Tiananmen exiles seek UN investigation into 1989 crackdown
- Protest leader Wang Dan and other activists submit complaint to Human Rights Council
Exiled Tiananmen Square protest leader Wang Dan and more than 20 other Chinese activists are lobbying the United Nations’ human rights body to investigate the 1989 crackdown over “gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
Wang and 21 others, backed by the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group, submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Council, a Geneva forum which opens its next three-week session on June 24.
“We request the HRC investigate the gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms committed by the Chinese government during its military assault on peaceful protests,” they said in a statement on Monday.
They also sought action over “the consistent pattern of human rights violations in persecuting Chinese citizens during the past three decades who broke the silence” about the events of June 3-4, 1989.
The statement said the anniversary remained taboo in China and that Beijing had not held a public inquiry nor permitted an independent investigation.
Beijing enjoys strong support among developing countries at the Human Rights Council, a 47-member state forum that has never adopted a resolution on China since being set up in 2006.
A council spokesman was not in a position to provide any information, noting that communications lodged via the complaint procedure were confidential.
“The massacre 30 years ago has not ended yet. The Chinese government even determined that the victims were criminals and a large number of exiles are still deprived of their right to return to their own country,” said Wang, who lives in the US.