Tiananmen activists moved by Liu’s Nobel dedication

BEIJING - When Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo dedicated his award to the “Tiananmen martyrs”, he reminded the world of the thousands who suffered death, injury or imprisonment after the brutal military crackdown on Chinese democracy protesters in 1989.

“I was very moved by these words,” Beijing-based democracy activist Qi Zhiyong told DPA by telephone Tuesday.

“It shows that Liu Xiaobo has not forgotten the June 4 bloodshed,” said Qi, who lost a leg after he was shot as troops with tanks and live ammunition cleared Beijing’s Tiananmen Square overnight June 3-4, 1989.

Liu’s dedication of the Nobel Peace Prize to the 1989 democracy protesters would “encourage freedom and democracy” in China, said 53-year-old Qi, who, along with many other activists, has been kept under virtual house arrest since the prize was announced Friday.

“So many people died on June 4 (1989). My initial feeling was that (Liu’s) remembering of the June 4 martyrs reflects his own heart and character,” Qi said.

Tens of thousands of protesters had occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks that spring, as the rest of the world watched to see how the ruling Communist Party would handle the biggest open challenge to its rule since it founded the People’s Republic in 1949.

The military crackdown reportedly left hundreds of protesters dead and thousands wounded.

But the government has still not given a full account of the casualties, and insists that 20 years of breakneck economic growth justifies its decision to enforce political stability.

Liu lost his job as a lecturer in literature at Beijing Normal University and was detained for nearly two years for defending students who joined the 1989 protests and for urging an investigation into the crackdown.

Xu Yuyou, a Beijing-based philosophy professor who was also in Tiananmen Square in 1989, recalled Liu’s part in the protests in an open letter of support last month for his Nobel nomination.

“Liu Xiaobo, along with three other intellectuals, was taking part in the student hunger strike; it was they, who, on the early morning of the 4th, convinced the students to peacefully evacuate the square and begin discussion with the soldiers suppressing them, negotiating a smooth withdrawal,” Xu said.

Xu said the action of Liu and several others who persuaded protesters to leave Tiananmen Square before the troops arrived had “saved the lives of several hundred students”.

When Liu, Xu and some 300 other activists, lawyers and writers issued the Charter ‘08 for democratic reform in December 2008, they said the June 4 crackdown was one of a “string of human rights catastrophes” caused by the Communist Party.

Qi is a member of the informal Tiananmen Mothers group, which has appealed dozens of times for the Communist Party to hold a public inquiry into the 1989 crackdown.

The group said last year that it had collected the names of 203 people who died in 1989, adding that they believed there were “still more victims we have yet to find”.

Retired professors Ding Zilin and her husband Jiang Peikun helped found the group after their 17-year-old son was killed in the 1989 military crackdown.

During the trial of Liu, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion, Ding signed a petition to the government urging it to charge all 303 Charter ‘08 signatories with subversion.

“Perhaps they didn’t dare arrest more people. But to have Liu Xiaobo alone locked up - I couldn’t reconcile myself to that, couldn’t bear it,” Ding told US-based Human Rights in China in December.

The charter demands a series of sweeping changes to create a “free, democratic and constitutional state”, and urges the release of all political prisoners. It is modelled on the Charter ‘77 written by intellectuals in the former Czechoslovakia.

“Signing Charter ‘08 reminded me of the 1989 democracy movement and the spirit of the intellectuals at that time who were concerned about the country and the people,” Ding said. “Charter 08 itself is the embodiment of China’s conscience.”

Qi lauded Liu’s generosity in sharing the spotlight.

“He didn’t just take the praise for himself. His first thought was to give it (the Nobel prize) to the June 4 martyrs. Most people wouldn’t do that,” Qi said.

“So I was very, very moved by this. He never forgets June 4 … and constantly strives for democracy and freedom.”