go wherever I go," Pang Meiqing, who is paralyzed from the waist down after a soldier's bullet sliced through his spinal cord, told Reuters. "I lit a candle," Pang said when asked if he commemorated the anniversary. "My feelings are like the weather -- cloudy." Bao Tong, Zhao's one-time top aide, warned on Monday that China would not be able to avoid economic and social crises unless it embraces democracy and rule of law. His phone suddenly went dead in the middle of a conversation on Tuesday. Bao, the most senior Chinese official jailed over the 1989 protests, was released in 1996 but has been put under round-the-clock police surveillance. The party has rejected calls for a reassessment of the Tiananmen protests, labeled subversive, saying Zhao had tried to split the party and made "serious mistakes." Zhao's daughter said the family was locked in disagreement with the authorities about where to place his ashes. Officials offered the party's official Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing but only in a section reserved for middle-ranking officials. "We hope to put the ashes somewhere that reflects his status," she said. Reuters
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