China: Free Tiananmen Prisoners Before Olympics

Chinese army troops initiated a massacre of an estimated 2,000 unarmed people in and around Beijings Tiananmen Square and other Chinese cities on and after June 3-4, 1989. The Chinese government has wholly failed to account for those killings and bring justice to the victims.  
 
The Chinese government should show the global Olympic audience its serious about human rights by releasing the Tiananmen detainees, said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. Beijings use of Tiananmen Square as a macabre prop for Chinas Olympic coming-out-party adds insult to injury.  
 
The 1989 crackdown extended to major urban centers across China and resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people on charges ranging from counterrevolutionary offenses to hooliganism, including robbery, arson, and assault. The government continues to harass survivors, their families, and those who dare to challenge the official version of the events at Tiananmen Square. Current figures are not made public, but as recently as 2004, at least 130 individuals arrested in the wake of the June 3-4 massacre were still in prison.  
 
The Chinese government intends to use Tiananmen Square for various Olympic functions. It has already held the starting ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay at Tiananmen, and will hold the closing ceremonies there as well. In February 2001, the Chinese government dropped Tiananmen as the proposed venue for beach volleyball at the request of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) evaluation team that visited Beijing five months ahead of the July 2001 IOC decision to award the 2008 Games to Beijing.  

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