U.S.: John Kusumi, founder of the China Support Network, calls for Chinese people to rise up

— “John Kusumi, founder of the China Support Network,calls for Chinese people to rise up and sweep away ‘the model of government-by-gangster'”
— John Kusumi: “I do fully support the Chinese democracy movement and its present-day agenda for political reform that is far-reaching and not just baby steps of incrementalism. There will be a change as the Communist Party is swept away, into the dustbin of history.”
— John Kusumi: “There is strength in this cause and in this movement. In 1989, students were asking the government for change. Some even kneeled on the steps of the Great Hall of the People — and one of them, Zhou Yongjun, has been arrested again in China. He belongs here, at this event, today. We demand his release, and that of Wang Bingzhang, Liu Xiaobo, and Gao Zhisheng. This is 2009. This time, we are not asking the government, we are telling the government — and calling for a revolution to come along side us.”
— John Kusumi: “We are standing where there is a statue of Tiananmen Square’s Goddess of Democracy. I remember standing here in 2007 with Tang Baiqiao as he called for a second June 4 movement. With today’s open call for revolution, his call is joined. Could the Chinese government negotiate, perhaps with Xu Wenli? Xu Wenli is a Chinese dissident who has called for a Future of China Conference, to be held this fall in Beijing. That, in preparation for a Constitutional Convention of 2010. Those events can and should happen, with or without the Communist Party at the table!”
— John Kusumi: “Long live democracy, and may the future of China be bright!”

U.S. House of Representatives passes H. Res. 489, for the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square

U.S. House of Representatives passes H. Res. 489, for the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square

Full text of the resolution:

Recognizing the twentieth anniversary of the suppression of protesters and citizens in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, on June 3 and 4, 1989 and expressing sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned in connection with the democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and other parts of China on June 3 and 4, 1989 and thereafter;

Whereas freedom of expression and assembly are fundamental human rights that belong to all people, and are recognized as such under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

Whereas June 4th, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the day in 1989 when the People’s Liberation Army and other security forces finished carrying out the orders of Chinese leaders to use lethal force to disperse demonstrators in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square;

Whereas the death on April 15, 1989 of Hu Yaobang, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China,  was followed by peaceful protests throughout China calling for the elimination of corruption and  acceleration of economic and political reforms, especially freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly; and calling for a dialogue between protesters and Chinese authorities on these issues;

Whereas by early May 1989, citizens advocating publicly for democratic reform across China included not only students, but also government employees, journalists, workers, police, members of the armed forces and other citizens;

Whereas on May 20, 1989, martial law was declared in Beijing after authorities had failed to persuade demonstrators to leave Tiananmen Square;

Whereas during the late afternoon and early evening hours of June 3, 1989, ten- to fifteen thousand helmeted, armed troops carrying automatic weapons and travelling in large truck convoys moved into Beijing to “clear the Square” and surrounding streets of demonstrators;

Whereas on the night of June 3 and continuing into the morning of June 4, 1989, soldiers in armored columns of tanks outside of Tiananmen Square fired directly at citizens and indiscriminately into crowds, inflicting high civilian casualties, and killing or injuring hundreds of unarmed civilians, who reportedly ranged in age from 9 years old to 61 years old; and whereas tanks crushed some protesters and onlookers to death.

Whereas even after 20 years, the exact number of dead and wounded remains unclear; credible sources believe that a number much larger than that officially reported actually died in Beijing during the period of military control; credible sources estimate that the numbers of wounded at least were in the hundreds; detentions at the time were in the thousands, and some political prisoners who were sentenced in connection with the events surrounding June 4, 1989 still languish in Chinese prisons;

Whereas there are Chinese citizens still imprisoned for “counter-revolutionary” offenses allegedly committed during the 1989 demonstrations, even though, according to the 1997 revision of China’s Criminal Law, the “offenses” for which they were convicted are no longer crimes.

Whereas the Tiananmen Mothers is a group of relatives and friends of those killed in June 1989 whose demands include the right to mourn victims publicly, to call for a full and public accounting of the wounded and dead, and the release of those who remain imprisoned for participating in the 1989 protests;

Whereas members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have faced arrest, harassment and discrimination; the group’s Web site is blocked in China; and international cash donations made to the group to support families of victims have been frozen by Chinese authorities;

Whereas Chinese authorities censor information that does not conform to the official version of events surrounding the Tiananmen crackdown, and limits or prohibits information about the Tiananmen crackdown from appearing at all in textbooks in China;

Whereas Chinese authorities continue to suppress peaceful dissent by harassing, detaining or imprisoning journalists, advocates for worker rights, religious believers, and other individuals in China, including in Xinjiang and in Tibet who seek to express their political dissent, ethnic identity or religious views peacefully and freely;

Whereas Chinese authorities continue to harass and detain advocates for democratic processes such as Mr. Liu Xiaobo, a Tiananmen Square protester, prominent intellectual, dissident writer, and more recently a signer of Charter 08 (a call for peaceful political reform and respect for the rule of law published on-line last December by over 300 citizens and subsequently endorsed by thousands more), who remains under house arrest.

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives —

(A)  expresses sympathy to the families of those killed, tortured, and imprisoned as a result of their participation in the democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China on June 3-4, 1989 and thereafter, and all those persons who have suffered for their efforts to keep that struggle alive during the last two decades;

(B)  calls on the People’s Republic of China to invite full and independent investigations into the Tiananmen Square crackdown, assisted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross;

(C)  calls on the legal authorities of the People’s Republic of China to review immediately the cases of those still imprisoned for participating in the 1989 protests for compliance with internationally recognized standards of fairness and due process in judicial proceedings and to release those individuals imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their internationally-recognized rights;

(D) calls on the People’s Republic of China to end its harassment and detention of and its discrimination against those who were involved in the 1989 protests not only in Beijing, but in other parts of China where protests took place; and to end its harassment and detention of those who continue to advocate peacefully for political reform, like Mr. Liu Xiaobo, a signer of Charter 08 who remains under house arrest, and his wife, Liu Xia.

(E)  calls on the People’s Republic of China to allow protest participants who escaped to or are living in exile in the United States and other countries, or who reside outside of China because they have been “blacklisted” in China as a result of their peaceful protest activity, to return to China without risk of retribution or repercussion.

(F)  calls on the Administration and Members of the Congress to mark the 20th Anniversary of the events at Tiananmen Square appropriately and effectively by taking steps that include: meeting whenever and wherever possible with participants in the demonstrations who are living in the United States, and meeting with others outside of China who have been “blacklisted” in China as a result of their peaceful protest activities; signaling support for those in China who demand an accounting of the events surrounding June 4th, 1989; and expressing support for those advocating for accountable and democratic governance in China.

Also FYI:

Ron Paul criticizes House Resolution 489:
— “As to the substance of the resolution, I find it disturbing that the House is going out of its way to meddle in China’s domestic politics, which is none of our business”

Communist China: Police swarm Tiananmen Square on anniversary

Police swarm Tiananmen Square on anniversary

AP:
— “In Tiananmen Square, police were ready to pounce at the first sign of protest. In Hong Kong, a sea of candles flickered in the hands of tens of thousands who vented their grief and anger.”
— “Two starkly contrasting faces of China were on display Thursday, the 20th anniversary of the military’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators — from Beijing’s rigid control in suppressing any dissent, to freewheeling Hong Kong, which enjoys freedoms all but absent on the mainland.”
— “Tiananmen Square was blanketed by uniformed and plainclothes security officers who were ready to silence any potential demonstration, and there were few hints that the vast plaza was the epicenter of a student-led movement that was crushed on June 3-4, 1989, shocking the world.”
— “Police barred foreign journalists from entering the square and threatened them with violence, even barring them from covering the daily raising of China’s national flag.”
— “Dissidents and families of victims were confined to their homes or forced to leave Beijing, part of sweeping government efforts to prevent online debate or organized commemorations of the anniversary.”
— “The extraordinary security in Beijing came after government censors shut down social networking and image-sharing Web sites such as Twitter and Flickr and blacked out CNN and other foreign news channels each time they showed stories about Tiananmen.”
— “‘We’ve been under 24-hour surveillance for a week and aren’t able to leave home to mourn. It’s totally inhuman,’ said Xu Jue, whose son was 22 when he was shot in the chest by soldiers and bled to death on June 4, 1989.”
— “Police were also stationed outside the home of Wang Yannan, the daughter of Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party leader deposed for sympathizing with the pro-democracy protesters, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Wang has never been politically active.”

See also:
— June 4 – Estimated 150,000 Call for Democracy in Hong Kong

Saudi Arabia: US lawmakers slam Saudi for teaching ‘hatred’

US lawmakers slam Saudi for teaching ‘hatred’
— “US lawmakers on Wednesday called on the Saudi government to stop distributing children’s religious textbooks they claimed incited hatred and intolerance toward Jews, women and homosexuals…”
— “‘This is not some rogue document,’ Congressman Anthony Weiner told reporters. ‘This is the position of the Saudi government … If we’re going to solve the generational conflicts, it’s important not to hate one another'”

Pakistan – Muslim Forces 12-year-old Girl to Convert, Marry Him

Pakistan – Muslim Forces 12-year-old Girl to Convert, Marry Him
— “The reaction of Pakistani law enforcement authorities to Sajida Masih’s
complaint so far — ridiculing her and asserting that there is nothing she can do because her daughter is now a Muslim — does not encourage her hopes of recovering her daughter Huma at next Thursday’s (June 11) hearing.”
— “The Christian mother of a 12-year-old girl in Punjab Province who was kidnapped, coerced into converting to Islam and forcibly married to a 37-year-old Muslim hopes to recover her daughter at a court hearing next week”

Communist China blocks any commemoration of Tiananmen crackdown

China blocks any commemoration of Tiananmen crackdown
— AFP: “China blanketed Tiananmen Square with police and security forces, blocking any attempt to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the deadly crackdown on mass democracy protests.”
— “The government again defended the decision to put down the demonstrations, leaving hundreds and perhaps thousands dead, and firmly dismissed a US demand for a public accounting of the events of June 3-4, 1989”
— “Tens of thousands of people were expected to commemorate the anniversary around the world but the only major event on Chinese soil was to take place nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) away in semi-autonomous Hong Kong”
— “An AFP TV journalist was ordered by police to delete footage from his camera, and local tourists near the square were reluctant to discuss the crackdown — a subject that remains taboo”

Communist China: Tiananmen 20th anniversary brings new repression

Tiananmen 20th anniversary brings new repression
— AP: “Chinese police aggressively deterred dissent on Thursday’s 20th anniversary of the crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square”
— “Foreign journalists were barred from the vast square as uniformed and plainclothes police stood guard across the vast plaza that was the epicenter of the student-led movement that was crushed by the military on the night of June 3-4, 1989”
— “Security officials checking passports also blocked foreign TV camera operators and photographers from entering the square to cover the raising of China’s national flag, which happens at dawn every day. Plain clothes officers aggressively confronted journalists on the streets surrounding the square, cursing and threatening violence against them.”