Police in China beat and detained political activists marking the 23rd anniversary of the brutal crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests on Sunday, rights campaigners said.
Officers used violence against
activists in the southeast province of Fujian and detained them, while
more than 30 people who came to Beijing "to petition" were held and forced to return to their home province, the activists reported.
"Around 20 rights defenders were
stopped by police and beaten this morning on May First Square," Shi
Liping, the wife of activist Lin Bingxing, told AFP by phone from
Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province.
"The police said they were going
to 'beat them to death'. They took about eight people into custody,
including my husband. I fear he has been beaten badly."
Police in Fuzhou contacted by AFP denied anyone had been detained.
People's Liberation Army soldiers
stormed into central Beijing on June 3-4, 1989, firing upon unarmed
demonstrators and citizens, killing hundreds if not thousands, as they
ended six weeks of democracy protests on Tiananmen Square.
More than two decades later,
Beijing still considers the incident a "counter revolutionary rebellion"
and a "political storm" and has refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing
or consider compensation for those killed.
In Beijing, police detained at least 30 activists from eastern
Zhejiang province at a railway station Saturday and put them on a bus
back to their hometown of Wuxi.
"The police told us it was
because of June 4 (the day of the crackdown), that during sensitive
periods they had to clean up unstable elements," petitioner Xie Qiming
told AFP from the bus.
"No one was beaten, but there were no legal procedures either, they just forced us on to the bus and are sending us home."
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