Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

Tomorrow, the 4th of June is the 21st anniversary of the brutal repression of the students and workers who occupied Tiananmen Square seeking nothing more than their freedom.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament  asks:

"What has changed 21 years later? While China has become a major actor on the world stage, enriched with a healthy economy, the Beijing government remains hostile to reforms granting freedom of expression to the Chinese people.

What happened that night was a massacre about which very little has been revealed since: What is the number of deaths? Where, how and why were they killed? Where is the list of victims? All of this information is still a state secret, something intolerable on the eve of important trade agreements between China and the EU.

My thoughts are also with those who today continue to strive for a China that respects rights and the rule of law, in particular Hu Jia, holder of the European Parliaments Sakharov prize, who has been imprisoned since the 30th January 2008. Hu Jia suffers from Hepatitis B and his family urgently needs to be allowed access to his full medical file. I demand that a neutral physician be allowed to examine him in prison as there is every indication that his health is deteriorating and that he is not receiving appropriate treatment. Hu Jia's health status justifies his release on medical grounds.

And let us not forget that Hu Jia's wife, Zeng Jinyan, and their little 2 year old daughter are still under house arrest in a distant suburb of the Middle Kingdom.