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China SARS hero missing, says family
Activists reportedly disappear in run-up to anniversary of Tiananmen massacre
2004-06-04 / Reuters /
Jiang Yanyong, the military doctor who exposed China's SARS cover-up last year, and his wife have disappeared on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the army crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, their daughter said yesterday.
The British Broadcasting Corporation yesterday reported that Liu Xiabao, a vocal critic of the Communist regime, had also disappeared, and could have been spirited out of Beijing. Other activists have been reported as missing.
Jiang, a hero to many Chinese for blowing the whistle on the government cover-up of an outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome flu-like virus, upset the authorities after he wrote a letter to the country's top leaders in February asking for a reappraisal of the student-led pro-democracy protests.
"We, the children of Dr Jiang Yanyong, would like to appeal to the Chinese government to investigate the disappearance of our parents in Beijing," the couple's daughter Jiang Rui, who lives in California, said in a statement.
The couple have not returned to their Beijing home since 2a.m. on June 1 when they left for the No 301 Military Hospital, where Jiang Yanyong, 72, is a semi-retired surgeon, the daughter quoted neighbors as saying.
"While we do not want to speculate as to what happened to our parents, we believe the authorities of Beijing 301 Military Hospital are deliberately withholding information from us," the daughter said.
"Our family's inquiries to the hospital authorities about our parents' whereabouts have been met with dubious answers," she said, adding that the family was simply told: "They are safe."
The hospital spokesman, reached by telephone, declined to comment.
Chinese police have forced dissidents out of Beijing in the run-up to the politically sensitive Tiananmen anniversary.
Jiang Yanyong's revelation that the government was covering up an outbreak of SARS led to the sacking of the health minister and the Beijing mayor and prompted truthful, open reporting of the epidemic.
Jiang Yanyong stepped forward and made a similar appeal for a reassessment on the 10th anniversary of the crackdown in 1999, but it fell on deaf ears.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed in a crackdown on the protests, centered on Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, on June 3-4, 1989.
Analysts said rehabilitation of the 1989 protests was unforeseeable in the near future because such a move would be politically sensitive and risky.
It could split the Communist Party and trigger a power struggle, they said. Some top leaders involved in, or who benefited from, the massacre are still alive or in power today.
Seeking justice
Nine student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement now living in exile demanded yesterday China grant a speedy, fair and open retrial for jailed fellow student leader Zhang Ming.
The demand came as London-based rights group Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry into "the killing of unarmed students and demonstrators" in the 1989 protests and for the government to release those who never had fair trials.
Zhang, 39, who previously served three years in prison for his role in the 1989 protests, was sentenced to seven years in prison in September on charges of "abuse of executive benefits," an economic crime, in connection with his business in Shanghai.
"The entire legal process was full of errors and irregularities," the nine Tiananmen student leaders said in an open letter to President Hu Jintao, China's parliament, the cabinet and the Supreme Court.
"We solemnly demand that Zhang Ming be subjected to no further political persecution," they said.
Signatories included Wang Dan, who was released from a Chinese prison in 1998 and forced into exile in the United States, and Wuer Kaixi, who fled to Taiwan after the Tiananmen protest was crushed with heavy loss of life on June 4, 1989.
"We learned that Zhang Ming was subjected to considerable physical and mental abuse, including being tied to a bed for 113 hours without toilet access," the nine said in their letter, a copy of which was provided to reporters by the New York-based Human Rights in China group.
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