Mothers push for Tiananmen probe

Relatives of victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre called on the National People's Congress to open a new investigation and allow publication of accounts of the crackdown, they said yesterday.

A letter signed by 128 members of the Tiananmen Mother's group was sent to the congress ahead of its annual session starting on Monday, said Zhang Xianling (張先玲), a member of the organization.

The signatories were led by outspoken government critic and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ding Zilin (丁子霖).

Hundreds, possibly thousands of unarmed protesters were gunned down in the streets of Beijing by military units on June 3, 1989, as the government ended six weeks of pro-democracy protests.

The massacre remains one of the most sensitive political issues in China.

The letter called for "a fresh investigation into the incident, a public accounting and appropriate restitution, and prosecution of those responsible," Zhang said.

"We sent the letter to the standing committee of the National People's Congress, like we do every year," Zhang said.

"We have confirmed that they received the letter."

China will open its annual session of parliament on Monday with the building of a "harmonious society," the pet project of President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), the central focus.

The letter also called on authorities to lift a ban on three books on the incident, including one containing interviews with Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who was ousted for his opposition to the massacre.

Another was written by former prime minister Li Peng (李鵬), who is reviled for ordering the crackdown but who reportedly has tried to clear his name through his banned memoirs.

The third is Ding's book The Moment of Truth, which details the 18-year effort of the Tiananmen Mothers to overturn the government's verdict that the unrest was a "counter-revolutionary rebellion."

Meanwhile, two members of parliament were dismissed, media reports said yesterday.

The Xinhua news agency said the two were expelled from the national parliament over alleged involvement in corruption, without giving other details.

Xinhua said that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) voted yesterday to approve local parliamentary decisions to strip Liu Weiming (劉煒明), 68, a Guangdong provincial official, and Deng Zhonghua (鄧中華), 49, president of Hunan Chendian International Development, of their NPC membership.

It said Liu, a vice governor of Guangdong Province from 1988 to 1998, was dismissed for "seriously violating discipline," a decision made by the provincial people's congress in Guangdong said.

He has also been expelled from the CCP.