To commemorate the 21st anniversary of the June Fourth government crackdown on the 1989 Democracy Movement, Jiang Qisheng (江棋生), prominent dissident and independent intellectual who was active in the Charter 08 initiative, has provided Human Rights in China (HRIC) an English version of his report, An Independent Report on the Situation of the June 4 Massacre Victims, which HRIC is releasing today. Jiang released the original Chinese version of the report (1989年六四镇压受害者状况民间报告) in June 2009.
Compiled from available information, including the Tiananmen Mothers’ database, as well as in-person interviews, the report tells the stories of 195 people who were killed in the June Fourth crackdown, and provides information on 57 people who were wounded or disabled, and more than 800 individuals who have been imprisoned or detained in Reeducation-Through-Labor institutions for offenses related to the crackdown in more than a dozen provinces, including the seven people still in prison today.
Jiang said in the preface that the report, in providing essential information, is aimed at restoring historical truth and seeking historical justice.
“This report is an invaluable resource for those who want to understand the on-going human costs of the June Fourth crackdown, and an important tool for promoting official accountability,” said Sharon Hom, Executive Director of HRIC.
Those killed were men, women and children from all walks of life, including students, peasants, truck drivers, performers, engineers, peddlers and even a party secretary and deputy to the Beijing People’s Congress. They were from major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, and as far away as Xinjiang. The report provides their personal details: names, ages, home locations, occupations, circumstances surrounding their deaths, family backgrounds, and information on surviving family members.
The youngest victim was Lu Peng, a 9-year-old third grade student (#34) who was shot in the chest by martial law troops around midnight, June 3-4, and died immediately. The oldest was Zhang Fuyuan, a 66-year-old retired hospital worker and Communist Party member (#166) who was working as a guard in a construction site of the Design Institute of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry. On the evening of June 3, Zhang was among a group of residents near Chang’an Avenue who were chased and fired upon by martial law troops as they ran into a hutong.
Other victims include Zhang Jian, 17-year-old high school student (#181) who was shot in the heart by soldiers on his way to see his uncle and aunt on June 4 and was dead on arrival at the Peking Union Medical college Hospital; and Dai Wei, a 20-year-old cook in the Beijing Roast Duck Restaurant (#42) who was shot in the back on his way to work on the evening of June 3 and died in the early morning of June 4 in the Post and Communications Hospital.
In the report, Jiang tells of families of the dead who never received any compensation or even official accounts of how their loved ones died. These families have never even been allowed to openly mourn their deaths.
As for the living, the report provides the names of the more than 800 prisoners identified, and more detailed information on many of them, such as lengths and types of sentences and locations of imprisonment, offenses of which they were convicted, and age, occupation, home location and other personal details. The report also tells the story of many who have been released from prison but have not been able to find work, and continue to suffer economically, politically and psychologically.
Human Rights in China urges the Chinese authorities to respond to the appeal in this report for an official re-examination of the events and to the Tiananmen Mothers’ call for investigation, compensation, accountability, and dialogue.
For the full text of the English version of the report, see: http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/Independent_Report_6_4_Victims.pdf
For the original Chinese report, see: 《1989年六四镇压受害者状况民间报告》, http://crd-net.org/Article/Class1/200905/20090519232239_15482.html
For more information about the Jiang Qisheng, see:
- “In Statement, Tiananmen Mothers Urge Government to Open Up the Internet,” March 10, 2010
- “What Constitutes Liu Xiaobo’s ‘Incitement to Subvert State Power’?” December 23, 2009
- “Timeline: Human Rights Defenders,” China Rights Forum, no.3 2009
- “Chinese Authorities Tighten Grip on Rights Defenders during NPC and CPPCC Sessions,” March 05, 2009
- “Timeline: Human Rights Defenders, ” China Rights Forum, no. 1 2009
- “June Fourth Memorial Activities Closely Monitored in China,” June 5, 2008
- “Chinese Scholars and Activists Demand Equality for Migrant Workers in China,” February 14, 2008
- “Wife of prominent dissdent Jiang Qisheng appeals to U.S. president George Bush,” February 19, 2002