Amnesty International (AI) yesterday called on the Chinese government to release all people imprisoned during the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests and arrest those responsible for the June 4 massacre.
"Tiananmen clearly remains very much alive today for the Chinese public and the demands by Chinese citizens for justice continue," the London-based rights group said in a statement. "We reiterate our call on the Chinese government to conduct an independent inquiry into the killing of unarmed students and demonstrators. Those found responsible should be tried and brought to justice."
"We also call on the government to release all those who are still imprisoned in connection with the Tiananmen crackdown and who never received fair trials," it said.
China's communist government has taken the position that concerns regarding the crackdown are "outdated," while maintaining that without it China would not have been able to enjoy 16 years of robust economic growth. It repeated that position on Thursday.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed students and demonstrators were gunned down in central Beijing when tanks were sent in to end the six-week long protests.
"The on-going passion that surrounds the issue in China is clear from the continuous string of detentions of citizens who seek to post information on the Internet regarding the dead or missing from 1989," Amnesty said.
The group listed several Chinese recently jailed for opposing the government's handling of the protests and also cited the continued harassment of a group of relatives of June 4 victims, known as the Tiananmen Mothers.
"The Tiananmen Mothers group was set up by Ding Zilin (丁子霖) after her son was killed in Beijing on 4 June, 1989, and has never ceased to call for an independent review of the events of 1989," it said of the Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
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FRIDAY, SATURDAY: While Typhoon Champi might weaken, officials warned about large waves, while some transport services and tourist spots have been affected Typhoon Champi is forecast to have the greatest effect on Taiwan tomorrow and on Saturday, with a sea warning issued late last night and a land warning expected afternoon today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm’s projected track has shifted slightly westward and it could begin moving away from Taiwan toward Japan’s Kyushu island on Saturday, with the warnings potentially lifted as early as Saturday afternoon, CWA forecaster Chang Cheng-chuan (張承傳) said. As of yesterday afternoon, Champi was about 910km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, CWA data showed. Its maximum sustained winds had weakened slightly to
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday urged China not to exploit typhoons to assert jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait. The CGA issued the remarks after it found that China was shadowing eight Japan Coast Guard ships that sheltered in Taiwan proper’s western waters due to Typhoon Champi. Eight Japan Coast Guard (JCG) vessels sailed southward along the Taiwan Strait median line from 6am on Thursday, reaching waters southwest of Penghu County’s Cimei Island (七美島), outside Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which extends 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the territorial sea baseline, it said. As the Japanese ships prepared for the typhoon, they were followed by
STAY CAUTIOUS: Rain is expected to begin easing this afternoon, but a CWA forecaster said that if the storm stalls or loops on its approach, heavy winds are likely Typhoon Champi, which caused widespread damage and injuries, and prompted road closures and evacuations across Taiwan yesterday, is expected to continue to bring heavy rain this morning, with up to 900mm of rain forecast for mountainous areas of New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. At one point a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi was packing gusts of about 191kph near its center as of 8:30pm, the CWA said. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung; and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin
TOTAL COVERAGE: Champi’s outer band is expected to blanket the entire nation, with the center coming closest tonight or tomorrow before leaving tomorrow evening School and work across most of the nation has been canceled today, as Typhoon Champi is expected to skirt the northeast edge of Taiwan proper. As of 9pm, all municipalities except for Kinmen County had announced cancelations. Taitung County last night announced closures on Green Island (綠島) and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), but did not announce for the rest of the county until 6am today. Stock market settlements scheduled for today would be postponed to the next business day, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. The announcements came after the Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday expanded its land warning for Champi to 19 regions
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